December 2017 Philadelphia Chapter of Pax Christi U.S.A.
Anna Marie Carr, member of St. Malachy Church and Maryknoll Affiliate, tells of working on the US- Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez-El Paso.
Why did you decide to work on the border?
I joined the Maryknoll Affiliates in 1993, inspired by the many stories and inspirational work of Maryknollers on behalf of marginalized peoples throughout the world. The Affiliates are akin to a third order group of Maryknoll, organized in small mission communities. We often speak of the four pillars central to our charism: global vision, spirituality, community and action.
During my college years, I had the life-changing experience of reading Gustavo Gutierrez’, A Theology of Liberation. This new and deep understanding of our faith along with the witness of so many in Latin America drew me to my undergraduate thesis work in liberation theology.
Following graduation, I sought to begin working with Latinos and had the opportunity to join VESS, a volunteer program serving the Mexican communities of Texas. I was placed in a parish social worker position and learned so much as I attempted to see the world through their eyes and culture.
Afterwards I went to medical school, then residency in Chicago. Through our Maryknoll Affiliate community there, I learned that Maryknoll was just beginning the border project on the Texas-Mexico border.
What were conditions on the border then?
This was the mid-90’s, the time of NAFTA, maquiladora factories, and incredible disruption of local economies in Mexico. It was also a time at
the end of the fire years in Central America. The civil wars were ending but new types of violence - emerging gangs, growing drug cartels and horrific human rights violations continued. The Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border was, and continues to be, a complex reality. During the time I served as part of the Maryknoll team (1995 -1997), there were two main streams of people coming to the border: a continued migration from Central America and a new larger stream of people from the interior of Mexico who were no longer able to find work in their small towns and villages (job loss, farmers losing land because they could not compete with the flood of US agrobusiness products under NAFTA).
Many of the internally displaced Mexicans would work in US-owned maquiladora companies and make very low salaries. Often the people lived in cardboard or cinderblock homes, without running water. At that time, a family needed 4-5 adults living together and working in the maquiladoras to be able to make ends meet. During the mid to late 90’s, it was estimated that 300 new people a day were coming to the border.
What did the Maryknoll team do to help these people?
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Our Maryknoll team was mixture of lay missioners, sisters, priests and Affiliates. The lay missioners did a variety of work that focused on small group education, health care, gang violence prevention and parish ministry: West and Chris Cosgrove hosted immersion learning experiences for small parish and university groups. Susan Tollefson worked with the women in Juarez to create a Montessori preschool and peace center. Joe and Linda Michon did eye medical care and training of health promoters in a community near a large landfill in Juarez. Later, a lay missioner family, Jim and Karen Weaver and their three children came and did parish and community development work. My work was part time in the hospital and part time in the El Paso colonia clinics, unincorporated areas outside El Paso. I also worked with Susan in developing a community-based project for special needs children in the colonias of Juarez. The Sisters worked at a large immigrant detention center and the priests did parish work and migrant solidarity work.
All of us assisted the Cosgroves with the border immersion experiences as we hoped to raise awareness about the complex reality of the border with its emerging forces (globalization, violence, rapid economic and cultural shifts) that were bringing so many people there. In working with the immersion groups, West ensured exposure to a diversity of voices. For example, he often arranged meetings with border patrol agents. The agents were always open to meeting with the groups and West was skillful in engaging them.
Many people think the border is closed and sharply defined. But the reality of the border is that there is a long shared history between the people of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez with many people coming back and forth, many families interconnected. Even geographically, it is difficult to tell where one community ends and the other begins.
What has changed in the current reality of the El Paso-Cuidad Juarez border?
China has rapidly emerged as an economic power and many factories left the border for Asia.
In the early 2000's, the drug cartels began to have increasing competition among themselves and violence (kidnapping, murders, robberies) exploded. At one point, Juarez was deemed the most dangerous city in the world with the highest murder rate (3700 a year). Over 3 million people left Juarez at that time (many previously middle or upper class).
During this time, the drug cartels also expanded into Central America. The gang culture and drug cartel system has resulted in a new type of violence in Central America where many families must choose to pay protection money or lose their young children to forced recruitment into gangs. Children who refuse are often killed and that led to the increasing waves of women and young children coming to the border in the summers of 2015-2016.
Similar factors - the push-pull forces of migration - continue to draw large numbers to the US- Mexico border. Worsening violence in Central America (estimated highest in the world) and climate change factors now play an increasing role along with traditional economic and political factors. An excellent resource to understand the current reality is from the USCCB: http://bit.ly/2xmDJWK
Sorrow and Mourning Flee Away
Phyllis Grady, Interviewer Anna Marie Carr, Interviewee
Pastoral Letter on Migration to the People of God in the Diocese of El Paso, Mark Seitz, Bishop of El Paso - July 18, 2017. www.bordermigrant.org”
In addition to pastoral letter, this website gives history, geography, current situation of Ciudad Juarez-El Paso.
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