14 minute read
Disconnection of a Border & My Life Arturo Martinez
A: When you say mediator between contrasting views that holds a status, are you relating this idea to social differentiation? Is a border a system of discrimination?
C: I think a border separated countries not races. I don’t think it discriminates race but it definitely creates friction whenever looking to cross it. I don’t think it directly differentiates social classes though. I think it does imply a segregation of sorts, more in a geological sense than a popular way. Nevertheless a segregation of peoples can lead to violence and public unrest. When I say mediator I only try to suggest a point that acts as a pivot between contrasting views… this aspect is very subjective to the individual who does the pivoting.
A: Can you tell me a little about what a transparent border could mean?
C: We need borders to be transparent so we can see that what’s on the other side isn’t always greener. What is stopping Tijuana from being just as desirable as San Diego? From a geological sense they should be the same, though I think the over looming border creates a sense of unknown.
A: What do you think makes you feel this profound passage when you’re about to cross the border?
C: We give this great meaning to this line that we draw in the ground and to cross this line we must have a specific piece of paper. What seems odd to me is that we surround ourselves with borders and begin to pay closer attention on both fronts, on either side of the border. At some point something will have to give and the result will be that the border is a dotted line, permeable from both sides. I don’t know what the profound feeling is that you’re meant to have when crossing the border, to me it’s been a point in the journey of going to and or from somewhere. C: I say no man’s land because that’s how I feel sometimes when traveling. Going through the terminals in an airport, waiting with the other passengers at the gate, the space and atmosphere of those certain areas are confined circumstances. You’re in one country about to set foot in another though the buffering zones in the airport filters the departures and arrivals of the travelers. That buffering zone is a no-man’s land of sorts because of the mass of diversity in travelers, to produce being sold, to air-line carriers. They feel like single steps when you’re walking across the border at customs in an airport. There is just a thick black line that says border on it in big white letters, you can stride across is with a single step and you think all of those security checks for a single step? The border hasn’t become that single step anymore even though that is the way it’s being portrayed to me.
A: Why do you think it’s like a battle when crossing the border?
C: It’s a delicate process when crossing a border, there are so many things that could go wrong. When I am going through customs and security I think that it has to be part of the officers and operators jobs to classify and categorize persons and baggage, how else could they keep track of the masses of people being funneled day after day. There has been a fear at the airport that has pushed a code of conduct that only really causes an anxiety and a heightened awareness of what goes on. You stay in your own land but you have to make sure you’re on time and everything runs smoothly otherwise you are going to miss your flight.
A: Do you think that one side of the border is unnatural and the other natural?
C: The border is the unnatural part of the perception I feel when I cross a border. The natural is going to and from places, the elements of traveling are complexly constructed and requires an attention to detail. The other unnatural, but that’s been a perception of mine when leaving all of the security and long lines is that there are separate sections for arrival and departure. Mostly when you cross the border into another country from flying there you cross when you
land in the country, right after you get off the plane. ●
DRAW YOUR THOUGHTS
visit: www.collectivemagpie.org/book foranother interview conducted by Arturo Martinez and to download the full collection of 82 interviews 37
The wall has become an extremely politicized symbol of the region, of SD/TJ. Twenty minutes away from our home in San Diego 50,000 northbound vehicles and 25,000 northbound pedestrians cross the US/MX border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry daily. You can stand at the closest beach to that port at the International Friendship Park and be a part of the surreal i image of three different layers of border divisions. La Mojonera, or Western Land Boundary Monument No. 258 is a 9-foot high obelisk which sits completely out of place at the beach like a tomb marker from a historic cemetery. It marks the start of the 1,952 mile line separating Mexico and the United States. In 1851, representatives of the Boundary Commissions from each nation placed the marker together in a collaborative effort that seems difficult to imagine today. A foot away from the territory marker is a sight impossible to fully ii understand. There is a 10 foot steel fence that divides the concrete, then the sand along the beach and continues on into the ocean for several hundred feet as if to attempt to divide that as well. This is a security border wall to prevent the passing of people from Mexico into the United States as a result of the 1994 Operation Gatekeeper. The wall is made of steel military iii landing mat and has small gaps between slats. Separated families have used those spaces to see each other, talk and hold hands between the bars for years. The latest wall is a double v iv reinforcement, first built after 9/11 when more federal legislation allowed for increased security at the border. This secondary wall built in parallel, several feet away from the first, also vi put an end to the possibility of physical contact through the fence. It created a further strange division of a policed no entry zone between the two fences that is occasionally opened for cultural events and often increases the pain of this division. If you go there today, you will see the barren US beach of Border Feld State Park under watch of a border patrol officer. On the MX side, you can see the lively festivities of the Playas beach front, food vendors, live musicians, seafood restaurants and children playing. What we see here is a landscape that separates families, creates tension between nations and instills fear of each other. The wall is a constant reminder of war, failed humanity and the incessant power play for the 1%. President Trump’s scheduled 21 billion dollar border wall will only reinforce and reassure us of all of many years of tension.
