My first day of work at Coalicion de Derechos Humanos was the most overwhelming first day of work I've ever had. At Derechos Humanos there is no hierarchy which means everyone does everything. On the one hand, this is great because it means a young, inexperienced intern like myself is not relegated to the file cabinet to shuffle papers around. On the other hand, it means I am expected to do all of the things that the others do--and they do A LOT--hence feeling overwhelmed. One shouldn't be fooled by the little, slightly decrepit building that houses Derechos Humanos because this place is a powerhouse for fighting injustice in the Southwest.
As soon as I arrived on site, I was shown around and then plopped in front of a phone with some scraps of paper. My job? Listen to the 30+ messages and take down as much information as possible. This doesn't sound too difficult but it ended up taking a couple hours--mostly because my Spanish is not that great. Most of the messages were in Spanish which meant I had to replay them a zillion times before I understood what they were saying as well as what their phone numbers were. Then, I called each of them back to try to figure out how to help.
I responded to calls about several issues. Some people had relatives who were taken, either while crossing the border or while in the U.S. and they did not know if their loved one was deported back to Mexico or Central America or was being detained in the U.S. or what. I had to acquire as much information about the missing person as possible and then call an attorney. The attorney would look the person up on a database to see where they were being held or if they had been deported and then would call me back with the news. I would then call the family/friend back to report. It was utterly overwhelming when the name of the missing person did not show up in the database. I would have to tell the friend or family member that we don't know where they are. Other calls I responded to were about employers who were abusing workers by not paying them or about people without documents who were sick, pregnant, or had U.S. citizen children and wanted to know how to get health care. Some people just wanted to know what their rights were. Others had friends or family who were arrested and needed immigration attorneys.
By 7:30pm I was exhausted and emotionally drained from these conversations. Almost all of the people I spoke with were undergoing serious, confusing, and frightening experiences--it's hard for me to even imagine it. I can't believe I'll be doing this three times a week for the next few months. And next week, after I receive training, I'll be helping with the Abuse Clinic twice per week. At the clinics, law students and volunteers directly assist people who feel they are being abused--from workplace problems to landlord/tenant issues and housing problems to discrimination issues.
I was surprised at how patient the callers were with my Spanish--I had to constantly ask them to repeat, speak more slowly, or if I didn't understand at all I had to tell them to hold on so I could get someone to help translate for me. Despite feeling nervous and inept a lot of the time, I did have several moments of happiness and feelings of accomplishment which literally made me scream. Such as when I walked a father who didn't have documentation through the steps necessary to acquire and apply for health care for his American-born children. He thanked me profusely. And when a woman needed to find out where her husband had been taken after he was arrested. I was able to give her as much information as we knew. And telling a woman who was afraid to go to the Department of Economic Security (because they are required to report anyone who applies for health care who does not have documents)that she could come to Derechos Humanos and one of us would accompany her to apply for health care for her kids.
Working at Derechos Humanos is very difficult but there is something raw about it. It was the first time so far that I have felt useful--like I am doing what I came here to do, that is, actually help people.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
"Que vas a hacer para ayudarnos?"
Orientation is almost over. I can sum up the last few days as being completely exhausting, incredibly mind boggling, thoroughly enlightening, and just plain fantastic. I feel like I have experienced every emotion possible in such a short time—from feeling overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and really, really sad to the point of crying to feeling genuinely happy, exhilarated, and laughing to tears. It seems like I’ve learned more in the last few days than I have during entire semesters at school. What I’ve learned has been so complex and so unexpected that my mind is constantly reeling, trying to make sense of it all.
The people I’m with are partly what have made my brief time here so far so wonderful. Both the director of the program, Riley, and the assistant director, Brook, are extremely knowledgeable about the border and are constantly pointing out of the van window to tell us about something. They’re also really in tune to how we are each feeling and enjoy hanging out and chatting with us all. The other students fantastic too. I’m surprised at how different our backgrounds are despite our common interest in Latin America. Their names are Berit (my really great friend from LC), Harmony, Mary, Sam, Leif, Mary Jeanne, and Rachel.
