Introduction
It has been difficult to describe the experience of the Border Community Alliance Internship to anyone who isn't living it with me. To most, I have described it as a program that goes to the US-Mexico Border to learn about history, culture, economics, politics, and more. It is true that this is a lot of what my program covers, but it also includes a vast number of experiences that are difficult to explain in such concise terms.
The Border Community Alliance (BCA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Tubac, AZ. Its mission is to bridge the border and foster community through education, collaboration, and cultural exchange. For my LiA, I have taken on the role as intern and future borderlands ambassador for this organization, along with five other university students. As an intern, I will spend 5-6 days per week over 6.5 weeks engaging in immersive experiential learning in the Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora, Mexico border region with BCA, community members, and other local nonprofit organizations.
I went to the Borderlands relatively uniformed about what was actually happening at the border, and in many ways, these blog posts will reflect that as I share some of my learnings with you. Throughout my posts, I will include links to interesting information and highlight some of the organizations I visited that are doing very impactful, lifesaving work in the borderlands, which I hope you will check out!
The Borderlands
When considering the border region, the first things that came to mind were migration, culture, and politics—many of the topics frequently highlighted in the news today. What I didn’t think about prior to my arrival was how the border wall and the general existence of the U.S.-Mexico border might impact Indigenous Nations that have historically resided in the region.
I began my internship experience with an overnight trip to the Tohono O’odham Nation, where there was a Four Tribes Working Group Meeting. Several “relevant stakeholders” spoke at this meeting, including a mining company that will be opening a mine on sacred Apache lands. Similar copper mines can be found throughout Southern Arizona and have devastating environmental impacts. Unfortunately, copper, a nonrenewable resource, is considered an essential resource for the green technology industry. Any place where it can be found is highly sought after for mining. This leads to extremely challenging processes of legal recourse when the US government decides to exchange protected federal lands with mining companies, which often leads to the installation of mines regardless of refutation from Indigenous tribes.
Additionally, the ancestral O’odham land spans across Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. We learned about how the physical US-Mexico border, which has only been added in the last couple of decades, cuts across their land, preventing access to family and sacred sites. The Tohono O’odham reservation on the US side is also heavily surveilled by Border Patrol. We spoke to tribal members who were confronted by Border Patrol while taking walks around their homes, and we watched as a man was confronted by Border Patrol for driving a rental car to an O’odham cultural center. Border Patrol also has distance surveillance set up in the Nation's mountains. This heavily surveilled division of the O’odham lands is leading to a loss of language and community across the border.
Life in the Borderlands
When I chose to do my LiA in the Sonoran desert, I expected to arrive at an inhospitable place that was never meant to host humans. Yet, within the first week, my perspective completely shifted. The image of a cactus with two arms which many are likely most familiar with, 🌵, is native to the Sonoran Desert. It is called a saguaro and produces beautiful fruit that tastes similar to dragon fruit. We had the honor of harvesting and trying some fruit with Dr. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan. We also made delicious pancakes from bean flour from the mesquite tree for dinner. Dr. Ramon-Sauberan told us the story of how, according to O’odham belief, the coyote spilled the saguaro seeds across the land, leading to this being the only place in the world with these cacti. She also explained how mesquite trees will provide shade for and “nurse” young saguaros until they are no longer needed, when they reach the ends of their lives. I had never thought of plants and animals in a familial way before, with a tree caring for another plant. Even the saguaros are described with human features: arms, ribs, and a boot. To see this desert, which I had thought was dry, brown, and barren, full of life and stories, was a necessary mindset shift that reminded me to rethink every assumption I had about this region. Moreover, I have begun to appreciate the unique beauty of this landscape.
Week 1: Concluding Thoughts
The purpose of this internship is to learn: to gather as much knowledge as we can so that when we return to our homes, we can dispel myths and share the stories of the borderlands. As part of this experience, I am learning about the many stories that can be told and figuring out how to articulate my own experiences. In many ways, I didn’t consider what I am doing right now as leadership, but when thinking about the Laidlaw Foundation’s Leadership attributes, I realize that I am practicing leadership by developing my cultural intelligence and capacity for empathy, continually learning and listening, collaborating with individuals from many different backgrounds, and am experiencing a completely new situation full of new people. I hope to take everything I learn from this experience back with me and think more deeply about the multitude of important perspectives on the borderlands. We have five weeks of intense immersion ahead of us, some of which will involve very emotional conversations and experiences. However, I believe this is an essential experience that will expand my worldview, and I cannot wait to continue.