The interviews transcribed in this publication share a Mexican-American border patrol officer reflecting on illegal immigrants, a criminal sketch artist profiling the accused inside the court, first hand observations of how the legend of Tijuana, the dangerous city, continues to haunt families over 3 generations, a self described racial identity fading away from racial tension, the resolution of an internal struggle caused by external violence, a pathway from religious crisis to the questioning of freedom and much more. These stories are tragically frustrating, violently unforgivable, some cringe worthy, or confusing at times, are all warmly exchanged, immensely complex and most surprisingly, they are strikingly honest and personal. They ignite the border from the inside rather than from the outside reminding us that the border does not start at the line between US and MX but it is here, embedded in our lives, in every one of us.
These are the stories that are here and remain here as a memory and history. These are the stories of the border residents. These are the stories of our border—the border that matters.
38 w i t h r e s i d e n t s o f T i j u a n a - S a n D i e g o Growing with a border | Self-Interview READ ALL 82 CONVERSATIONS Looking for a Better Life Estefany Gonzalez Border is the end and the beginning of something. Estefany Gonzalez is an architectural student at Woodbury University in San Diego. She is in her 3rd year. She is passionate to listening about people’s stories and shared as well her experiences. Estefany Gonzalez born in Queretaro, Mexico, raised in and currently residing in San Diego, CA. She is 23 years old. b o r d e r t h r e e 3 6 c o n v e r s a t i o n s PREFACE & THANK YOU We are humbled and grateful to have had the honor and privilege to cross back and forth between San Diego and Tijuana, listening to the experiences of people living in these borderlands, over these last several years. Those who have shared their personal stories, for others to read, have inspired this rich publication. We thank you all for extending your sincerity, labor and trust in each other and to us—two complete strangers—during our Globos Workshops*. The generosity extended by each participant opened a space to consciously engage together, reflecting on the complex close(d) relationship of living within the region of the most frequently crossed border in the world—And all the mess, beauty and challenges that are a part of it. The resulting 82 conversations on the subject of border were produced via four seminars from an experimental Art & Ethnography course series: HOT AIR BALLOONS and INTERVIEWS from 2015-2017. The seminars were held in conjunction with the Culture, Art & Technology Program, University of California San Diego; the Transdisciplinary Program, Woodbury University at the School of Architecture; and the concluding seminar, Transnational Edition was held in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in addition to multiple sites in both border cities. MCASD hosted the seminar extending access and content to the their permanent collection and enabling the seminar to exist between multiple colleges, allowing joint participants from Southwestern College, University of California San Diego and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. This interview collection and artwork consists of a series of transcribed interviews conducted and edited by millennials working collaboratively with each other and with us. * Globos Workshops were developed to produce a fleet of 25ft unmanned hot air balloons to be launched over the US/MX border at Friendship Park, TJ/SD. Balloon construction workshops were held at both sides of the border within many different communities and cultural centers. This publication is a four part series of conversations about the border. Preface & Introduction by Tae Hwang & MR Barnadas of Collective Magpie. Design by Adrian Orozco & Abigail Peña. Copyright. 2015-2018 All authors. . Printed at Diego & Sons, SD. Complete free download of 82 interviews can be accessed at www.collectivemagpie.org/book Q: How has the border impacted your life?
