Pensar: Rethinking Ourselves as Neighbors

As I continue to think about the time I spent at the U.S./México border this past January, I am also searching for new ways to articulate how my experiences and conversations about immigration and the border have affected my way of thinking about these issues that, to some (including myself), are very sensitive and serious matters to be addressed.

I now move into the next part of my blogging series about my border trip: pensar. I've been struggling to write this section because I've been expecting myself to have fully processed the stories I heard and the things I saw and took in during my trip. Then I remembered, we will never be done thinking about borders, movement, migration—the conversations, if anything, have just begun and are far from ending.

Ver: At the Border of Divided Communites, Lives, and Experiences

A few weeks ago I blogged about an upcoming trip to the US/Mexico border. Alas, I have returned from my visit to Tucson, AZ and Nogales, Sonora (México), with a lot on my mind and a lot to still process. The topic of immigration and the borderlands conjures up many emotions for a lot of us, and my experiences of hearing stories in the region has definitely challenged and reaffirmed many of the feelings I went into the trip having. In short, the trip was a very transformative experience. I had some tough and emotional experiences while in México and in the border region; but the experience was also rewarding and inspiring.

Our trip was hosted by an organization called BorderLinks. The BorderLinks' educational philosophy to these type of trips that they hope will incite delegations to forge a path towards dialogue and social change is simple: ver, pensar, y actuar. See, Think, and Act. Which is the way I will present my experiences of visiting the border. In this post, I will focus on what I saw, what I heard, and the type of experiences I took in. In two following posts, I will address my thoughts and what I'm still thinking about; and what I hope to do with the stories I heard and that really hit me hard with a plethora of emotions and feelings.

Border Crosser: Into the Wilderness

In a little less than two weeks I will be joining a group from school to visit the US/Mexico border by way of the Arizona border. Our objective as a study group is to examine the border in a theological perspective (if the task can be done at all). We will be spend a week in the Tucson, Arizona (US) and Nogales, Sonora (MX) areas having conversations with local organizations, churches, and community members. I'm definitely looking forward to blogging about my experiences when I return from my trip.

As I prepare myself logistically for our trip, I'm also spending time preparing myself mentally and spiritually. When I think about borderlands and the idea of borderland theories, liminality, and all that academic jargon, I can't help but wonder if any of it is relevant. Can I expect to put a label on the experiences of border crossers? Why does that space need to be labeled?