BORDER-LINKS FIELDTRIP

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U.S./Mexico Border Zone; 36^th and Thomas

    This assignment created a fieldtrip to the ‘border’ inside metropolitan Phoenix.  The ‘border’ is an area of interaction where the US and Mexico come together or bleed into each other, either with an easy blend or with a contentious edginess.  From this experience, students will be able to consider and analyze the impact of transnational immigrants from Mexico and compare this experience to what we have been studying and reading about immigration so far.  

This venture brings me to a destination that I had never imagined myself stepping into before, the Mexican labor force outside of Home Depot on 36^th and Thomas Street.  This particular zone is thought of as a ‘border’ because it demonstrates how two different cultures butt up against each other.  The unofficial day-labor pick-up site is comprised only of Mexican immigrants and surrounded by American culture (shops, businesses & consumers).  The immigrant laborers here make clear their intentions to the position they have taken outside the entrance and exit of the Home Depot parking lot; they are ready to work.      

    I can not count how many times I’ve driven past them on my way home from school or running errands and seen them (usually about a dozen) standing near the exit of this warehouse store, looking and waiting for work.  Not once have I ever seen any of these men holding a sign asking for free handouts or begging shoppers for help; and although these men are uncertain if they will make any money today, their desperation is kept inside.  They stand there waiting and shooting the breeze with amigos surprisingly in an up beat and sometimes humorous manner.  I contemplated, from my safe distance, how they could remain calm and up beat in their distressed situation? Where did these laborers come from and what are their stories? 

    I moved from my safe distance toward these men, accompanied by my husband (who is fluent in Spanish) to learn more about their plight.  As soon as the workers realized we were heading in their direction, they appeared eager and ready (nearly relieved) to make some money.  Although disappointed once they found out we did not have any work for them to do they were still happy to talk with us.  We spoke specifically with two men, but found that over half of them came from the same town in Mexico and are in the United States for the exact same reasons. 

    Both Jacobo and Juan are from Chilpancingo, Guerrero and have been in Phoenix for a little over a year.  They said there was no work back home and knew the only way to feed their families was to come find work north across the border.  Both of these men knew people from their home town that had come to Arizona and had made enough money to keep food on their family’s table and a roof over their heads, so they had to come and do the same.  By the sight of their rough hands and saw-dusted worn shoes it seemed evident what Jacobo and Juan did for work, but I asked anyways; they said they are generally hired for small construction work or to help people move.  Since they have been in Phoenix, Jacobo and Juan have met up with more Chilpancingo amigos. 

    Similar is this story to the municipio of Aguililla in southwest Michoacán, in which this community has cloned itself in the Silicon Valley suburb of Redwood City, California.  As author Mike Davis puts it in his article, “Magical Urbanism”, these people are dividing themselves into two parts in order to sustain a single heredity. 

The article explains how repatriated migradollars (an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion annually during the 1990s) are a principal resource for rural communities throughout Mexico and Central America (Davis).  The article goes on to state that an economic and culture umbilical cord now permanently connect hundreds of Latin American and Caribbean localities with counterpart urban neighborhoods in the United States…this is not merely metaphor, but involves radical new social and geographical lifelines that have been forged by the cunning of communities and household (Davis).

    Although the workers left Mexico specifically for their own family’s needs, they know the money they send back will also help the community or their neighbors.  Jacobo accounts; “If our neighbors don’t have food to eat one night, then we might have enough for them… some days when we don’t have enough, they’ll feed us.”  These day laborers know many Americans may not want them here but they also know that some Americans need them here for cheap labor.  As news media has depicted for quite some time now, members of the Minuteman Project have been targeting day laborers by staging their protests outside of home improvement stores, but these protesters are equally being matched by supporters of the immigrants.  Salvador Reza -Day Labor Coordinator said, “Day laborers are hard working people. They’re people who want to feed the family. They want to be able to live a decent life” (KPHO).

    Leo Chavez in his article “Covering Immigration; Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation” expresses how most undocumented immigrants come to the United States to work for a short time, earn some money and then return home to develop a business or live more comfortably.  However, Chavez argues that popular national magazines have overwhelmingly used alarmist imagery in reference to Mexican immigration and is therefore manufacturing an anti-Mexican immigration status. 

    Juan believes conditions will better in Mexico someday and they will be able to return to Guerrero and stay.  But for now Jacobo, Juan and so many migrant workers like them must extend their families and their households across the border in order to secure a full livelihood (Davis).

 Chavez, Leo R “Covering Immigration; Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation” 2001 University of California Press

Davis, Mike “Magical Urbanism; Latinos Reinvent the US City” 2000 Verso London NY