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Border Witness Delegation Program

REPORT BY PAUL ZAREMBKA

This fall's Border Witness Delegation Program went to the El Paso/ Ciudad Juarez border with Mexico, right at the corner with New Mexico. The program is developed by the Labor-Religion Coalition in Albany, drawing persons of both labor and religious backgrounds throughout NYS. I was representing UUP, as have a number of others earlier, including our current VP-Academics Fred Floss.

Eleven of us were met at the airport in El Paso, Monday morning, October 30, staying until Saturday morning, November 4, for an absorbing exposure to the conditions of workers, migrants, and their families on both sides of the border. We hoteled on the American side (it being surprisingly cheaper) and each day traveled across the border.

The schedule included a lecture Monday evening by organizer Maureen O'Shaughnessy on the devastating effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, specifically, on the standards of living of Mexican workers, with real earnings dropping some sixty-five percent! It was followed the next morning by an exposure, from three points, to this the largest border for several millions: from the mountains above with our inability to distinguish the U.S. from the Mexican side, at a point with a border fence about 10 feet high, and at another border point with no fence, but both heavily watched.

We visited Annunciation House where undocumented workers who have crossed the border have a place to stay, albeit illegally but sometimes with the help of the border patrol. We learned her story from a Mexican woman with three children, abused by her husband and now applying for a green card. On another occasion we learned the rules of immigration law from a lawyer, its often catch-22 character, and how it is extremely difficult to get into the U.S. documented, if you are from the working poor.

The surprise of the trip was that Subcommandante Marcos of the Zapatistas, based in Oaxaca, Mexico, brought the "Other Campaign" to the border bridge and we all participated along with several hundred Mexicans. We then went to a high school in Juarez where the "Other Campaign" concluded its day with educational projects. The prior evening we were given a lecture from a faculty member from Earlham College, Indiana (he being the advisor to students studying from Earlham in El Paso) on the Zapatista bottom-up message.

Later that same day we visited Farm Workers Center on the El Paso side of the border, and by chance talked to a migrant (documented) worker who gets up at 3 a.m. every day to pick for seven hours in New Mexico chili peppers (which burn your hands if ungloved), traveling two hours by bus each way for minimal wages.

On November 2 we attended a border mass for the 'day of the dead' with participants from both sides of the border, many carrying crosses for those who had died tried to enter into the U.S., e.g. "Leonardo Ruiz B." We then went across to Juarez to shop in local artisan market.

On the last day, we went to a supermarket in Juarez with the earnings of one day's work and attempted to buy enough food, learning prices to be basically the same on both sides of the border even as wages were much less on the Mexican side (so much for the idea that wages in Mexico are lower because the costs of living are lower!). We then took our ingredients to a priest's and nun's home in the hills of Juarez to have our meal prepared, learned about their life -- they being from the 'liberation theology' movement with many years experience in Latin America. We also heard there from a woman about feminicide in Juarez, a major series of crimes of random killings of women.

Much more could be reported, but let me conclude by adding that we were exposed, by video one evening, to the benefits to workers of 'fair trade' coffee and chocolate.

I enjoyed every participant in the program, a significant additional plus recommending this program to others interested.
[Paul Zarembka, January 1, 2007]

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