This Was On My Mind

I traveled with my husband last weekend to Texas and one of the days we headed over the border into Progresso, Mexico, for his birthday. It's a nice little town, very quaint and very poor.

There's a 350 mile long fence along the Rio Grande that separates their country from ours, and we observed border patrol all along the way keeping watch. But on this day, with immigration on my mind, I tried to see the visit with a different set of eyes.

We have read about the powerful drug cartels in Mexico and their bold strikes at civilians, police and innocent children. There has been an incredible loss of life. They take what they want, whenever they want it: not unlike the Mafia of the 20s and 30s in Chicago. Vicious. Violent. Arrogant. Unstoppable.

This was on my mind as we parked and walked over the long bridge spanning the Rio Grande. We saw small arms with caps poking through the bridge slats at either end where it met ground, women and children begging for a few coins. Downstream there were people begging and Americans tossing them coins to catch.

This was on my mind as we entered a country under siege. There were soldiers with submachine guns walking the streets and barricaded near the bridge to ensure the civil rights of people going about their daily lives. There has been no eruption of violence here, but they were taking no chances.

We walked through the gauntlet of vendors selling puppets and jewelry, knockoff purses and booze, as army transport vehicles full of soldiers drove up and down the narrow streets. We ate at a nice restaurant there, looking down on the street busy filled with tourists, knowing our money is the lifeblood of this little town.

What was on my mind as we walked up and down the main street was that there are real people with beating hearts behind the immigration issue. I looked into their eyes, smiling and trying to connect. They are hard working, proud and strongly desiring a better life.

   I imagine them waking up in the morning feeling the humidity of the Rio Grande and looking meters across to America, where their friends say there are jobs and less reason to fear. 

   I imagine them looking at their little children knowing they would not need to weave between the visitors legs holding candies to sell for a quarter or two if they were in America.

   I imagine they believe there is a guaranteed better future ... as they look beyond the fence that is just across the Rio Grande.