{"id":40073,"date":"2019-03-14T12:13:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T19:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=40073"},"modified":"2019-03-28T11:13:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T18:13:32","slug":"commentary-experiencing-life-at-the-border-un-obscured-by-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/commentary-experiencing-life-at-the-border-un-obscured-by-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Experiencing life at the border, un-obscured by politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In January 2019, El Tecolote intern Sage Mace travelled to Tijuana, to offer aid to the Central American refugees there. While there she interviewed her former youth pastors, Phil and Mindy Steiner. This is the second installment of a commentary recounting her experiences. Updated on March 28, 2019. <\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0I cannot remember a time when our politics was anything other than deeply entrenched dogmatism and polarization. This may only be\u00a0 <\/span>because I am 19 and the current president is the first president of my adulthood. I have come of age at a time when, in this country, to be compassionate is political and to choose love is political. My adulthood has been marked by increasing hate and hostility, fed by the media to fearful mouths, which is leading to our own pacification. The socialization of my adulthood, and perhaps of yours, has encouraged the acceptance of lives devoid of real truth\u2014truth that is uncovered with our own hands and proclaimed with our own voices.<\/p>\n

The refugee crisis at the border has spawned two competing narratives in the media about the caravan of Central American migrants who have traveled to Tijuana in search of asylum. The first: Migrants of the caravan are cold-blooded killers, drug dealers and invaders. The second: Migrants of the caravan are asylum seekers, desperate mothers traveling with child in tow. The two, although contradictory, bare a similarity. Both \u201ctruths\u201d have been manipulated to advance a political agenda and in doing so have neglected the complexities of the issue, escaped accountability, dehumanized and hindered the formation of solutions rooted in an understanding of who the migrants are.<\/p>\n

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A migrant carries his belongings on his back as he leaves the shelter in Tijuana on Feb. 22, 2019. Photo: Sage Mace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a Sunday evening after church, I was offered the invitation to stay with my former youth pastors Phil and Mindy Steiner at their home in Ensenada, Mexico. I agreed to go, bringing with me my passport and a small bag. The trip began on the Mexican side of Friendship Park, a binational area that links the U.S. and Mexico, a place I had previously visited, and therefore could notice the changes that had occurred there. The same art spans the wall and touches the ocean\u2014butterflies painted at the top, taunting and spiraling upwards and into the sky.<\/p>\n

But, paying close attention, the dissonance was tangible\u2014a helicopter overhead cut through the sound of friendly chatter; a tattered piece of clothing hung, caught to the top of the fence; a border patrol agent raced down the length of the wall and new razor wire stands as insurance that no one would pass. It was here that we met four men, migrants from Central America. Over tamales, I learned that one of them\u00a0is my\u00a0age as and has four sisters back at home, who he hopes to return to.<\/p>\n

In the car ride to the local church\u2014which also moonlights as a shelter for Central American migrants\u2014Mindy told us that they have met many who share similar stories of hardship, others have endured nightmares. A Guatemalan child who stayed at the church drew pictures of mothers whose stomachs had been cut open\u2014their babies ripped out by guerillas. It was a scene the boy had witnessed: a scene that drove his family to travel for 32 days in search of asylum; 32 days in which the caravan arose at 3 a.m. to cover 70 kilometers a day; 32 days in which their feet grew so sore that they resorted to sticking sanitary pads to the soles of their worn shoes.<\/p>\n

I was welcomed to the church by the Pastor and a migrant from El Salvador named Noe. The Pastor\u00a0is a presence of peace, his attire plain and his words wise. Noe\u00a0is vibrant and animated, he\u00a0speaks fast and is even faster to volunteer to help out when needed.<\/p>\n

The second day we spent at the beach with Noe, I began to string together his story. He teased Phil\u2019s broken Spanish and with bright eyes spoke of God, his country\u2019s beauty and his five month old daughter. His longing to return to her, and his country, was as tangible as the sand between my toes. The stories exchanged echoed the sentiments shared by Phil.<\/p>\n

