This blog builds off of experiences from previous blogs. It may be helpful to read the previous ones: Week 1, Week 2, Week 2.5, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5.

Experiencing the Ever-Changing Borderlands

By my final week in the borderlands, I felt that I was starting to get a good idea of what is happening around the region right now. In many ways, each new experience on our journey of learning about the borderlands was able to answer a question I had or fill in a gap I hadn’t realized was there. Regarding migration, I understood that seeking asylum from the United States from the Southern border has ended, the Mexican government has increased its military presence to prevent migration northward, and that overall, migration to the southern border has slowed significantly. These were observations I made and learnings from our visits to shelters, organizations, and various support services along the border, and I assumed they might remain this way for quite some time. Yet, as always, the border has more stories to tell.

On Thursday, our final trip as Borderlands Interns, we went out into the desert for a water drop with Di from the Tucson Samaritans. She told us that “The desert is like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces keep changing.” As we walked to the location where we would leave food and water, we found evidence that, despite all that we had heard about how border crossings had been all but stopped, there were still people, very recently making the journey through the desert to their destinations.

What Di said was true, the desert is always changing, and so are the borderlands. As policies change, climate change worsens, and economic or political situations change, so too does the border region. Each new experience we had added a puzzle piece to the picture of the borderlands we were trying to put together, but it wasn’t until the end that I truly understood how constantly that picture was changing. The actions of individuals, whether artists in Ambos Nogales, educators in the Tohono O’odham Nation, humanitarian aid workers, or asylum seekers, all create the community and place that is the borderlands. The large-scale social, political, and economic decisions have significant impacts on members of this community that we must reflect on and consider.

In our final week of the program, my mind has been consumed with a pressing question: “Now What?” I have just spent 6.5 weeks experiencing the borderlands, hearing stories from a wide variety of perspectives. Now I will return to my home in Wisconsin and to my school in DC and attempt to figure out what I should do about it. Despite embarking on this experience, knowing little to nothing about the border region, I am now leaving with a broader perspective and stories that will always stay in my heart. So what do the borderlands mean to me, and what do I do with what I have learned?

My Borderlands

         As the daughter of an immigrant, I always felt like I was a bridge between worlds. I spoke Chinese and English growing up, participated in Chinese New Year Celebrations, and video-called my family in China, all while growing up in predominantly white, suburban Wisconsin. This sort of mixed culture identity certainly played a role in the choices I made growing up, whether it was correcting the occasional question of “Are you China?,” choosing to study international politics at my university, or seeking out an internship in the borderlands.

I reflected more deeply on my own identity while I was in the borderlands than I have in a very long time. Although far from a dominant theme in my experiences, in the border region, I faced questions about whether Chinese people ate dogs, comments about the shape of my eyes, and questions of whether I knew how to pronounce my (very German) last name. I faced the fact that, as I stood before the physical border dividing two nations, it is just one of the lines that has been drawn in the sand to separate one group from another, to separate “us” from “them.”

Something within me stirred as I realized that despite growing up far from the US-Mexico border, borders have always been all around me, asking me to question whether I should be this or that, asking how I want to fit into the world I live in. 

My reflection on what borders are expanded beyond the US-Mexico border region and beyond my own identity too. I realized that despite growing up in the Midwest, far from the US-Mexico border, political and territorial borders have been all around me my whole life. I grew up on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota, right along the Mississippi river. I grew up in a city that bordered many others cities. I grew up in a house with property lines and a fence that separated me from my neighbors. Every day, I crossed countless borders to interact with my friends and community without being stopped or questioned about my identity or where I was going. I realized how much of privilege it has been to be able to travel where I wanted, when I wanted, simply because it suited my desires. If my family ever wanted to move across the border between Wisconsin and Minnesota, or even to a different state or country, we could freely uproot our lives.

Yet, the US-Mexico border is different. Movement requires questioning, identification, and suspicion. For many along the border, this experience is part of their everyday lives. Despite the fact that crossing this border is just like any other, the same animals and environment on both sides, and a lot of shared culture. In so many ways this place is like any other, but it is treated very differently.

The World and the Borderlands

         This past week, we also went to Casa de la Misericordia y de Todas las Naciones (Casa) for the final time. For our final trip to the service learning location, we shared a meal prepared by the BCA interns, families from Casa, and other volunteers. We all brought foods that reminded us of home. This led to a meal with an assortment of foods hailing from around the around the world. I made dumplings, a tradition I have shared with my mom since I was a kid. It was a recipe that her family taught her growing up, and one that has followed my family across countries and continents. As I saw traditional Mexican dishes, El Salvadoran dishes, dishes from the United States, and from Asia, and more all sitting together, I reflected further on the role of movement in the history of this world.