I have so much to say about everything I’ve done but for now I’ll just list some of the things we’ve done. We climbed a rocky hill to overlook the desert and watch the sunset, trekked around the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, crossed the border into Nogales, met with artists who put their art up on the wall on the Nogales side, visited El Grupo Beta to talk with migrants who were just deported, talked with women in Colonia Rosario who meet migrants as they get off the deportation buses to provide coffee and burritos, spoke with youth at DIF (Centro para menores repatriados) who were caught either in crossing or in the U.S. and are being sent back to Mexico, walked across the border from Nogales, Sonora to Nogales, U.S.A., and experienced being pulled over by the Border Patrol on the way back to Tucson and seeing the blatant racism of the officers.
I must also add that I am thoroughly enjoying the tamales, burritos, and salsa that are an essential part of my every day. Oh, and it’s nice to be speaking Spanish again, although it will take a while to pick up the border lingo and to feel confident with my Spanish-speaking abilities.
The most valuable but overwhelming experiences for me so far have been speaking with deported migrants. At Grupo Beta we met 20-30 migrants who had just been deported and were waiting to receive or make telephone calls and to either travel back to their homes in Mexico or attempt to cruzar la frontera again to reach their homes in the U.S. I spoke with one young man who had crossed three times and had lived in the U.S. for a total of ten years. He told me he would not try to cross again because walking through the desert was too difficult and scary—the last time he had walked for three days and three nights. Another man had crossed at least six times without a problem and had been living in the U.S. for twelve years. He would not try again either because he claimed that there are just as few jobs on the U.S. side as there are in Mexico. There were also two fourteen-year old kids who were there. They had not tried crossing yet and were waiting for the rain to stop before attempting. They said they would not hire a coyote and didn’t seem to know much at all about the difficulty of trekking through the desert. Almost all of the youth migrants we spoke to at DIF stated that they crossed the border to look for work to help support their families back in Mexico. They said they had spent two days to a week walking through the desert. At least one had been trying to smuggle drugs.
What has been most surprising is the migrants’ openness, especially the adults. They seem so willing to talk to us and to tell us about their experiences with border crossing. I was expecting more resistance. One of the young boys at DIF challenged us by asking how we plan to help the situation. This is something we are all thinking about but, at least for me, is difficult to answer. For now, I am on the border to learn. I don’t think it is very possible to change anything until I understand the complexities of immigration. Meeting with migrants is one way of acquiring this knowledge. But it would seem wrong to me to spend a semester here, listening to these people’s stories, if I were not planning to do something proactive. Few people have the opportunity to witness first hand what immigration is like. I must find a way to make this opportunity meaningful. I have no idea how I will do this but as my interests develop and my knowledge increases I will be more equipped to find a way. For now, I will tell as many people as I can about my experiences on the border so that more of us will be aware of the injustices in our country and the human rights violations that our government supports.
The people I’m with are partly what have made my brief time here so far so wonderful. Both the director of the program, Riley, and the assistant director, Brook, are extremely knowledgeable about the border and are constantly pointing out of the van window to tell us about something. They’re also really in tune to how we are each feeling and enjoy hanging out and chatting with us all. The other students fantastic too. I’m surprised at how different our backgrounds are despite our common interest in Latin America. Their names are Berit (my really great friend from LC), Harmony, Mary, Sam, Leif, Mary Jeanne, and Rachel.
I have so much to say about everything I’ve done but for now I’ll just list some of the things we’ve done. We climbed a rocky hill to overlook the desert and watch the sunset, trekked around the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, crossed the border into Nogales, met with artists who put their art up on the wall on the Nogales side, visited El Grupo Beta to talk with migrants who were just deported, talked with women in Colonia Rosario who meet migrants as they get off the deportation buses to provide coffee and burritos, spoke with youth at DIF (Centro para menores repatriados) who were caught either in crossing or in the U.S. and are being sent back to Mexico, walked across the border from Nogales, Sonora to Nogales, U.S.A., and experienced being pulled over by the Border Patrol on the way back to Tucson and seeing the blatant racism of the officers.
