[Peace-discuss] Report from Mexican border/post-911

[Barbara Dyskant]

Hi all,

In addition to Middle Eastern people,  Mexicans near the border are having
a terrible time.

We were recently visiting  a friend in Bisbee Arizona, about 4 miles north
of the Mexican border.   Mexicans who cross the border regularly, both
legally and "illegally" are having it worse and worse.  In southern Arizona
armed vigilante groups (in addition to police)  scour the area and  grab
Mexicans at gunpoint.  They threaten; lie, and have been known to shoot
holes in a water tank placed in the area to  literally keepipeople alive.
Mexicans have died out there in the desert.  Our friend is a teacher there.
  It has become so hard  to cross the border that students from Mexico who
attend Arizona colleges (of whom there are many) have had to resign and
quit school  mid-semester.   Eventually a cumbersome procedure got put in
place to "sort of" keep them in but it largely hasn't worked.  There is
increased discrimination against Mexican-Americans.  One Mexican crossing
the border on his way to school was asked by the border agent if he was
carrying anthrax!  (He didn't know what the word meant).  In Naco (a town
with the border in the middle of it) people used to come back and forth.
Now there is a large, imposing wall with lights and patrols on it, dividing
up the town and creating a sinister chasm in the beautiful landscape.

We ourselves were stopped by a vigilante.   I was standing outside my car
on a back road at night, admiring the beautiful starry desert sky.  The man
pulled his car up behind us, stopped  and shone a light in our vehicle--
our daughter Nadine was in the car and luckily didn't realize what was
going on.  The man of course pretended he was stopping to see if we needed
any  help, once he figured out we weren't picking up migrants in the night
(and probably because we don't look Mexican).  You can imagine what I
wanted to do -- although I admit didn't say a word (until after he left).

One interesting act of defiance-- at a "friendship" festival, a spontaneous
volleyball game broke out, with the wall as a net.  In the middle of the
game, the group decided to change sides-- all climbed over the wall,
changed over, and completed the game.  The guards just stood there.
However, usually the boundaries are all too clear. 

Hopefully the walls, figuratively and literally, will come down.

Barbara

P.S.  On the positive side-- there was a street-sign-holding event in
Bisbee, and a large  block-long weekly event in downtown Tucson, similar to
Prospect for Peace -- we felt right at home.  Much organizing and activity
there too, with a variety of participants.