Spring Break
Borderlinks takes students to Arizona, Mexico over spring break
Issue date: 3/19/09 Section: Entertainment
"For me some of the most powerful juxtapositions of our trip to Arizona and Mexico with "Borderlinks," a bi-national group that works to educate North Americans about the realities of immigration and the U.S./Mexico border, had to do with images of colonialism from the distant past combined with contemporary images of continued victimization.
Missions founded by Father Quino during the era of Spanish conquest and depictions of the "beneficent" Spanish Roman Catholic overlords in museums and religious sites do not begin to tell the story of over twelve million people who died during forty years due to the hardships forced upon them in colonized areas five hundred years ago. Yet in our own supposedly "post-colonial" era it seems as though so much victimization continues, aided and abetted by Mexico and the U.S. alike.
In the Tuscon courtroom, where our group witnessed "Operation Streamline" as over 70 immigrants stood before a judge, and within two hours were collectively declared guilty of the crime of illegally entering the United States, one young man in shackles dared to speak up about his actions.
'I don't want to break the law; but you have to understand that we are coming here because we have to seek a better life for our families,' he said.
In the Arizona desert, over 5,000 people have died since the United States instituted the wall; this year alone, even before the true beginning of the hot desert summer, close to 200 immigrants already have died trying to cross the desert in desperate hope, fleeing poverty."
--Dr. Kelly Denton-Borhaug
"The Borderlinks trip to Arizona and Mexico I took in conjunction with Religion 299 is definitely the best class experience I have had to date at Moravian.
It was an amazing opportunity to be able to see, interact, reflect on and grapple with the issues and theories we focused on in class in real life, in our own country.
The places we visited and people we met are definitely burned into my memory, and have assisted me in viewing immigration and border issues from an entirely more understanding perspective.
Missions founded by Father Quino during the era of Spanish conquest and depictions of the "beneficent" Spanish Roman Catholic overlords in museums and religious sites do not begin to tell the story of over twelve million people who died during forty years due to the hardships forced upon them in colonized areas five hundred years ago. Yet in our own supposedly "post-colonial" era it seems as though so much victimization continues, aided and abetted by Mexico and the U.S. alike.
In the Tuscon courtroom, where our group witnessed "Operation Streamline" as over 70 immigrants stood before a judge, and within two hours were collectively declared guilty of the crime of illegally entering the United States, one young man in shackles dared to speak up about his actions.
'I don't want to break the law; but you have to understand that we are coming here because we have to seek a better life for our families,' he said.
In the Arizona desert, over 5,000 people have died since the United States instituted the wall; this year alone, even before the true beginning of the hot desert summer, close to 200 immigrants already have died trying to cross the desert in desperate hope, fleeing poverty."
--Dr. Kelly Denton-Borhaug
"The Borderlinks trip to Arizona and Mexico I took in conjunction with Religion 299 is definitely the best class experience I have had to date at Moravian.
It was an amazing opportunity to be able to see, interact, reflect on and grapple with the issues and theories we focused on in class in real life, in our own country.
The places we visited and people we met are definitely burned into my memory, and have assisted me in viewing immigration and border issues from an entirely more understanding perspective.
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