Day 6

Well hello there my lovely readers! It is the end of Day 6 here in beautiful Arizona, and man was today a busy one! We started off the day talking with Lupe Castillo from Pima Community College. She came to talk to us about the border in its past and contemporary state. It was amazing because she basically said everything we had learned about in the texts we and been reading before this course, but in a much more understandable way and she did it all from memory, without looking at any note cards or anything like that. She even mentioned other countries, like Canada, and how the United States is actually thinking of militarizing the Canada/US border, which took me by surprise. I think that is completely unnecessary. Apparently, though, there are some immigrants who go to Canada, then cross into the United States from there. Someone asked her near the end what she thinks the solution to the border is, and she said they should get rid of it. Simple as that. Sure the people may flood the country in the beginning, but not everyone and not forever. Lots of people like to stay in their home country. It's where they belong. It's the people that are living in poor, awful conditions that will be the ones that come, and the United States should let them! They deserve the chance for a better life!

After we spoke with Lupe, we drove to Nogales, AZ, to see the US/Mexico border. I have to say that I have no words as to what I felt when I saw it. It was shocking in a way; the brutality of it. Also it made me sad to see.

The thing is, I felt guilty standing in front of the border with all of us taking pictures of the border. We were all there, standing on the US side, and the Mexican citizens could see us through the border, taking pictures. It's just so obvious when you're actually there, how different living conditions are, ten feet apart. Some people said that it felt like we were in a war zone, because here we had this big wall separating the two countries, there are big stadium lights every 10 feet or so, and there are Border Patrols all along the border as well. It's kind of scary to be honest. I've only ever had to cross the Canada/US border once by car, and it was nothing compared to this. Like I said, I really have no words.

After seeing the border, we got to go to our group leader, Maria's mother's house for a home-cooked lunch. Can I just say right now that it was probably the best meal I've had here in Arizona so far. It was called carne asada. This is basically grilled steak, finely cut, and then put into a taco. It was delicious. I had four. I was probably the person who ate the least. Then for desert we had this really yummy fruit thing, made of quince which is a fruit I have never heard of!

But I can tell you it was delicious! We ate outside in their front yard and it was like a cook out! It was nice because Johnathan was saying how it felt just like he was back home in Mexico, because apparently this is what they do most of the time for meals! I could definitely get used to it!

After lunch we went to hear another speaker, Jeanette Pazos of an organization called HEPAC. HEPAC is an organization associated with Borderlinks and it is located across the border in Nogales, Sonora. Some of the programs that are offered include adult education and training classes and the Child Food Security Program which provides lunch to children and education for their families on nutrition and gardening. HEPAC also has a women's cooperative that produces jewellery that raises awareness about deaths in the desert. She showed us one of the necklaces that had the profile of a woman's face and underneath it said no mas muertes, which means no more deaths. The woman in the profile was crossing the desert with her young boy when they got separated from the group they were travelling with. The woman was found dead in the desert a couple days later, with her son on top of her still alive. The young boy, around 8 years old, had no family left and was deported. The worst part of this is imagine if you were the mother. You know you're dying and you'll be leaving your son behind with no family and there is nothing you can do about it. And the thing is, people do this every day. It's awful.

There's one more story she told us about. There was a young man named Jose Antonio. He was 16 years old. He was shot by a Border Patrol agent, with at least 10 bullets getting him in the back and head. According to the agent, the boy had been throwing rocks at the agent from the Mexican side of the border, even though he was about 12 feet below where the agent was standing. Instead of the agent telling him to stop, or even threatening him, he shot him in the back. Nobody even knows what actually happened that night; why they shot him, or even who shot him. They shot across an international border and yet they are not even being punished.

 It's completely outrageous that something like that would happen. Because of a boy apparently throwing rocks. There have been many protests and vigils in his honour, but the Border Patrol will never be convicted. It makes me so angry and upset that this happened. I don't even know what to say because it's just so inhumane what they did. And it's completely unjustified that they aren't being tried for this, because obviously there is video footage of this! It would be easy to find out what actually happened, but of course no one has watched the video. Probably because the Border Patrol conveniently erased the tape or something like  that. This just goes to show that the border is so unsafe and things need to change, because innocent lives are being taken for no reason, and that's not fair at all.

Today was quite the day, we were exhausted after everything we'd done! We had a night in, playing different board games and just hanging out. In my opining, today was the best day we've had here so far. We learned so much  and experience so much all in one day. Tomorrow we just stay at Borderlinks, but we get to hear from three different speakers. I look forward to it!