I must also add that I am thoroughly enjoying the tamales, burritos, and salsa that are an essential part of my every day. Oh, and it’s nice to be speaking Spanish again, although it will take a while to pick up the border lingo and to feel confident with my Spanish-speaking abilities.
The most valuable but overwhelming experiences for me so far have been speaking with deported migrants. At Grupo Beta we met 20-30 migrants who had just been deported and were waiting to receive or make telephone calls and to either travel back to their homes in Mexico or attempt to cruzar la frontera again to reach their homes in the U.S. I spoke with one young man who had crossed three times and had lived in the U.S. for a total of ten years. He told me he would not try to cross again because walking through the desert was too difficult and scary—the last time he had walked for three days and three nights. Another man had crossed at least six times without a problem and had been living in the U.S. for twelve years. He would not try again either because he claimed that there are just as few jobs on the U.S. side as there are in Mexico. There were also two fourteen-year old kids who were there. They had not tried crossing yet and were waiting for the rain to stop before attempting. They said they would not hire a coyote and didn’t seem to know much at all about the difficulty of trekking through the desert. Almost all of the youth migrants we spoke to at DIF stated that they crossed the border to look for work to help support their families back in Mexico. They said they had spent two days to a week walking through the desert. At least one had been trying to smuggle drugs.
What has been most surprising is the migrants’ openness, especially the adults. They seem so willing to talk to us and to tell us about their experiences with border crossing. I was expecting more resistance. One of the young boys at DIF challenged us by asking how we plan to help the situation. This is something we are all thinking about but, at least for me, is difficult to answer. For now, I am on the border to learn. I don’t think it is very possible to change anything until I understand the complexities of immigration. Meeting with migrants is one way of acquiring this knowledge. But it would seem wrong to me to spend a semester here, listening to these people’s stories, if I were not planning to do something proactive. Few people have the opportunity to witness first hand what immigration is like. I must find a way to make this opportunity meaningful. I have no idea how I will do this but as my interests develop and my knowledge increases I will be more equipped to find a way. For now, I will tell as many people as I can about my experiences on the border so that more of us will be aware of the injustices in our country and the human rights violations that our government supports.
Orientation Photos
Our last night together...epic jam session.
We all got bikes! Berit and I fail at looking hardcore with our chain locks.
Art on the border wall on the Nogales, Sonora side.
My Address
I'd love to get mail from you all. My address here in Tucson is:
Jessica Himelfarb
Earlham College Border Studies Program
738 N. 5th Ave., Suite 205
Tucson, AZ 85705
Jessica Himelfarb
Earlham College Border Studies Program
738 N. 5th Ave., Suite 205
Tucson, AZ 85705
The Program
As many of you probably already know, I’m off to study the borderlands. This blog will chronicle my life over the next four months.
As a student of the Border Studies Program I will examine the current political and economic climate of the borderlands and hopefully gain an understanding of past and current models that are being implemented in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands as well as along other borders throughout the world. The program is based out of the southern Arizona borderlands city of Tucson. Tucson is a great location for a program focused on immigration because it hosts an array of organizations involved in everything from human rights and civil liberties to the environmental impact of the militarization of the border.
There are four components to the program.
1) Academic:
We will be taking four classes. The Roots and Routes of Migration course involves both a Tucson-based study of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and a study of immigration issues in Guatemala and southern Mexico. In this course we will be meeting people who are involved in immigration and hopefully they can help to answer questions as to why migration occurs, the problems it entails, and what solutions communities are coming up with. The second class is Research Methodology. In it we will learn all about oral history and ethnographic interviewing techniques which will aid us in conducting our independent research projects. Our third class is our Independent Research Project. We each design a research project that focuses on a topic of our choice, though it obviously must relate to immigration. The last class is called Identity, Privilege, & Social Change and is designed for us to discuss issues such as privilege, power, identity, sexuality, gender, etc and to help us understand the local, regional, and transnational contexts of our social change work.
