Border Awareness reminder of reality

The Dustbowl looked a little different this week. No, not the green grass and the frolicking students - the wall. The installation in the Dustbowl that represents the wall that divides the United States from Mexico is a reminder of the grave situation along the United States' southern border.

The wall on Boston College's campus is a tangible aspect of Border Awareness Week. "Each person who walks by the wall can see the names of some of the thousands of people who have died in the last 15 years trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Even if someone does not attend any of the events scheduled for this week, at least they will be reminded of the human cost of this 'immigration problem' by walking past the wall," said Cara Caponi, student leader of the Pedro Arrupe Nogales trip, one of the organizers of Border Awareness Week, and A&S '08. Participants of the Nogales and Tijuana Pedro Arrupe trips were stationed at the wall throughout the week to answer questions and engage in conversation with passersby.

"Our primary goal [through Border Awareness Week] is to bring these issues of immigration and the border into the collective consciousness of the BC community to better foster an intelligent dialogue on something that affects all of us living in the United States," Caponi said.

Lorena Lopera, A&S '08, was a student leader of the Pedro Arrupe Tijuana trip and is also an organizer of Border Awareness Week. "This isn't just an issue, these are people we are talking about," Lopera said. "The lives of thousands upon thousands all over the world. This isn't something that is just happening in the United States, it is a global issue. Mexicans are not the only immigrants out there."

Lopera said that many people in the United States and on BC's campus are far removed from the issue of immigration because they do not believe it affects them. "There are many people out there with very negative views of immigrants and have somehow obtained a false sense of superiority. The reality is they may very well be doing the same discriminatory acts to immigrants now that were done toward his or her ancestors," Lopera said.

This week is intended to combat those misconceptions and humanize immigration. Ray Ybarra, a human rights activist who focuses on U.S.-Mexico border issues, spoke on Tuesday night. "A lot of times we get caught up in politics and lose sight of the fact that this is about human beings," he said.

Ybarra noted that 237 dead bodies were discovered in Arizona alone in 2007. In the past 15 years, there have been over 4,000 deaths. Talking about the deaths and the graveness of the situation, Ybarra said, "Hardly anybody knows about it. Hardly anybody cares about it, in my opinion."

Though his parents were born in Mexico, he was born in the border town of Douglas, Ariz. He remembers that when he was younger, only a chain-link fence separated Mexico from the United States.

This is a drastic difference from what Ybarra calls the massive "militarization" of the border. Militarization includes all the control and forced apparatuses that are intended to watch and prevent people from crossing the border. One overlooked yet serious impact of militarization is psychological because it sends the message that the people on one side of the border are inferior to the other, Ybarra said.

Ybarra has dedicated most of his adult life to border issues. He directly assisted Mexicans trying to cross, educated people in the United States about the problem, wrote a memoir and countless articles, and worked on the policy level in an attempt to reform U.S. border policies. He also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border, which was shown on Monday afternoon as a part of Border Awareness Week, about the racist motives of the vigilante movement and which reveals the human rights abuses that occur on the border. "It is not my role as an activist to defend anybody. It is my role to help people defend themselves," he said.

Ybarra also admitted his passiveness as a young person. Driving to college every day, he saw people crossing the border who constantly asked for his help. He always drove past them. "They might be suffering, they might be in pain, but they're not my problem," he said he remembers thinking.

When he realized that as a U.S. citizen he was complicit in creating this problem, Ybarra took action. By telling his story, he said hopes that other people will join in the struggle against this "human rights tragedy."

One reason people are reluctant to transform the border policies is xenophobia. "It is the fear of change that we all have as human beings," Ybarra said. He said that for people to generate social change, they must feel uncomfortable and angry about something.

Ybarra has made it a priority in his life to spread awareness about this issue to make social change possible. "It is an honor to work on this issue," he said. "When you meet somebody who is willing to walk through the desert for four or five days for their family - it is a beautiful thing." He said, commending the immigrants' courage, "They go up against the biggest baddest government that spends billions of dollars to keep them out."

Ybarra said he has engaged in illegal activity to help immigrants cross, and he will continue to do so in the name of what he deems moral and just. "There is a very good chance I'll end up in jail and I encourage you to join me … this has gone too far," he said.

Border Awareness Week is not just about what happens on the U.S. border, but also about what happens on the other side of it. Last night Estela Carlotto and Rosa Roisinblit, president and vice president of Abuelas (Grandmothers) de Plaza de Mayo, spoke about human rights abuses in Argentina and their long struggle to find their disappeared children and grandchildren.

From 1976-1983, Argentina existed under a military dictatorship during which 30,000 people, most of whom were openly opposed to the regime, disappeared. Their children, an estimated 500 kids, disappeared along with them. While most of the adults were murdered or are still missing, many of the children were kidnapped by people in the military and were given new names.