The March Against the Wall

The March for Peace and Unity

On Wednesday August 27, we arrived at Fort Hancock to hold an evening ceremony to kick-off the March for Peace and Unity Against the Wall. The majority of the audience were members of our planning committee from El Paso, as well as committee members from Sierra Blanca, other parts of Texas and other states. There were some members of Kalpulli, Mayagüel and Omecoatl, who came to perform an Aztec ceremony. Some residents of the Mexican side of the border were also present, as well as many members of the community of Santa Teresa Catholic Church. Our hostess was Sister Silvia Chacón accompanied by the group from Santa Teresa. A few media representatives were on hand to report on the beginning of the march.

The ceremony was brief but inspirational. An indigenous blessing to the four points of life was conducted followed by several speakers. Then the group from Santa Teresa invited us into the church hall for a delicious dinner with mole, bread, cold drinks and coffee. We spent the night inside that same hall.

Thursday August 28

In the early hours of the morning, we held a ceremony of thanks to the sunrise. Later, we were served menudo and coffee for breakfast and were ready to start marching.

Before the beginning of the march, Bishop Armando Ochoa arrived to bless the march outside Santa Teresa Church.

At 8:40 a.m., we started our walk very excitedly and in high spirits but without a clear vision as to how the march would end four days later.

Before reaching Road 20 towards Alamo Alto, we passed through the Border Patrol stations at Fort Hancock. Several Border Patrol officers were outside sweeping the front yard of the station. The marchers started to chant: “¡Pueblo si! ¡Migra no!”

We continued to walk towards Alamo Alto. Four miles later we found a dead rattlesnake. In our minds came the realization of the terrible impact the wall would have to the wildlife of the border region.

All along the road we saw thriving cotton fields and abundant weeds and wild grass as a result of the continuous rains in the area.

At about noon, we passed by a place called Acala where there is an old used goods store. Here, a couple of Mexican women, María Segura and María Aguilar, who were shopping, decided to join the march. We were very happy with our two new companions.

We arrived at a rest area on one side of the road a few miles from Alamo Alto. There is nothing in this rest area except a few trash cans and some beautiful big old álamo trees. The trees provided great shade to this place. It was already about 1:40 p.m. We had already walked the first 12 miles of our march. We arranged the place to set up our camp and spend the night.

Later, Eddie arrived with several boxes of lunch bags with sandwiches prepared by the Just Faith group of St. Pius X. Not only were the sandwiches delicious but every bag had a different message of solidarity for the marchers. My sandwich bag had the words: “We Should Overcome”.

During the night we had to endure an intense and spectacular storm with gusts of strong winds until very late into the night the calm returned to the camp and we were able to finally go to sleep in our tents and cars.

Friday August 29

We woke up early for the sunrise ceremony, just like the one from the morning before. We formed a half circle to bless the new day guided by Diana Joe, the carrier of the “Chanupa”, the sacred pipe of the Lakota. Towards the end of the ceremony, Guillermo and Blanca arrived with hot Mexican coffee called “Café de Olla” and some great burritos.

We began to walk at about 8:50 a.m. towards Tornillo.

Along the road we saw two water ponds. Around these “lakes” there are tables, shades, barbeque grills and portable toilets. Somebody mentioned that these were good places for fishing and spending the day with the family. We also saw some farm machinery and equipment on the side of the road. Some places appeared to be farms abandoned long time ago. Somebody mentioned that the City and El Paso County are buying land to appropriate the water rights of these rural communities.

We had walked about three miles when we found a construction materials yard that belongs to the company Jobe, which is another contractor with the Department of Homeland Security that is building the border wall. A concrete mixing truck was leaving the yard and Guillermo asked the driver if the material were to be used to build the wall. He answered no and said that the concrete was transported for the Jobe plant located in Tornillo.

There were some more apparently inactive farms but also some with ongoing agricultural production. One of these was full of beautiful pecan trees and large signs that warn passersby that picking pecans, even from the ground, was a criminal act.

At the entrance of Tornillo we found a construction material plant owed by Kiewit, one of the main contractors that is to build the wall. This company is based in Omaha, Nebraska and has been one of the corporate recipients of juicy contracts by the Bush administration. The CEO of Kiewit created a foundation to give money to some of the most conservative institutions. In 2004, Bruce Grewcock, donated the maximum amounts of political contributions allowed to the Bush-Cheney electoral campaign. We held a protest against Kiewit outside the yard. We passed out leaflets to the drivers and pedestrians passing by the site. Our protest lasted more than half an hour and attracted the attention of people and the media.