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Inside the entrance of a shelter in Tijuana on Feb. 22, 2019. Photo: Sage Mace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNobody leaves home, unless home is the mouth of a shark,\u201d Phil said. We sat across from each other at his family\u2019s dinner table, his two small dogs vying for my attention. The setting was one that could be found in the Bay Area, a seemingly ordinary family who move quick on their feet, juggling running a business with parenting. The Steiner\u2019s devotion to their faith brought them from Novato, CA to Mexico in May of 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow I understand faith now is that Jesus was a minority in his time,\u201d Phil said. \u201cHe suffered oppression, suffered discrimination, was a refugee. When I look at that, I see that\u2019s what God cares about, therefore so should I \u2026 I believe we get as close to the heartbeat of God in those places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steiner\u2019s commitment to this ideal humanizes a highly politicized issue, which has divided Americans even further in their impermeable beliefs. A small step, embodied by the Steiner\u2019s in an effort to bridge polarized minds, is taken via this kind of relational work. Relational work requires one to step outside of themself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have those relationships is when we stop objectifying people and characterizing them as such because now they\u2019re real people,\u201d Phil said. Through this faucet, Phil has come to see that \u201c[in the caravan] each person has a story\u2026 it\u2019s easy to put them all together as just some political people, or invaders. Well, no they\u2019re not. They\u2019re individual people, with stories, with real lives, fleeing real issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/i>Phil, the co-founder of nonprofit Be2Live, spoke on the trajectory which led him to pursue social justice: \u201cIn the scheme of life I was set up pretty well, white middle-class family \u2026 and my church was very mission minded which played a lot into who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing that the origin of mission work is inextricably bound up with the history of colonialism, I asked Phil of how his family navigates this tension while operating their nonprofit Be2Live, which brings high-schoolers to Mexico on service trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cMissional-colonialism wasn\u2019t something I was aware about until the last six years or so,\u201d Phil said. \u201cI\u2019m very sensitive to that now \u2026 I don\u2019t want to come across as, \u2018I have all the answers,\u2019 because I don\u2019t. Or that I have the right perspective on life, or how I see my faith is the only way and best way. I see my role as with the people and journey in life with them together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work of Be2Live bares witness to a statement that could be diminished to a mere sentiment. In partnering with orphanages and organizations that are run by and for the people of cities like Tijuana and Mision, Be2Live is held accountable to their hope that they might \u201cbring resources,\u201d and \u201cnot to co-opt anything that\u2019s already there but perhaps fill in gaps where needed,\u201d creating a reciprocal relationship founded on trust, humility and love.<\/p>\n

On my third day in Tijuana, I was invited to pass out lunches at the Contra Viento y Marea shelter located in city\u2019s Zona Norte. Seven of us piled into the Steiner\u2019s minivan and the church van trailed behind us. Spirits were high as I sat beside Noe who sang and occasionally leaned over to show me pictures of his daughter. As the car came to a halt brought on by traffic, a shift occurred\u2014a phone call from the pastor of a local church, that moonlights as a shelter for Central American migrants, brought news that the shelter was to be cleared out of all migrants by noon due to concerns of the Mexican federal health agency (aka COFEPRIS).<\/p>\n

Upon arrival, 10 police officers in riot gear flanked one end of the street and a lone wolf clothed in head to toe black, mouth covered with a bandanna, biked by. In a circle we prayed, eyes shut tight, and in surveillance the federales and police marched the length of the street. Minutes were met with new reminders that the situation could become violent: military trucks pulled in, men with guns perched atop them, helicopters circled above and reporters entered and exited unintentionally flaunting the freedom so hungered for by those inside the shelter. With permission from the police, we were granted 15 minutes to serve lunch to the migrants inside.<\/p>\n

