Comparative trip to Yuma - San Diego by Alice

We were presented with two choices for our "comparative border trip": East or West. It was designed to be a chance to see another part of the border besides Arizona, because, as we've learned, each sector had its own unique geography, political situation and human impact. We chose West, and set off for a weekend in Yuma, Arizona and San Diego, California.

First we stopped in Yuma to talk to an organization called Campesinos sin Fronteras, or Farmworkers without Borders. Two strong, inspiring women talked to us about their group's work organizing amongst migrant field workers, teaching about sexual health and nutrition and helping people find safe housing. They would intercept workers crossing the border at 3 a.m., go out to the fields with them, give talks on the buses, etc. The woman who now runs the organization was a strawberry picker herself for 13 years, and told us about being in the fields while planes flew overhead spraying clouds of pesticides on the plants and the workers. This is the sort of thing she now fights.

After an interesting lunch at a Chinese/Mexican restaurant, we piled back in the van and headed for California. Just over the state line, we visited a cemetery that housed the graves of many unidentified migrants who had died crossing the border. It was such a sad and stark contrast, seeing the grassy, shady patch at the front with well-tended marble graves, then at the back, a barren dirt plot with little bricks with only a number and "John Doe." Someone had left crosses on some of the graves reading "not forgotten" and "I love you."

We got back in the van and resumed our standard van activities—eating Pub Mix, sleeping and listening to music--until we got to our destination, the Quaker house in La Jolla, CA. We got to sleep on the floor of their cozy library, surrounded by books on non-violence. The next day we had a lecture about the California border, about how only the wealthy can get legal visas, about cross-border pollution and about the rampant drug trafficking. We then set off with local activist Dan Wateman to see the border for ourselves. The paranoia, militarization, excess spending and environmental destruction were shocking to see, but the worst by far was the destruction of Friendship Park. Since the early 70s it's been an important cultural meeting spot, a park on both sides of the border where family members could talk and hug through the fence, where people could chat and as the name suggests, make friends, and where groups held binational salsa and yoga classes. It was a place that resisted the doctrine of fear of the other. Now the Border Patrol is building a double wall, destroying Friendship Park. Dan stood in front of the bulldozers and blocked the construction for hours before they hauled him away. Why weren't there hundreds of people with him? Thousands?

We also had the unique experience of walking on the beach right up to where the border wall marches into the Pacific. Through the bars we could see families playing on the beach, buying snacks from a vendor, laughing and splashing. On the U.S. side, it was desolate, empty except for Border Patrol, construction vehicles and us.

That night we went to a community presentation about Friendship Park, and the next morning we climbed into the van at the crack of dawn and headed back to Tucson.

Callie here with an update!

Callie here with an update! Since we returned from our month in Mexico and our week of spring break, we've been working with our various organizations. I'm working at Derechos Humanos (The Coalition for Human Rights) where I help spread the word about upcoming events such as our Citizenship Fair, May Day events, and Know Your Rights presentations. All of these are available to the immigrant population in Tucson to educate and empower. On a day to day basis, I've been answering phones, going to community meetings, and working at the abuse clinic which occurs twice a week. In particular, the abuse clinic has opened my eyes to how real discrimination and wage abuses can be for people working and living in Tucson. I've been able to take on a few cases of my own (mostly working with people who weren't paid for their work) and I'm happy to say that we've been pretty successful. I'm also working to design a bulletin for public distribution about Operation Streamline which Miriam described earlier in this blog.


Needless to say, we've been very busy. Although we did make time to drive to Nogales, Arizona to meet with the Border Patrol. There, we met Danny Rodriguez who has been working for the BP since 2000. He got his start in Yuma and was one of the agents who dealt with the Yuma 14, a border tragedy which we had read about in the book "The Devil's Highway". He showed us a Powerpoint presentation full of information and pictures of the history of BP, the weapons they use, drugs they've found, and latest technology for detecting people. We bombarded him with questions and he kindly answered them all for nearly 2 hours before taking us on a tour of the office. He showed us where agents check out their equipment, the room full of TV monitors broadcasting the various areas of the border, and the detention center where undocumented migrants check in and await their fate. After meeting with so many organizations who are against border militarization, it was important for us to hear from the other side in order to fully understand how border enforcement works.

Sonia wraps up the travel seminar

The last week that we were in Mexico was filled with a variety of short trips. First we went to Nochixlan were we met with Jesus from the organization CEDICAM (Center for the Integral Development of the Mixteca). Jesus just won the Goldman award, which is like the Nobel Prize for environmental work. Jesus was a great speaker and helped us to better understand how NAFTA policies were affecting the Mexican countryside. We learned more about how and when chemical fertilizers were introduced and how that has affected the land. When we arrived, the group was working on building an adobe agricultural museum.

The following day we met with a women’s weaving coop in Teotitlan called Vida Nueva. The group formed as a way for single women to earn an income. The group is made up of primarily single women and has expanded to incorporate community projects focusing on the environment. The weavings they designed and made were beautiful. I was amazed how much detail they could do on those big weaving looms. They also showed us how they dyed the wool with different types of natural dyes. The most fascinating was how they used a ground up beetle to get the color red. If they mixed the beetle dye with lemon, the result was an orange-red color, and if they mixed the beetle dye with ash, it turned purple.

Thursday we visited a coop of thirteen organic coffee growers. We learned about what it means to be a fair-trade grower and why the world market price is actually higher per pound than the fair-trade price. I was surprised to learn that the grower makes up to 2 dollars a pound and the roasters, which are in the U.S., make 13 dollars a pound. This made me more conscious of my own coffee habits and which type of coffee I buy. In fact, this entire experience has made me even more aware of my consuming habits.

We followed the meeting at the coffee cooperative with a picnic by a lake. It was a beautiful spot in the same town where Benito Juarez was born. Benito Juarez was the only president to come from Oaxaca and you can see his bust everywhere. After lunch we went to UNOSJO (Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca), where we learned a lot about the affects of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on crops in Mexico. In Oaxaca, there have been several cases of GMO contamination in native crops. Companies, and even the Mexican government, pushed GMOs during the green revolution because they were supposedly more productive. The organization spoke about the role women have in saving seeds and how new generations are not learning how to save seeds.

The travel seminar ended with a full day of processing and discussing actions we as a group can take to share what we have learned. I am excited about going back to Tucson to do hands on work at the Southside Day Laborers Center. After two months of receiving information, it will feel good to do something active. One focus of our processing sessions has been to connect what we have learned so far, so that we share it more articulately. We also focused on exploring, and making arguments for, all positions on migration and neo-liberal economic ideas, which has shown me how much I really have learned in the past month.