This weekend was a wonderful change of pace for me. On Friday, after I almost cried at my desk 10 different times because of all these problems related to my hospital clearance, it was really nice to go straight from work to happy hour. I met lots of people who are in El Paso for a variety of different, though equally quite interesting, reasons. Then yesterday I slept in, went to the gym, did a bit of transcribing, and went grocery shopping before going out. It was definitely a good day to just recover from a long (yet only 4-day) work week.
This morning, Eric (one of my roommates) and I got up early to head over to Juárez. We all went to bed really late last night, and it was ridiculously hot today (102º!), but even under non-ideal circumstances it was a great day.
We visited Peter and Betty. As I mentioned recently, Peter is a Carmelite priest (he's turning 89 in two weeks!) and Betty is a Sister of Mercy (I think she's in her late 70s). They're both American but have been living in Ciudad Juárez for 17 years.
Eric and I stopped at a bakery to pick up some doughnuts and piña empanadas in El Paso before crossing the downtown bridge into Juárez. Then we walked a few blocks to downtown Juárez, where we took a bus to near where Peter and Betty live.
(I should probably mention here that Eric knows Juárez really well. He's lived in El Paso for the past 3 years and has regularly hung out in Juárez during that time. I should also probably mention that public transportation in Juárez is very safe. Peter explained that because the violence is related to drugs, and because people who are involved in the drugs have money to buy cars, the people who ride the public buses tend to be outside of the group of people being targeted. He says that in his 17 years in Juárez, he thinks maybe 2 or 3 people have been killed on public transportation. But don't worry- I still wouldn't go to Juárez without someone who is very familiar with the area, and I certainly wouldn't ride the bus alone.)
Anyway, Eric and I arrived at Peter and Betty's just in time for our 9:30 breakfast date with them. We ate and chatted and then Betty gave me a tour of their little compound, which they call Casa Tabor. (My apologies for not having pictures- I only brought my passport and a very small amount of pesos across the border today...it was such a treat not having to lug around a bag full of the stuff for my study, and I wanted to aprovechar the simplicity.)
Their home is humble but still really nice. It's full of books about Latin America, and the walls are lined with pictures of martyrs. Outside, they have a chicken coop, a labyrinth, and a covered area that Betty uses for the autoestima seminars that she does with women in the community. On the walls of the latter area, there are beautiful paintings that Betty did that surround lists of names. There's a list of the women who have been killed in Juárez, a list of the men who have been killed in Juárez, a list of people who have died crossing the border in Arizona, and a list of Latin American martyrs. The lists are nowhere near complete, but they are all still ridiculously long. She's working on adding to the list of men who have been killed in Juárez, so she asked me to help by writing a few names for her. She has a list printed from a computer, so my task was to use that and then copy some of the names down onto the wall using a permanent marker. I only wrote about four names before she said it was time to go to church...she must have known that it would only take about 5 minutes for me to feel completely overwhelmed by grief. Looking at all those names, thinking about all the nearly unthinkable suffering that is happening...it honestly breaks my heart. And then I start thinking about the role that the US has in all the violence that's happening...it becomes too much for me to handle, to be honest.
The walk to church was a lot more than I expected. I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and jeans (have I mentioned how hot it was today?!) because I hate drawing even more attention to my gringa-ness (Mexican women do not wear shorts...and even capris and skirts above the knee are rare) but I decided to wear flip-flops instead of sneakers so that I wouldn't completely over-heat. What I didn't realize was that although the main roads in Juárez are paved, many of the roads I would walk on today would be dirt covered in rocks, trash, and lots of broken glass. Oops. Oh, and none of these side roads are anything close to being flat. I loved walking around and saying Buenos Dias to everyone, although it was also striking to see all of the abandoned property and the extremely poor-quality housing. The scenery isn't anything new, but it's weird looking around and seeing that while also being able to clearly see UTEP's beautiful campus just a few miles to the north. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to the disparities of this border.
Anyway, the church we went to was super small and cute. Peter said Mass- he's a very progressive guy and gave the type of homily that many of his fellow priests were killed for in Latin America in the 1980s. Needless to say, I really enjoyed it. The music was fun and out-of-key, and the community warmly welcomed Eric and I (although it was super awkward having to go up to the microphone to introduce ourselves). My favorite part was when everyone joined hands to sing the "Our Father." Normally, people raise their hands up for the very end of the prayer ("For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever"). However, they raised up their hands during the last line: "líbranos del mal" (it's the "deliver us from evil" part in English, although in Spanish it literally means "free us from evil/badness"). It was super powerful, especially being where we were. I also really loved that the Mass ended with a prayer for peace in Juárez that everyone in the congregation had memorized. I haven't enjoyed a Catholic Mass that much in a very long time.
After church, Eric and I walked up a little loma so that we could get a good view of the area. It was so hot and dry that my mouth felt like sand-paper, and I thought my feet were going to break, but it was so worth it. We could see almost all of Ciudad Juárez and downtown El Paso, and also had a great view of southeastern New Mexico. The hill was only maybe 75 feet higher than the surrounding area, but it provided great perspective.
From there, Eric and I went back to Peter and Betty's for lunch. We had fresh eggs from the chickens and fresh bread that Peter had made. And I drank so much water. (Fun fact: the water in Juárez is of a better quality than that of El Paso...the former comes from an aquifer, whereas the latter is basically recycled waste water from further north and tastes like metallic pool water.) I really enjoyed the conversation- I could probably talk to them forever.
Eric and I headed back to El Paso in the mid-afternoon. When we were crossing the bridge, we saw five people being deported. It was quick- the US officials walked the individuals to the actual border, and then the Mexican officials walked them to the repatriation office. It honestly took me a second to realize what was happening- the only thing that gave it away was that they were walking south on the north-bound side of the bridge.
Tonight I went out to dinner with my all my roommates to celebrate one of their birthdays, and then we had ice cream back here. I'm really enjoying hanging out with them- Casa Puente was such a perfect place to live for this experience!
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