Borderlinks Fieldtrip

I have always wanted to know how what it would be like to visit Nogales Mexico.  While driving to Tucson with my group, Carrie, Kevin, and Deb, I was kind of nervous about what this place would be like.  My initial reaction of Nogales was if I was going to enjoy this event, learn a lot, and experience a whole bunch of different interesting topics and views.   

Before my first visit to Nogales Mexico, I was expecting something completely different.  I was expecting to see the typical Mexican environment, like the ones you see on television, or the ones you hear about in stories, but boy was I wrong.  My actual experience was completely different than my expectations.  There were not that many homes, it was very messy, it had a lot of trash everywhere, there were a lot of people out and about walking around unlike what I would see would in my own neighborhood or even some towns. It was so depressing to see all those people with their kids just sitting outside their homes knowing that they don’t have much.  Everything is expensive for them, because their wages are so low. Many whom work at the Maquilas sewing and working very hard for 10 hours and make approximately 5 dollars, whereas in the book Disposable Domestics by Grace Chang; an authorized city employee in San Francisco may sweep streets making $15.04 an hour plus benefits.  In her book New Pioneers in the Heartland Jo Ann Koltyk tells us that she found that for some, the decision to delay entering the job market was an unwillingness to take just any job, many had unrealistic expectations about being able to hold out for a job that paid $8.00-$9.00 an hour.  The people in Nogales do not really have a choice of choosing a place to work where it pays well because they don’t really have a choice. Many people in Nogales can’t afford to bye milk and diapers for their young, they even send their children to school because public education there is not free, that is why most of them don’t attend school; instead, they work.

The most valuable time I spent at Nogales was when my we ate at one of the families’ homes because the lady that cooked for us was telling us some stories about her life, her family, and what they do, how they support the family, and stuff like that, and that was very interesting to hear.  It was fun to hear others from our class speak Spanish; it was nice to try different foods.  I also enjoyed when that Mexican lady (the on that was riding with us in the bus) was telling us about her life in Nogales; and the story how she is currently living the same home that she was born in, that was so amazing to me, and the most important thing that really grabbed my attention was the stories about the women in Juarez, how 300 women were found dead in one city, that was very dreadful.

     The one thing that I learned about myself and my fellow Americans as a result of this experience is that I realized how good we have got it here in the United States, and how well off we are.  I learned that some people live in agony, but somehow pull through raising their family at such low wages. I really enjoyed this trip.  I learned a lot, got to listen to some incredible stories, and had fun getting to know the member of our group.

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