Finally, we arrived at the Santa Rita Catholic Church of Tornillo. We received a warm welcome from the community group of Santa Rita and we were given hot-dogs and refreshments. They treated us well despite the fact that they were also busy preparing for their annual Santa Rita fiesta and celebration for next day.

We rested for awhile at Santa Rita then at about 2:15 p.m. we continued our walk to Fabens. A good group of people from Tornillo accompanied us while we left this small rural community.

On our way to Fabens we noticed some dilapidated farm buildings, symbols of a ruined agricultural economy.

During the entire walk to Fabens, vehicles would pass us by and the drivers would show their solidarity by honking their horns. The noisiest vehicles were the many concrete mixer trucks owned by Jobe that passed us by.

We arrived in Fabens a little bit before 5 p.m. We were kindly received by the priest and the members of the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We were served delicious burritos, sodas and coffee.

Later that night, we held a celebration with the members of Mayagüel and Mosignor Arturo Bañuelas of St. Pius X. We formed a circle and heard a moving talk and blessing from Monsignor Bañuelas. At the end of his talk, all of us made a public promise to dedicate ourselves to fight for social justice.

Saturday August 30

After our sunrise ceremony and eating one of the best menudos I have ever tasted, we started our walk towards San Elizario at about 9 a.m. We were all very happy because we had started our march at Fort Hancock with only 20 people and by then we had about 40. We asked the women marchers to walk in the front to lead the march.

With us was also a group of legal observers from the El Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid and the American Civil Liberties Union. They had been with us since day one, but there were now more observers.

In front of the march we had two vehicles. The first one was driven by Fernie Bermudez who was leading the march and scouting the route. The second vehicle would mark the miles and provide water and fruit to the marchers. Following us in the rear was Xoxi who was driving a truck with a large sign that said: “CAUTION MARCHERS AHEAD”.

Again, we passed by a Border Patrol station and again the marchers chanted slogans against the current anti-immigrant actions and policies.

At about noon, we got to “Chicken Farm Road”, at the entrance of San Elizario and we stopped in a vacant area to eat some really good tacos brought to us by the staff from the Farm Workers Center.

Once we were all well fed, we started to walk again. But instead of walking directly towards the town, we changed our route south to enter the poor colonias. While passing by the colonia, we invited the residents to support the march by chanting: “San Eli, despierta, el muro está en tu puerta.” (San Eli, wake up, the wall is in your backdoor). Many people came out from their homes to listen and watch the march.

Our walk took us exactly to the border, the international boundary and ended on top of the edge of the canal. The canal separated us from the access road next to the Río Grande. This is the road used by the Border Patrol. Right in front of us was a large mobile observation tower guarded by the Border Patrol. The observation tower serves not only to look for migrants crossing the river, but also to keep an eye out on the homes across the canal's road. Other Border Patrol vehicles where parked far from this site ostentatiously watching us. We decided to stop here to hold a protest. People were chanting slogans against the Border Patrol and against the wall. Then we had an indigenous ceremony and heard a couple of brief speeches. People from the vicinity including families and men in horses joined our improvised protest. Once the protest and the ceremony concluded, we started to walk back to take the road towards San Elizario.

A few minutes after 2 p.m., we entered the old placita and the old mission of San Elizario, accompanied of many of the colonia residents and the horsemen. We had an indigenous ceremony with Omecoatl and a spiritual message by Reverend John Stowe.

At the end of the event, we rested in the placita and ate pizzas provided by the Just Faith group from St. Pius X and some very sweet and fresh watermelons from Guillermo Glenn's orchard.

A little bit before 4 p.m., we continued our walk to Socorro. We felt energized and motivated by the dances of Omecoatl, the words of Rev. Stowe, the pizzas and the sweet watermelons.

Behind us, the heavy cloudy sky was indicating that a storm was fast approaching. The torrential rains reached us an hour later. The rain accompanied us for almost one hour. In some parts, it was hard to see the road we were walking on. But the good mood of the marchers never lessend and nobody stopped walking. When the rain slowed down, all of us were soaking wet. Even during the rain, people passing us showed their support. The vehicles would slow down to avoid splashing the marchers and the drivers would honk their horns.

We continued the march under a light rain, walking in the puddles until about 6 p.m. when we arrived at the Socorro Mission of “Nuestra Señora de la Purísima”. The evening mass was not over yet so when we arrived we were received with an ovation by the parishioners.

