There's Holes In the Wall

Living in El Paso, one can say that there has always been an invisible wall that separates both us and our sister city Juarez, and yet we have always been able to work around this separation. Truly, its only been recent history that this region has been divided into two areas because for hundreds of years, people have settled here for a common purpose and integrated themselves in a common culture. Native Americans used this area to rest during yearly migrations, the Spanish created the first major settlement by establishing the Mission of Guadalupe in present day Juarez to establish trade routes to the northern part of their empire, and this region has been key on major events such as the Pueblo Revolts, Mexico's revolt against the French invasion, and the last Mexican Civil War of the early 20th century.

It was only beginning in 1836 that a boundary was established, which was later cemented in 1846. Whether on this side or on the other side of the border, though, our dependence on each other has never been divided. As one of those living on this side of the fence and looking towards the other, as I regularly did while I was attending the University of Texas at El Paso, I can recall the history of my ancestors. As long our great nation keeps its promise set in 1776, we can work towards creating a better relationship between the countries and the people separated by this boundary.

Now, you might ask: what is the importance of the very brief history of the El Paso/Juarez region? The main point is to demonstrate the interactions we all have on the border; or you can say, we have a sense of community between both sides. We still visit family, converse, conduct business, and entertain ourselves across these bridges. We can peer into the Mexican side, watch children play on the street, while they can turn their heads and see our cars driving along our interstate. Although we are two separate nations, we are still a commutation of hundreds of years of cultural history, and to build a physical wall is completely disrespectful and sends a message of racial hatred. I say this because discussion for a wall has been focused on this side of the country, along our southern border. That focus has never turned to our very insecure northern border.

When asked to write something about the potential wall, it reminded me of a book that I read by Ruben Martinez titled Crossing Over. Published in 2001, he discusses a family's journey from their central Mexico home to the United States and the impact upon them of both countries. He followed a migrant family in the mid-1990s during the last time the immigration debate was on the forefront of discussion. In the prologue, Martinez describes the rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric as pointless due to our interdependence on each other.

On one side, you have terrible economic conditions due to a government who, for lack of a better phrase, cannot even tie it's own shoes. On the other, you have a nation that is increasing its wealth and population and needs more lower-end service labor. Each side needs the other for for a legion of reasons and benefits. However, over time and since his book was published a new culture has arisen that is new and unfamiliar to people on both sides of the border, although less so to those that live near it.

People not on the border, like those in Farmers Branch, have created their own cultural wall. They are unable to comprehend that the immigration problem is not a recent "dilemma," but rather a complex part of our nation's continuing and evolving history. It is completely naive to think that it can be solved by fencing their little town off, either literally or through regulations, or by placing a major physical obstruction in mine.

Returning to the idea of this "Great Wall of America," there is one main reason why this wall brings false hope of security: you can go around a wall. A recent editorial from the San Antonio Express News reminded me of a chapter that Martinez mentions. Both the editorial and Martinez cite that along our border, next to cutting or climbing over the fence, immigrant runners and drug cartels know about certain tunnels that enter into the United States. In Arizona, theses tunnels have created a sub-culture of young children and adults who have been caught and abandoned along the borders who live in these tunnels.

Here in El Paso, one local historian once wrote about the number of tunnels that are under our own city. I went to hear him speak, and he said that once when he entered one of our fallout shelters in an old building in downtown El Paso, he followed the shelter into a tunnel that ended in the outskirts of Juarez. If his account is true, we definitely have a bigger problem than immigrants coming over to take low-wage jobs.

Immigration and border security are two different things. There is more to border security than just our southern border: it includes our northern border and our ports. As for immigration, I have to point to my congressman's recommendations that we must create a type of worker program (while learning the mistakes from the Braceros Program of the 1940s-60s) which can lead towards a path to citizenship that includes education; with that kind of plan, there can be a feeling of American integration. It is also worth pointing out that Spanish-speaking immigrants from south of our border are not the only group that is coming to our nation.

People come to America from around the globe. Each of these people, just like our ancestors before us, came to this nation because of the promise of freedom, better opportunities, and an overall better life for them and their families. We must, within ourselves, destroy our own personal walls and reach this original promise, and remember that our ancestors were immigrants themselves.