Another great weekend

One of the exciting points of last week was when my landlord, West, asked if I was interested in attending and helping out with a conference he's been planning through the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR).  The conference was on Friday night and all day Saturday and its theme was "We The Border."  The premise was that the prevailing border narrative in the United States includes talk of violence, drugs, chaos, weapons, "illegal" immigrants, etc.  However, the majority of the people who talk about this country's southern border haven't spent much time here.  Even Gov. Rick Perry has been known to repeatedly misspeak about El Paso, which, to the surprise of some, is actually in Texas.  So, the BNHR decided that it wanted to work with various border stakeholders to write a new border narrative, and that they would do so by hosting a conference here in El Paso.

Since I live with West, I have been able to witness the hard work that has gone into this conference for the past few months.  A planning committee was created, and each of them set out to gather others to write border narratives from their perspectives.  Before the conference even began, border narratives were written by law makers, faith leaders, law enforcement, academics, people working in non-profits, etc. all across the country.  These narratives included the reality that these working groups see and what they would like for the future of the border.

The conference itself had about 80 people attend.  Some especially interesting guests included Don Kerwin, the Executive Director of the Center for Migration Studies in New York; John Fife, co-Founder of the Sanctuary Movement and of No More Deaths in Arizona; a border patrol officer; a woman in charge of all community relations for the Department of Homeland Security; a county judge in Presidio, TX; and Dee Margo, the only Republican state representative for El Paso.  There were also lots of academics, religious, and representatives from non-governmental organizations.

The first portion of the conference included a lot of networking and presentations.  Then, on Saturday afternoon, we really got to work.  Four editors went through all of the narratives and condensed what people said into four topics: national security, community safety, human rights, and economic opportunity.  All of the conference attendees were then assigned one of those four topics and we created working groups.  I was the moderator for the national security group.  We had an hour and a half to review what the narratives included about national security and then offer additions/changes.  The content was broken up into the categories of myths vs. realities, vision for the future, and recommendations.  The session was bilingual and included about 20 people.  After these break-out sessions, the editors took some time to create a PowerPoint presentation with the conclusions from the work groups, which will now be written out a little more formally to be used by various groups.

Overall, I met a lot of really interesting people who I hope to get to know better if I end up moving back to El Paso after I graduate in May.  And I especially enjoyed the multi-disciplinary approach that the conference took.  I was glad that I wasn't sitting in a room with a bunch of public health professionals who see the world in almost the same way that I do.  Even if I didn't necessary agree with everything that everyone said, the atmosphere remained extremely respectful and productive- I would love to see this type of model used more often in our society!

On Saturday night when I got home from the conference, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that five Jesuits were staying in my house for a couple of nights.  They are currently on a journey from El Progreso, Honduras to Nogales, Arizona and are keeping an excellent blog about the trip.  I've actually been following them since the beginning, and when I saw that they were stopping in El Paso I just assumed that they were staying at Annunciation House because they've been staying mostly at migrant shelters along the popular migration corridor.  But alas, they stayed at Casa Puente, which provided me a great opportunity to hear more about their journey.  It's also really cool to just hear more about their formation; only one guy in the group is ordained, and the rest are at different points in their long journeys to become priests.


Yesterday was especially nice, as I spent most of the day with the group.  In the morning, we went to Mass at Sagrado Corazon, the Jesuit-run parish here in El Paso.  Then we ate lunch at the tortilleria, which is housed in the old gymnasium at the church and is used to provide financial support to the parish while also providing jobs in the community.  The food was SO good!!!  


Mid-day, the Jesuits went to the Farm Workers Center, which gave me the opportunity to spend a little time with two of my roommates, Katy and Eric.  Katy is currently working with the Park Service in the Gila, but was in town for the weekend for a wedding.  If you're looking for a good read about the U.S.-Mexico border, I highly recommend their blog about their recent four-month bike trip from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico.  


Anyway, after Eric had to bring Katy back to work, I went to the Chamizal Park (which is right on the border and is technically binational, although the multitude of fences along the Rio Grande take away that feel) with the Jesuits for Music in the Park.  We brought sandwiches and enjoyed the beautiful weather, blue grass music, and good conversation on some big picnic blankets.  Another Jesuit (the one who actually celebrated Mass earlier) joined us, and after talking to him for a few minutes, we realized that he had talked to my group in the Dominican Republic over five years ago! It sure is a small world!  The night was exactly what I needed to mentally prepare myself for another work week, and to top it all off, I helped myself to a paleta Michoacana de coco and an agua de melon. I guess it really is the simple pleasures in life that make a difference :)