Overcoming a borderline that divides

Salt shakers
March 2002

Overcoming a borderline that divides
The dividing line between the United States and Mexico stretches 2,000 miles along the southern edges of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. At some points along the way large, imposing fences rise up from the landscape to clearly demarcate the border, complete with armed guards, watchtowers, and razor wire. At other points, there is nothing at all to distinguish the land of Mexico from the land of the United States. Tumbleweed rolls right over the line unknowing, unnoticed. To the untrained observer, it is merely one dusty landscape.

But the real story tells of centuries of struggle over one thin line. War, bloodshed, and tears have drawn this line. Many die crossing it each year. For while one side represents poverty and thirst, the other is the stuff of milk-and-honey fairy tales.

Steve Hicken found the U.S-Mexico border on a trip to Cairo. Cairo, Texas? No. Cairo, Egypt.

In 1976, he was traveling with a friend in Cairo when they ran into a man who offered to show them around the city from a native's perspective. They happily agreed, having no idea the kind of experience that was in store. The man took them to parts of Cairo most tourists never see, nor want to see. They saw people living in desperate poverty. But through his conversations with these people he realized, contrary to his former belief, that people in poverty were capable of a great deal of joy and were more than happy to share what was often the very little bit that they had. He was overwhelmed by the hospitality of those he met.

"That launched me on a journey," says Hicken, who before that trip envisioned himself becoming a corporate executive, "And the ability to invite other people on the journey has been a great gift to me."

He now shares that gift as the director of a program called Friends Across Borders (FAB), a group that leads participants to the borderlands of Mexico. Part of the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful, FAB officially began in 2000, though Hicken says the program has been evolving since 1992 when several Maryknollers recognized "the desire in a great many people in the U.S. who really want to get involved in justice issues of this sort but don't know where to start." Friends Across Borders asks participants to simply dive right in with an open mind, immersing them into the world of border towns and border people. Participants explore the realities of U.S. and Mexican policy on immigration, learn from experts, and experience community with the native peoples.

On a typical trip, participants travel to a border community, usually El Paso-Ciudad Juarez, twin cities where over 2,000,000 people reside. The itinerary includes visits to the "colonias," economically poor communities on both sides of the border, as well as the health clinics that serve them. Participants talk with church workers serving the communities, hear presentations by local professionals on the history and demographics of the border, and join in prayer and reflection.

The cost of the trip is $350, plus travel, but scholarships are available for many of the trips that reduce the participants' cost to around $100 total.

FAB also facilitates trips across other international borders, including the Philippines and an upcoming trip this fall to Nairobi, Kenya to experience African culture with the Maryknoll mission established there. Additionally, the group holds workshops and retreats in the Bay area in conjunction with the Diocese of Oakland.

Together with his wife Mary, Hicken spent six years as a Maryknoll missioner in Venezuela. The couple has four sons who entered the world at different points and places along the mission trail.

He recalls one of the most defining moments of FAB. At a point along the border outside El Paso, one of the places along the border that has no fence—just a cable attached to wooden stakes—border guards warned the group that a "dangerous" group of men lived just across the line into Mexico. The FAB group proceeded over the line anyway and shortly encountered the "dangerous" men.

As it turns out, the men were part of a Christian group for recovering addicts, having a picnic of all things, and they asked the FAB group if they would like to join them in a prayer. FAB agreed and the two groups joined hands, literally crossing over the border and back again in a circle of prayer. Several people had guitars and the two groups sang together and prayed for each other, closing with an "Our Father."

Hicken says, "That's what happens when you choose to show up."

Mauro Pineda was one of the people on that trip who chose to show up and remembers the experience quite well.

He has a special connection to the border—his wife lives on the other side of it.

Married for three years and expecting their first child, the couple lives some 1800 miles apart on the line from Quechultenango, Mexico to Chicago. They met when Mauro was a missionary for the Archdiocese of Chicago in Karina's small Mexican town from 1996-1999. Now they wait for Mauro's citizenship to come through so that Karina may come to live in the United States. They hope before their child is born.

Although Mauro has lived in Chicago most of his 30 years as a legal permanent resident, his application for citizenship has been in process for two and a half of those years. Meanwhile, Karina cannot even obtain a tourist visa to visit Chicago because U.S. officials require sufficient proof that the resident will return. The requirements include things like owning property in Mexico and substantial funds in a Mexican account, to the tune of around $10,000.

While FAB provides an eye-opening experience for those traveling to the border, one might wonder what the benefits for the people who live on the border. When asked the question, he paused, and replied, "The benefit, for both sides, is about sight and compassion. When you see people and encounter people you are moved to understand them. You see how much of human life is not being served.

"The host people always thank us for coming, which is an odd experience. But I think it's because these folks know the treasure of human relationship. The idea that someone would travel all that way to visit with them honors them, and that the participants want to know about their lives brings a certain joy to them."

When the participants return home, they are left with a call to act. Hicken tells them, "You can't turn back now."

For Pineda, he knows it all too well. When he was there, he saw a little girl talking to her father through the fence. His is a daily struggle to overcome the border.—Tara Dix

For more information:
Friends Across Borders
Borderlinks
Border trade data index
Smithsonian Institute on U.S.-Mexico border

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