During our Monday morning, we visited the Nogales, Arizona border, and we had a first hand experience to be able to stand next to the wall.
Andrea Gonon: “We got to meet Don Manuel, and he gave me us a better inside on how families are separate on the border. What really touched me was how families would celebrate birthdays from both sides of the wall. It’s clear to me that the wall doesn’t take away the love that families have for each other.”
Jorge: “Media make this huge deal about the border being this huge infrastructure that needs to be protected all the time. That border towns are places where constant fighting needs to be done to protect the “American dream and values” One needs to experience the border first-hand to understand the toxic myths media has inculcated to our perception of it. Being able to have the privilege to see and feel the wall up close made me realize that this wall is not here to secure our country, it is here to create a physical and metaphorical barrier blocking the migration of people, animals, and nature overall that have existed before the birth of the U.S. The U.S. antagonizes migration and calls it a “crisis” which is ironic because our current “migration crisis” has been caused by the negative interference of the U.S. government in many Latin American countries when it comes to their socio-political climates. If you have the resources to do so, visit border towns. Learn about their history and impact of the physical border, learn about the original people of the land. Do not fall into this ciclical mentality of the “migration crisis” created as a scare tactic from the government. Make your own opinions about the border.
Migration is part of our daily lives. Migration is natural. Migration is beautiful.”
-Andrea Gonon, Jorge Salazar