The Nogales Wall

     “Berliners, you have proved that no wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom,” said Bill Clinton at the site of the former Berlin Wall in July 1994.  A few months later, his administration built its own wall that separates Nogales, Sonora from Nogales, Arizona.  I crossed that border on December 11 and walked for a mile along the U.S. side of the wall - an area that is completely militarized.

     I passed a Border Patrol car that was parked at the crest of a hill on International Street, which runs along the border.  The pavement ended and turned into a dusty dirt road.  A Border Patrol truck was parked on the next hill.  “Sir, do you need any assistance?” the agent asked me.  “No, I’m just looking for a spot to take some photos of the wall,” I replied.

     Another Border Patrol truck came driving down towards me as I was walking up the next hill.  The agent asked what I was doing there and if another agent had come by to talk to me.  “How much further are you going?” he asked, and I told him just to the top of the hill.

     I took some photos up there and began walking back along a smaller road that winds along the hills and drops down to the main road by the wall.  I came upon an unmarked truck parked beside the road and a man stepped out and walked towards me.  He was dressed in a camouflage uniform and had an automatic rifle slung from his shoulder.  “What are you doing here?” he asked, with his hands on the gun.  I explained that I was taking photos of the wall and asked if he was with the National Guard.  “Yes,” he replied. 

     I also asked if the road continued down to the main road and he confirmed that it did.  He then scanned the hills and said, “Could you find another route out?  We can’t have anyone in our sight.”  I suggested that if I continued along that road, I would quickly be back on the main road and out of his sight after I got to the crest of the next hill.  He didn’t want me going any further and he still had his hands on the rifle, so I turned around and walked back again on that same road. 

     A Border Patrol truck then drove alongside me and stopped.  After the initial questions, we entered into a conversation about the border.  Ruben told me that he had worked with the Border Patrol for 24 years. 

     “Why are so many people crossing?” he asked.  “I think NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) has something to do with it,” I responded.  “U.S. agricultural corporations used NAFTA to flood Mexico with subsidized feed corn and more than two million Mexican farmers lost their land because they couldn’t compete.  Also, the minimum wage on the other side of the wall is $4.70 a day and here it’s $7.25 an hour.  A good wage, including production bonuses, in the assembly plants there is just $70 a week.”

     Ruben also asked about a long-term solution.  “I believe if farmers could stay on their land and workers were paid a decent wage, they wouldn’t feel the need to cross the border,” I said.  He then confirmed that he had my name correct and continued driving down the hill alongside the wall.

     Photos from the U.S. side of the wall:

The Wall

     Jeannette and Tito took me to the border wall here in Nogales on Thanksgiving Day.  The wall divides the city into Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona; and it was designed to block impoverished Mexicans and Central Americans from entering the U.S. in search of work.  It is14 feet high and topped with a fence, and is made of landing strip materials from the Gulf War.

     A Border Patrol truck was parked on a hill, 200 yards to the west.  Another Border Patrol truck was parked on a hill, 200 yards to the east, alongside a tall pole with surveillance cameras.  “We’re probably being watched,” said Jeannette.

     Bill Clinton began this militarization of the border after the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect in 1994.  U.S. agricultural corporations used NAFTA to flood Mexico with subsidized corn grown in the U.S. for animal feed.  The price of that corn was less than what it cost small farmers in Mexico to grow the corn that had been used for tortillas.  The farmers couldn’t compete with U.S. agribusiness and more than two million of them lost their lands.    

     Displaced farmers, along with workers who had lost their jobs, crossed into the U.S. to seek employment.  The Clinton administration built walls in the urban areas to push the migrants into more remote and hazardous terrain.  The goal was to “Raise the risk…to the point that many will consider it futile to attempt illegal entry…Illegal traffic will be deterred or forced over more hostile terrain less suited for crossing.” 

     Militarization of the border was expanded by George Bush and Barack Obama.  There are now more than 3,300 Border Patrol agents and 500 National Guard soldiers stationed along the Arizona border.  During the last year, 253 people died in the desert of southern Arizona while attempting to migrate into the U.S.    

     In contrast, U.S. corporations are able to freely cross the border in search of profit.  Applebee’s, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Dairy Queen, Domino’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Subway, and Wal-Mart all operate in Nogales, Sonora.  Sixty five U.S. companies; including General Electric, Master Lock, Otis Elevator and Xerox; have assembly plants here with approximately 25,000 workers.  The minimum wage on this side of the wall is $4.63 a day.

     “I’ve been here in Nogales for 20 years,” said Engracia.  “There used to be just a chain link fence and we could see through it to the other side.  But then the wall blocked our vision and now we can’t see each other.”

     Guadalupe Serrano, Diego Taddei and Alberto Morackis of the Junk (“Yonke”) Public Art Workshop created a huge mural on the Sonora side of the wall last year.  Hundreds of photos of people comprise the “Migration Mosaic” that features four feet walking.

     A variety of images and messages have been painted on the wall, including “Borders are scars on the earth” and “Walls turned on their sides are bridges.”

     Photos of the border wall with the collage, and the Bella Vista neighborhood as seen from the Hope and Peace community center (where I’m living and working):