         Throughout history, people have been migrating. The United States is made up of immigrants and their descendants. The foods we ate at Casa were a product of international exchange and trade, and the history of our recipes often comes with influences from cultures around the world. It’s something to be appreciated. Our differences, our similarities. It was tremendously impactful to see all of these different foods from all of these different cultures where people who were migrants and their descendants, all came together around the borderlands. It was clear that this place has tremendous power to bring people together from around the world experience what the border offers.

Now What?

Many of the things I have discussed so far are not subjects that I had reflected upon prior to taking part in the BCA program. I have spent time thinking about various issues around the world, but never formed these thoughts through such an immersive experience. It was easy to think that there are so many things happening in the world, so why is it important to focus on the border?

Well, now I feel that the border, La Línea, is about a line that separates two countries, but it is also about the line of border patrol jurisdiction that spans 100 miles from every US international border. It is about who we choose to let in and who we choose to keep out. It is about countries deciding that it is okay for their political negotiations to lead to an Indigenous nation being split in two. It is about the towering mountains that are being blown up to make room for a physical wall. It is about letting people into the country only when they are deemed helpful to the economy. It is about arresting and detaining people because some believe they belong on the other side of that line. The border is where so many issues intersect and a place that demonstrates how people treat one another in one of the most complex situations we are facing today.

As I reflect on my experience, I think back to our time at Centro de Esperanza Refugee Resource Center in Sonoyta, Mexico, several weeks ago. I went there for just a few hours and was able to have some great conversations with people staying at the shelter. All of these people are asylum seekers who are waiting for the chance of being able to find safety in the US. 

As I was talking to a family, about my travels around the US and even to China, I thought about how in my life, I have had the opportunity to leave my home and travel to various places for enjoyment, not for safety. At the end of the day, I wished that I could stay longer, but it was time to leave. So that was it. Just like that, we left. This was just an afternoon during our brief time in the Borderlands. I got to go back across the border that some have been waiting over a year to cross, and may yet have to wait much longer. I returned to our house in Tubac and eventually will return to the comfort of my home in Wisconsin and to my school in D.C., all while these people will still be there, still waiting.

What do I do with that? Many people have told us that once we have seen the Borderlands, we will never forget it, but what do I do with everything I am learning?

The answer is not simple. Even with what I have experienced, I still have so much to learn about the border. I do know that I will bring what I learned and engage in conversations about the border as I continue throughout my life. There are so many misconceptions about the region that ought to be explored, but this is a broader issue extends beyond the US-Mexico border. This should be about questioning discomfort, questioning systems, and wondering if what is happening today is truly the only way things can work. There is a lot of anger in this world, but if we just take a minute to step back and recognize how little it costs a person to care about someone else.

We ought to care for our neighbors, friends, and communities, but where and why do we draw that line? It is just chance that I was born where I was, that the community I grew up caring about happened to be in Wisconsin. I am learning that I need to break down the borders and walls I put up around my community. I need to care for those beyond those who are right in front of me. As I go home, I will carry the stories I heard here with me, but I will also carry the hope for change and for making life better for people in the borderlands.

There are so many issues in the world, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I certainly did many times over the past 6.5 weeks. To me, it is important to do the things we can, starting by learning about what is happening. I do not claim to have the solutions to all of the problems of the borderlands. I will admit that addressing the issues along the borderlands will take a lot of continued effort by people who care. Thankfully, during my time in the borderlands, I had the opportunity to meet many people who care about others with such compassion and selflessness. I hope I can bring that spirit home with me as I share my appreciation and learnings of the borderlands. There are problems along the border, but there is also undoubtedly incredible beauty and resilience. The struggles with the border may take time to improve, but I hope that if people continue to care and continue to speak up against the injustices they see, life on the borderlands will continuously flourish and be a place of beauty.

Acknowledgements

In these blogs, there are many experiences that I ended up having to exclude for the sake of space. The borderlands are such a rich region with so many unique ideas and perspectives. I am so grateful to the Laidlaw Scholars Foundation for providing me with the means and support to participate in this experience. If it were not for these past two summers with the Georgetown University Laidlaw Scholars Programme, I do not believe I would have ended up in the borderlands, which have been so transformative on my worldview and drive moving forward.

I am also grateful to Amy Tice, my Border Community Alliance internship supervisor, for organizing the program, driving us around, and creating such an impactful and memorable experience. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people and hear a wide variety of stories and perspectives on the border region.

Finally, I would like to thank Colleen Dougherty for her patience, advice, and for giving me the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful program.