Day 6: El Paso Partners

Angie Chen & Sarah Swackhammer

On our final day in El Paso, we woke up early, excited for a full day in the city with Dr. Moya and Dr. Chavez. We left our house at 7:30 to head to UTEP. Once there, we met up with Dr. Moya and Dr. Silvia Chavez, before driving into the outskirts of New Mexico, where the two professors drove us through the colonia of Sunland Park and taught us more about life in these communities. The population of colonias are typically Hispanic and highly uninsured. And while many people see colonias as temporary settlements for recent migrants, we learned that the majority of inhabitants in these areas are well-established, permanent residents or citizens of the US. As we drove past homes and businesses within the community, we were also able to zoom in on issues of water access. Dr. Moya told us that no sewer system existed in the colonia, and that the water used there was unsafe: contaminated with 30 parts arsenic per thousand, when the regulation limit is only 8. Filtration systems that could remove these excess toxins are often very expensive and thus not widely used. As a result, we learned, most residents must use bottled water for everything from drinking and cooking to bathing, which can add up to costs of over $500 a month. We were floored as we confronted the immense struggles faced by many colonia residents as well as their undeniable resilience in face of obstacles.

These eye-opening snapshots of colonia life were only the start of a full day of transformative encounters! After leaving the colonia, we drove back to the El Paso area for our next meetings. Along the way, we stopped at the border wall and continued to ride alongside it as we re-entered the city, looking across and into Juarez. During this time, we learned more from Dr. Moya and Dr. Chavez about the cultural realities of life in a border city: where pedestrian bridges join cities in two different countries, and many people commute between El Paso and Juarez daily for work or school. Although the drive was around 40 minutes, it really flew by as we absorbed all this new information about the community of El Paso and the wall itself. At reflection later, what we had seen at the border was on all of our minds. Especially in today’s political climate, El Paso and Juarez seem to be a very real manifestation of many important issues: from nationalism and the collision of cultures to immigration policy and even economic reform. Being in El Paso and especially seeing the wall itself encouraged us to think more deeply about the things that unite us and that divide us as people and as nations.

After driving for a bit, we arrived at a small one-room building that was the home base and office of Familias Triunfadoras, run by a San Elizario native, Maria Covernali. In our meeting with Maria, she explained the mission of Familias Triunfadoras and recounted the many struggles and triumphs of her 30-plus years of experience of community organizing. We could tell just from her introduction that Maria was very humble, yet extremely passionate about helping the familias (especially the children and the elderly) in the colonia. As the meeting progressed, this only became more clear. In the middle of our meeting, an elderly man knocked on the door. Maria introduced him to us and told us his story. This man lived in a mobile home and, due to city ordinances aimed at getting rid of mobile homes, his electricity had been cut off. Maria explained that she planned to get aerial maps of the colonia and bring them to the electricity company and city government to persuade them to bring back electricity to the mobile homes under the grandfather clause. As the man was leaving, she turned to us and said defiantly, “I will fight for the rights of our elderly.” We were very moved by Maria’s generosity and determination. She never hesitated to stand up to people more formally educated and powerful than her and fight for the health of her community, no matter if it is for only one person. Another story that illustrated the power of Familias Triunfadoras was a water pipe project in which the community came together to bring city water to two colonias. Maria talked the city commissioner into getting $2 million dollars to fund the project. Then, the community mobilized and built the pipes at an astonishingly fast pace -- completing the project in only 2 months. When asked what Maria was most proud of her community for, she told us 1) that people in the colonias work very hard and that 2) more and more youth are graduating high school and seeking opportunities to advance. As we listened to Maria talk, we were struck by the power of both the individual and the community. Maria’s unwavering determination to better her community and the community members’ strong ties to each other showed us that while San Elizario faces many serious issues, its people are strong and resilient.

Next, we were able to see an example of this strength and resiliency when we visited the mobile home of a family in San Elizario. The home belonged to a woman named Rosalinda and her family. Though space was limited, she graciously welcomed us into her home. Rosalinda explained that her home was not connected to any city services (though she was promised it would be in the contract when she bought the land), so they had no running water, electricity, or gas. A small heater was the only source of warmth in the house. Kitchen utilities like the blender were run by energy collected from a few solar panels outside. A cooler was their refrigerator. Drinking and cooking water, stored in gallon jugs, were purchased from their neighbor every 2-3 days. To say we were shocked would be an understatement. As we listened, we empathized with their struggles, imagining how difficult it would be to live like this, to do schoolwork in a home with no electricity to power the lights.

During the entirety of the visit we were all clearly emotional, feeling a complicated and confusing mix of heartbreak, anger, disappointment, and much more. Perhaps the most emotional moment of the visit was when Rosalinda told us to follow our dreams and that her children had dreams that were cut short. Her pain was palpable. She told us that she believed the U.S. to be the country of illusions, as she came here believing she could work towards a better life, only to be stopped by forces beyond her control. However, she does not let her economic circumstances define her. Rosalinda is extremely dignified and wise, telling us that it is impossible to go backward and that she can only go forward. It gave us hope that her dream -- for her children to be educated so that they may have their own lives -- may one day be fulfilled.

