If you told me 3 months ago that I would be going to visit the border wall and the U.S.-Mexico border, I would’ve said you are out of your mind.
But if there is one thing I have learned in the past year, it’s that life can change on a dime and it’s best to seize opportunities when they arrive.
So, when professor Ginger Williams pulled me aside after class in April to ask if I would have any interest in going with the group she organized, I jumped at the chance.
The group was a mission delegation formed at Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church (OAPC), with the mission statement reading: “We are a group of diverse Christians who bring different life experiences and perspectives to this mission delegation at the U.S./ Mexico border with Frontera de Cristo. We hope to learn from one another and from all of those who share their hospitality with us. We will increase our understanding of the realities of immigrants at the border and within our own communities through study, prayer, and conversation. When we return home, we plan to share our experiences with others, and we will seek to know our immigrant brothers and sisters. We will commit ourselves to advocate for humane treatment, policies, and laws for migrants. And finally, we will work to bring others into our work advocacy, support, and care.”
For the next month, every Thursday at 4 p.m., I met with professor Williams and the mission group at OAPC to learn more about the overall purpose of the trip, the ministry group who would be leading us and the major policies and historical events affecting border relations.
We then began our trek to Arizona and Mexico on May 24.
Day 1: May 24
Day 1 was largely uneventful, as it was pretty much entirely dedicated to traveling.
The day started at 7 a.m. with all of us meeting at OAPC to get in a bus to head to the airport. After we arrived at the airport and went through TSA, it was time to board our four hour flight to Phoenix, Arizona.
During this time, absolutely nothing eventful happened – which is what you’d honestly hope for on a flight.
Once we arrived in Phoenix and collected our luggage, we were met with the dry Arizona heat that everyone warned about. After about 15-20 minutes of waiting, Frontera de Cristo – the ministry who was leading our visit – came to pick us up in another bus.
From there, it was close to a 3 and a half hour drive to Douglas, Arizona – the American town directly adjacent to Agua Prieta, Mexico.
The drive gave us an idea of the terrain we’d be walking across throughout the trip: mountains upon mountains. I’ll admit that I was not expecting Arizona and Mexico to be as mountainous as it was.
The drive also introduced us to some other unique, small Arizona towns like Bisbee and Tombstone.
We arrived at Frontera de Cristo’s office around 5:30 PST and met the people who would be leading us: U.S. Coordinator Mark Adams, Mexico Coordinator Joca Gallegos, and Mission Co-Worker & Community Garden Facilitator Miriam Maldonado-Escobar. Maldonado-Escobar and Adams are also married.
When we were talking with the Frontera de Cristo staff and introducing ourselves, I was immediately struck by Gallegos and Maldonado-Escobar’s stories.
Gallegos attended seminary school in Mexico City as one of only three women studying theology and became involved due to her father’s work for Frontera de Cristo, but also because the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico does not allow for women to be ordained as ministers.
Maldonado-Escobar came to the North of Mexico in 1994 after the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico – which saw over 100 people die after Mexican troops opened fire in towns and villages. The group was protesting NAFTA’s policies as they would (and did) significantly harm Indigenous communities.
After our brief check-in with the Frontera de Cristo people, we hopped back on the bus to head across the border and go to the church we would be staying at, Lirio de los Valles.
Crossing over into the Mexican side of the border was fairly easy. No checking for passports, not really stopping vehicles – which I did not expect.
Around 7 p.m. PST we arrived at Lirio de los Valles Presbyterian Church, finally unpacked our luggage and got some much needed rest.
Day 2: May 25
Sunday was one of the biggest days on the trip for us, as it was Lirio de los Valles’ 40th anniversary.
That day began at 5:00 a.m. PST for me, as my bunkmate and I went on a morning walk throughout Agua Prieta. Along that walk we got a sneak peak at many places we would travel to with Adams, Gallegos and Maldonado Escobar – like the plaza and border wall.
Getting to really examine the border wall was harrowing. The sheer ugliness of it, the concertina wire meant to lacerate and cut people as they come down, a pit you could not even see the bottom of – it was disgusting.
However, we also came across many murals along the wall, which offered a sliver of hope.
After we made it back to our dorms in the church, we chose passages from the Gospel of Mark to annotate and reflect on throughout the week. As someone who is not particularly religious but grew up going to church with my grandparents, really reading the Bible and annotating the passages was something I actually found quite interesting and enjoyed doing.
At 11 a.m. PST, it was time to begin the service.
Now, we had no clue that it was going to be the church’s 40th anniversary, so most of us in the group were expecting a service around 1 hour.
It was about 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The service was definitely lively though and centered around the community, so it was still a nice experience. One part I thoroughly enjoyed was when we walked around to everyone in the church, shook their hands and essentially introduced ourselves – and although I knew none of them, they were so welcoming that they did not feel like strangers to me.
The children were also incredibly patient and an integral part of the church, which is something I never experienced at the church I attended as a kid.
After the service was said and done, we joined the church for a group photo and ate lunch with them.
I know a lot of Southern people love to think that Mexican culture is so much different than us, but I felt right at home in Agua Prieta. I also know a lot of Southern people love to brag about our hospitality, but the people in Mexico also embody that Southern hospitality to a tee.
It’s customary in Mexico for people to shake hands with the hosts before departing, which is something I appreciated as my dad raised me on the importance of a firm handshake.
That night we went out to the plaza with Maldonado Escobar, where there are dozens of food trucks and vendors, to get dinner.
We met one of Frontera de Cristo’s young adult volunteers there, Katherine, who came over from Honduras. She currently works with children in Mexico – something she had no intentions of doing but ultimately fell in love with.
She spoke about how bad drugs and prostitution are in the Honduran schools, which really painted a picture as to just the kind of life migrants are trying to leave behind. Could you imagine if our school system was like that? Would you want your kid(s) forced to stay?
I believe the answer, overwhelmingly, would be no.
Day 3: May 26
This day I’ll keep rather short, as I covered it in the “22nd Annual Migrant Trail Walk Brings in People Across the Nation.”
Because when I tell you the entire day was dedicated to the Migrant Trail Walk, I’m not exaggerating.
We did have breakfast at the church, which was made for us almost all day by a gentleman named Carlos. He needs to go on Masterchef Mexico.
After breakfast, we began our trip to Sasabe, Arizona – a town with a population of just 54.
When we were picked up, we were introduced to another key member of Frontera de Cristo, David Bonilla.
We experienced our first taste of crossing into the American side of the border, which is much different than crossing into Mexico. Border patrol stopped our bus, checked all our passports, did a headcount and checked our food.
Examinations at the crossing don’t follow a concrete structure either, as each experience going through the border crossing was different.
We arrived at Sasabe around 1 p.m. PST. There, we were greeted with an ominous, 30 ft tall border wall and close to 50 people ready to begin the trail.
That day of the walk was 5 miles and close to five hours long – that is including a lunch break and multiple water breaks.
When we reached the campsite for that night, our group distributed dinner to the other people walking the trail. We had about an hour to relax and eat dinner there until it was time to hit the road for Agua Prieta.
We made it back to Lirio de los Valles around 11:30 p.m. PST, at which pretty much all of us passed out for the night.
