Nogales

When I found out that we were going to Nogales as a class, I didn’t know what to expect. The only thing I knew about Nogales was what I had heard, that it was a little border town that wasn’t too pretty and quite dirty. In some ways of looking at it, the people that told me that were somewhat right, but actually looking further in and not just seeing the outside, Nogales has a few impressive parts to it.

What impressed me the most was the way people live in Nogales. I honestly don’t know how people live and survive making around thirty dollars a week. At the house where we had lunch, Katrina, the lady that fed us, said that she also had to work to have enough to take care of her kids. Both her and her husband worked at a maquiladora. I didn’t want to believe her when she said that her and her husband only made that little money. I couldn’t understand how they would have enough to pay for everything. “I work three and a half hours to buy a gallon of milk. My diet was a few potatoes, six eggs, a kilo each of tortillas and beans, Torres.” I got this quote from the article “We Are Not Machines”. It is very similar to the people from Nogales. Having the discussion that we had and going to a store and taking prices made me understand how much of a sacrifice these people have to do in order to survive.

           

            Another thing that impressed me about Nogales was how determined the people are about crossing to the United States.

            We were at Grupo Beta talking to a few people that were getting ready to cross to the United States and they said that they had no money but still were very determined that they were going to make it to Florida to reunite with their family that they hadn’t seen in many years. They were talking about how they had just been caught the night before by the border patrol and one on the people that they were traveling with had been physically beaten by the border patrol officers. They were very worried about him because they didn’t know where he was. In an article that Jose Palafox wrote, “Arizona Ranchers Hunt Mexicans”, he talks about how ranchers are taking no mercy on illegal immigration that cross through their property because the people are trespassing into their land, they are leaving their trash on the ranchers land, and they are vandalizing the fences and other property of the ranchers. The ranchers say that they are tired of this problem and are going to do something about it. “What has brought media attention to the Barretts is that they have publicly bragged about the thousands of immigrants that they have caught, sometimes at gunpoint, Palafox.” What this means is that the ranchers are out with guns rounding up illegal immigrants like cattle and reporting them to border patrol. This is getting tougher and riskier for people in Mexico trying to cross into the United States using the desert route. They not only have to worry about not having food and water and looking out for the border patrol, they also have to dodge bullets by angry ranchers that own the land they are walking on. The people are very aware of all that can happen to them as they take the risky walk through the desert in search of a better life. But nothing seems to stop them because many get caught and deported back to their home land and they rest up a night and are ready to make another run the next day. I guess a man can be physically and mentally beat up, but if he has the will and determination to succeed with his mission, no matter how many times he fails, he will eventually accomplish his goal.