[Sethreports] From the No Borders Camp: Conversations at the Wall

[Seth Porcello]

 From the No Borders Camp: Conversations at the Wall

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
-----------
To Listen or Download:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/05/18458414.php
OR
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25370
-------------------------------------------------------------------

This 4.5min report listens to voices from both sides of the border  
fence in Calexico California, as people meet their loved ones through  
the barrier that separates them. This report is part of the No  
Borders Camp convergence on the US Mexico Border. For more  
information see http://noborderscamp.org

Transcript:


To walk from Calexico, California to Mexicali, Mexico is only a  
matter of walking down a sidewalk, through some steel revolving  
gates, and out onto the Mexicali streets.  To walk from Mexicali to  
Calexico however requires papers, visas, interactions with border  
patrol, and usually waiting in a huge line.  The two cities, while  
divided, are economically and socially one.  In any other North  
American city they would be considered different neighborhoods, but  
here, they are divided by a steel wall policed on only one side.

Families and friends who have been separated by the border, often  
meet on both sides of the fence to talk, or squeeze money through the  
steel grid to relatives in Mexicali, and see what little they can of  
their loved ones.  Standing in Calexico, I interviewed one man in  
Mexicali through the border fence:

What I can say about this fence?  This fence is a form of  
discrimination.  It's a form of discrimination because all Americans  
can come to Mexico without a problem but Mexicans cannot go the  
United States.  Every American can enter and leave through this  
fence, but Mexicans cannot.  Why?  Because they need papers.  When I  
look at this fence, it's something that has no right to exist.  Why  
did they put up this barrier?  Is it discrimination against Mexicans,  
or, I don't know, something racial.

I met Maria, who asked that her real name not be used, why she had  
come to the Calexico side of the border fence.

Why?  I came to see my family.

             Through?

Through the fence,  yes.  They have to be on the other side of the  
fence, and me inside.  Its a difficult situation, yes, but they have  
to.  We have to be strong, for many things, for our families who we  
don't see, for the home, for many things we have to have courage.

             And you can't cross the border.

No I can't cross the border.

             Is this fence just?

No, it's not just, but what can we do.  If  it could be done I would  
go.  No it's not just.


Reporting from Calexico, Mexicali, and the imaginary space in between,
this is seth porcello

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----
For more no borders audio check out the no borders site:
http://noborderscamp.org/en/no-borders-audio
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/sethreports/attachments/20071106/652a2892/attachment.html>