The stay in this place had originally included an evening cultural event with music, poetry and speakers, but it was canceled due to the rains.

Once we changed into dry clothes the priest brought us some pizzas, sodas and fresh coffee. After dinner, we arranged our places to sleep.

Sunday August 31

The morning was cloudy with some refreshing drizzle but we were in a good mood and did our ceremony to bless the new day with the Lakota sacred pipe which Diana had been carrying very carefully since the beginning of the march.

Before the beginning of the march we held the last meeting in the old Mission of Socorro to organize the final part of our journey.

Then some minutes after 9 a.m. we started to walk to Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. Our formation was a single line with all the women in the front. The road was muddy and had many puddles. The mood was great and our spirits were very high.

The people on the road continued to cheer us on expressing their solidarity and support. Many people came outside from businesses and homes to applaud and encourage the marchers.

We were happy because more participants were now participating in the march. When we had started that morning there were only 30 marchers, but little by little, more people arrived to join us. County Attorney José Rodríguez and Carmen Rodríguez, director of the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid were now marching with us. At the edge of Ysleta del Pueblo Sur, the loyal group of Mayagüel joined the march.

By 10:30 a.m. we entered Ysleta del Sur Pueblo. The march moved to the historic Ysleta mission. Many people were waiting for us. Outside the mission we formed a large circle to hear a message and receive a blessing from Monsignor Bañuelas while Bea from Mayagüel performed the indigenous blessing to mother Tonatzin and the march.

At the end of the ceremony, all those present boarded their vehicles to form a caravan and drive to the border area where construction of the wall is already in progress. We arrived at the border site where workers are building the structure that will hold the wall.

All of us got out of our vehicles, and walked up to the border to display poster boards with big letters forming the word “NO WALL” on one side, and “MURO NO” on the other. There were some Border Patrol vehicles looking at us from a certain distance.

Monsignor Bañuelas offered another blessing and then we walked about a mile on top of the border to cover the distance of the wall structure built at that time. All this action lasted almost one hour. Then we got back into our vehicles to resume our caravan towards Sunland Park, New Mexico following the Cesar Chavez-Border Highway.

By the time we arrived to Sunland Park-Anapra it was already past 1 p.m and many people on both sides of the border were waiting for us. People, including many families and happy children, were standing close to the barrier that divides the two countries. They were shaking hands and greeting each other through the metal fence. We started to walk towards the top of a hill to reach the point where the old fence ends and the new wall begins. While we walked slowly like a procession following the lead of sisters Bea, Lourdes and Diana, on the other side of the fence a group, composed mainly of teachers from the Resisste movement and Lomas de Poleo residents walked simultaneously with us.

Several officers of the Border Patrol in vehicles and horses were on top of the hill watching us through binoculars. At least one of the officers was taking pictures of the marchers. When we got close to the point that unites the old fence and the new wall, the officers moved away a good distance. Apparently, they did not want to make contact with the march or the people.

At this site, where the old fence and the new wall converge, we completed our march initiated four days before in Fort Hancock. Once more, Monsignor Bañuelas gave a very emotional prayer to remember all the migrants who have died while attempting to cross the border. The majority of the people kneeled to pray in a fervent way.

Father Bill Morton also gave an inspirational message denouncing the construction of the wall and appealing for the creation of peace and unity in a border community now divided by a wall.

Finally, we moved back to the first site to hold a moment of binational fellowship across the divisive fence. This was an act of true human solidarity. People were talking and touching their fingers through the holes of the metal fence. A sister from Ciudad Juárez offered a song of unity and struggle and the Chicano poet, Nephtalí de León, who had flown in that morning from San Antonio to take part in the last leg of the march, recited a poem he wrote especially for this march.

At about 3 p.m., we said our goodbyes to one another and concluded the march that had taken us from Fort Hancock, Texas to Sunland Park, New Mexico.

We had marched close to 70 miles during the four days and we passed many rural communities. We learned about the pain of oppression and discrimination faced by rural people in Hudspeth and El Paso counties. We explained the objectives of our march and discovered that the majority of people are opposed to the wall but don't have the means to publicly express their opposition. The march was noticed by many people not only from the border region but also from places far from the border.

At the end, we realized that although we had completed our march and we had raised a little bit of conscience in the population, the most important gain was the strengthening of our own convictions that we can stop the wall, that we can move forward to transform this world into a new one without walls.