After the emotionally intense visit, we sat down to eat lunch at a restaurant recently acquired by Familias Triunfadoras through a donation (Maria plans to use some of the profits to start a fund supporting survivors of domestic violence). Dr. Moya asked us how we felt about the visit. Most of us found it difficult to put into words exactly how we felt, but it was undeniable that we all felt something.

After our lunch with Maria, Dr. Moya, and Dr. Chavez, we headed across the street to Lorenzo G. Alarcon Elementary. Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by counselor Nora Garcia, along with Principal Esquivel and Assistant Principal de Santos. Ms. Garcia gave us a quick tour of the campus, and we saw how it had grown from San Elizario’s first one-room schoolhouse to a multi-building elementary school complex. Once we got to the first grade hall, we all broke up into groups of two to read picture books to the students. Once we had finished, we got to talk to the students for a few minutes, showing them where Rice was on a map and asking them about their hopes and dreams for the future. Although we couldn’t stay for long, we were so inspired by the intelligence the students showed and the sense of community we immediately observed among them. Before we left, we were unexpectedly welcomed in to Alarcon’s ‘neon dance,’ a glow-stick-filled dance party in honor of the impending start of spring break. Along with a crowd of students, we did the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha Cha slide; it was a lot of fun to put all of our heavy emotions to the side momentarily and have a good time with the students. As we prepared to leave, Ms. Garcia thanked us for volunteering our time with the kids; she was so genuinely appreciative of our presence, even though we were there for just a short time. She emphasized to us the importance of us giving her students a better look at the world outside of the El Paso area: especially because for many of them, life didn’t extend beyond the Walmart or the corner store across the street. Concluding our visit, the school gave us a huge platter of cookies to show their gratitude; we were all so humbled by their genuine generosity and passion. Seeing the dedication and empathy of Alarcon’s teachers and staff during this visit was truly inspiring. Further, the experience pushed us all to confront just how much privilege we had been granted in our own education. For many of us, going to college was always a given: but for many of these students, it is the ultimate dream, and sometimes out of reach due to external circumstance. Although this made us sad to consider, this experience also left us with a lot of hope. When asking the students what they wanted to do with their lives, they answered with doctor, teacher, lawyer, and more. They had such bright visions of their futures, and we all saw the intelligence and potential in them to achieve those goals, even with the obstacles standing in their way.

With our spirits uplifted, we made our way into El Paso to the Opportunity Center for the Homeless. There, we met with the Center’s board member John and Amy, a social worker who runs the family-specific programs of the Center. We were surprised to learn that, unlike many other cities, neither the El Paso city or county governments provide any funds to the Center. Instead, most of their support comes from El Pasoans themselves, who are as John described, may not be rich but are very generous. Amy echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the strength of the community. Another unique aspect of the Center is that many of its programs are run by students, giving them a unique and valuable learning experience. We also asked about the Center’s greatest successes. Both John and Amy told us that it’s the small things that are their greatest successes, like a young parent getting their first job or families coming together to create vision boards for their futures. Before we left, we were able to walk through the luggage room where people stored their life’s belongings, and the men’s and women’s centers to get a better feel of the Center. Overall, we were very impressed by the services that the Opportunity Center offers to its homeless and the El Paso community and inspired by those that have dedicated their lives to help others.

At 4 pm, we finished our meetings for the day as we headed over to the El Paso Children’s Hospital to meet with Dr. Bert Johansson and learn more about children’s health in El Paso. As we walked through the clean, modern hospital, Dr. Johansson explained the miraculous history of the building; despite being located in one of America’s poorest counties, voters passed a tax measure to raise the money needed to construct it. He also taught us more about the internationality of El Paso and the issues being faced by this community. As we looked out a hospital window, once again gazing upon the border wall and into Mexico, he told us that the people of El Paso have more in common with the people of Juarez than the people of Houston. He also told us the powerful story of a Honduran woman who had walked many miles to America, carrying her young girl, just so her child could receive the heart surgery she needed to survive. We were all so moved by his retelling of this mother’s journey. Just as the visit to Rosalinda’s home had awed and humbled us, this story truly demonstrated the strength and resilience of many people living in or entering El Paso. Continuing the tour, he explained how water-related issues that we have learned about are present in El Paso and Juarez, and how they affect health. We learned that water in Juarez is often contaminated by heavy metal and uranium from the industrial plants of El Paso, while algae, phosphates, and nitrates have infiltrated El Paso aquifers that have been used for farming. He also brought up fracking, which uses massive amounts of water and pollutes all water it returns. All of these issues, he said, can play into devastating health problems for children and families. Dr. Johansson’s passion for his work was evident in everything he said and did: from these impassioned initial remarks to the ways in which he personally greeted most every person we passed during our tour. We were all inspired by his genuine empathy for his patients and his community, and what we learned from him about water-related health issues was truly eye-opening.

That night, we sat down to reflect on this incredibly emotional and informational day. This discussion lasted two hours, during which we were able to sort out the complex emotions we felt and synthesize all that we learned in the context of our entire trip. We were all changed by what we saw and will remember the lessons we learned for the rest of our lives.