Spanning the length of the shelter sat rows of tents, each one further submerged in darkness as the natural light only reached those closest to the street-facing windows. A crowd consisting of reporters and California militant left-extremist group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) overwhelmed the small space. The pastor then began the process of negotiations with the police. Eventually the negotiations did turn in our (and the migrants\u2019) favor.<\/p>\n

Amid the chaos, one migrant told a Telemundo 20 reporter: \u201cThey [government authorities] come and try to push us out \u2026 The people [are] scared.\u201d Another migrant said, \u201cIt\u2019s an excuse, [the shelter is] not too bad.\u201d The migrants distrust\u2014as a means of self preservation\u2014is not without cause.<\/p>\n

The individuals of BAMN stood on the outskirts engaging with neither migrants or Americans. Strapped to their belts were bottles of fluid used to combat tear gas, evoking an image reminiscent of their involvement in the well documented Jan 1st tear gassing of migrants by U.S. Border Patrol agents.<\/p>\n

A discussion with Mindy revealed the complexities of the tear gassing incident, which have gone unbeknownst to the larger public as there is no clear truth which aligns perfectly with either left or right media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was supposed to be a peaceful march on Christmas Eve, but it got pushed back until New Years Day morning. [The march] was not to cause mayhem but to say to border patrol, \u2018We\u2019re here,\u2019\u201d Mindy said.<\/p>\n

Handouts distributed at the Contra Viento y Marea shelter the day of the eviction\u2014and distributed well before throughout migrant camps\u2014urged the march to the border with BAMN members present. The national chair of BAMN, Shanta Driver, in phone interview with KPBS said: \u201cGetting across the border by any means necessary is absolutely the right thing to do \u2026 we urge and encourage people to take mass action.\u201d Driver\u2019s statement revealed how far removed she is from the tightrope on which the migrants walk: Their own lives are at risk as well as their reputation, which precariously rests in the hands of American media.<\/p>\n

Migrant advocacy group Al Otro Lado, providing pro bono services in Tijuana, criticized BAMN: \u201cThat is not solidarity,\u201d Al Otro Lado attorney\u00a0 <\/span>Erika Pinheiro told KQED. \u201cThat\u2019s exploitation, they\u2019re exploiting migrants to make a political point about who should and shouldn\u2019t be allowed in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mindy testified to the damage done by misconstrued efforts of American activists. She recounted overhearing a police officer speak to a local woman in San Diego about the march: \u201cHe [the police officers] was saying they\u2019re [the migrants] using terrorist acts by pushing forward women and children, so now what sticks in her mind is the word \u2018terrorist\u2019 \u2026 Americans are crossing borders to incite innocent, Hondurans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorans\u2014who have no idea who to trust\u2014all to create a big political boom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018political boom\u2019 started is one lacking in substance, one exploitative in nature and one withholding of truth\u2014truth that is not necessarily singular or absolute, but truth devoid of politics that uses mothers, fathers, and children as pawns.<\/p>\n

The migrant issue requires justice: A process requiring the abandonment of polarization and pragmatism in exchange for humility, which asks questions and listens to the perspectives of those most involved.<\/p>\n

Mindy said, \u201cIt\u2019s easy to see a big New York Times headline and stop, and become fearful. But you have to ask, \u2018Why did this happen?\u2019 If we asked \u2018Why?\u2019 and \u2018How?\u2019 all the time, rather than taking everything at face value, we would learn a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In January 2019, El Tecolote intern Sage Mace travelled to Tijuana, to offer aid to the Central American refugees there. While there she interviewed her former youth pastors, Phil and Mindy Steiner. This is the second installment of a commentary recounting her experiences. Updated on March 28, 2019. \u00a0I cannot remember a time when our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":40075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17488,12725],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-40073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices","tag-central-american-migrants","tag-tijuana-en","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nCommentary: Experiencing life at the border, un-obscured by politics - El Tecolote<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In January 2019, El Tecolote intern Sage Mace travelled to Tijuana, to offer aid to the Central American refugees there. 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