2) Travel:
We will be going on several excursions throughout the semester. The first is a day trip to Nogales, Sonora which is a common crossing point into the U.S. for migrants. Originally we were scheduled to spend more than one day there but recent violence and increasing civilian deaths have shortened our stay. We will be staying away from public places and will only stop at specific locations. On another trip we will travel to Altar, Sonora where migrants from throughout Mexico as well as Central America pass through, often times hiring a coyote to navigate the desert from here to a point across the border. Our longest excursion is about a month of travel through both Mexico and Guatemala. We will be visiting Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guatemala City, and Xela as well as some other towns along the way. Our last organized excursion is a short 2-3 day trip to a point along the border that is yet to be decided. The location will depend on our desires as well as the safety level.
3) Field Study:
We will each complete 100+ hours of work at an organization in Tucson. I will be working with La Coalicion de Derechos Humanos which is an organization that focuses on human rights issues. I will be helping them with labor abuse cases (I am both excited and nervous!). More to come when I start on Monday.
4) Home stay
We are each living with a different host family in Tucson. My mother’s name is Isa and my father is Sergio. Isa works at a domestic violence center and sells clothes. Sergio drives a cement truck and drives to the coast to pick up fresh shrimp which he sells in the interior. I have three sisters—the oldest is 17 and her name happens to be Jessica. And they have a small poodle named Gucci. I am super excited to meet them.
As a student of the Border Studies Program I will examine the current political and economic climate of the borderlands and hopefully gain an understanding of past and current models that are being implemented in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands as well as along other borders throughout the world. The program is based out of the southern Arizona borderlands city of Tucson. Tucson is a great location for a program focused on immigration because it hosts an array of organizations involved in everything from human rights and civil liberties to the environmental impact of the militarization of the border.
There are four components to the program.
1) Academic:
We will be taking four classes. The Roots and Routes of Migration course involves both a Tucson-based study of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and a study of immigration issues in Guatemala and southern Mexico. In this course we will be meeting people who are involved in immigration and hopefully they can help to answer questions as to why migration occurs, the problems it entails, and what solutions communities are coming up with. The second class is Research Methodology. In it we will learn all about oral history and ethnographic interviewing techniques which will aid us in conducting our independent research projects. Our third class is our Independent Research Project. We each design a research project that focuses on a topic of our choice, though it obviously must relate to immigration. The last class is called Identity, Privilege, & Social Change and is designed for us to discuss issues such as privilege, power, identity, sexuality, gender, etc and to help us understand the local, regional, and transnational contexts of our social change work.
2) Travel:
We will be going on several excursions throughout the semester. The first is a day trip to Nogales, Sonora which is a common crossing point into the U.S. for migrants. Originally we were scheduled to spend more than one day there but recent violence and increasing civilian deaths have shortened our stay. We will be staying away from public places and will only stop at specific locations. On another trip we will travel to Altar, Sonora where migrants from throughout Mexico as well as Central America pass through, often times hiring a coyote to navigate the desert from here to a point across the border. Our longest excursion is about a month of travel through both Mexico and Guatemala. We will be visiting Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guatemala City, and Xela as well as some other towns along the way. Our last organized excursion is a short 2-3 day trip to a point along the border that is yet to be decided. The location will depend on our desires as well as the safety level.
3) Field Study:
We will each complete 100+ hours of work at an organization in Tucson. I will be working with La Coalicion de Derechos Humanos which is an organization that focuses on human rights issues. I will be helping them with labor abuse cases (I am both excited and nervous!). More to come when I start on Monday.
4) Home stay
We are each living with a different host family in Tucson. My mother’s name is Isa and my father is Sergio. Isa works at a domestic violence center and sells clothes. Sergio drives a cement truck and drives to the coast to pick up fresh shrimp which he sells in the interior. I have three sisters—the oldest is 17 and her name happens to be Jessica. And they have a small poodle named Gucci. I am super excited to meet them.
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