A: Well, I think that the border between Mexico and USA has been present in my life for a long time, and therefore, it has had a big impact. First I experienced to have my father immigrating to U.S. My father emigrated to U.S. since he was 17 years old, looking for the American dream; then after he got married with my mom in Mexico, he came back again to U.S. to work in order to cover all the expenses we had and give us a better life. For about 18 years, all the communication that I had with my dad at that time since I remember was via phone, he was coming back home to visit us just during summer and winter vacations. Sometimes, he stayed with us just a weekend or two weeks, very rarely he stayed a complete month, it depended on his work. After a lot of years of living with this style of live, my parents decided to move all and start a live all together here in U.S.
Q: How long have you known about the border?
A: I do not remember exactly, but I can say that since I remember my dad had to cross the border in order to work and give his family a better life. Fortunately, my dad had legal documentation and did not have any problems to cross the border and I always knew that, but I also knew that a lot of family crossed illegally and had to risk their lives.
Q: What was the border for you when you were a kid?
A: In Mexico when somebody emigrates to USA people says “se fue para el otro lado” which means “he went to the other side”. In my mind, I imagined a big wall that divided Mexico with US. At that time when I was about 5 or 6 years, I did not know the word “border” but I knew the impact that caused to my family. The border for me at that time was a wall that separated me from my dad. I was already adapted to not have my dad with me, but it was always very hard to say bye.
Q: Until now, do you have different perspectives of the border since you were a kid?
A: Yes, because when I was a child, I just knew that my dad and some family members crossed the border having a lot of risks but at the age of 5 you do not have idea what type of risks they have. For example, they had to cross the border crossing at really high temperatures, risking their lives in intense deserts. I just knew what I heard from adults and then I translated that with my imagination. For example, having an idea of a big wall. But now, I already experience what is to be in the other side of the “wall”, I understand more the consequences that this division causes, especially to emigrant people like me.
Q: What do you think now about the border?
A: I think that the border has been a cause of discrimination, death, but also has caused great opportunities of employment, education, refuge and much more great benefits that make people to come even knowing about all the risks they can experience crossing illegally or legally. For example, the stereotypes that people have about Mexicans have created discrimination to us because a lot of people think that all Mexicans are inferior people without education that comes to this country just to receive benefits without offering anything to this country. I believe that we live in an epoch where the stereotypes need to end because we can find good and bad people everywhere and in every country.
Q: Have you experienced any kind of discrimination in this country?
A: Yes, somehow I have felt discrimination with some people’s comments talking about Mexican people. For example, the generalization of thinking that all Mexicans are criminals. Recently, all those racist comments from the presidential candidate Donald Trump about immigrants, especially Mexicans. He says that all Mexicans that come the U.S. are criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. The problem is that a lot of people follow this person with all those ideas based on stereotypes and racism. Also when I arrived to this country 5 years ago, I did not know English and when my family and I went to parties or social meetings a lot of people did not want to talk us because our language or they look at us like we are inferior to them.
Q: Discrimination is the cause of a lot of suffering in the U.S., how does that make you feel?
A: I think that any documentation nor any nationality makes someone more or less than others. Therefore, there is no reason to discriminate someone. Also I think that emigrants that come to this country do not just receive good opportunities, they also give a lot of benefits to USA.
Q: How has the border helped you to benefit?
A: I have received a lot of opportunities, first of all I have scholarships that have been helping to cover my studies expenses, also the quality of life in here, talking about security and order. I think that these are some of the reasons why a lot of people bring or establish their family here.
Q: What have you been doing in order to adapt to the good and bad consequences that the border causes?
A: I just want to do the right things in here respecting everybody’s life because even with a lot of negative thoughts about emigrant people from some people, I want to earn the respect for me and my family with our actions not with stereotypes. I have been doing everything legally in this country and I obey the rules stated by the laws; therefore, if I do my part, that is what I expect from the others.
Q: Do you think that doing the right thing, some people will change their thoughts?
