Border Crossing

11.26.06

I did not take this picture but felt it expresses more than just the frustration of people trying to get in, or out of a country, a state of mind, a relationship. Are they attempting to hold back the tides of illegal immigrants or push down the barrier to a better life?

It took 5 hours to go the last mile from Tijuana to the U.S. Border after a lovely, leisurely drive up the coast again on a glorious sunny day. Nothing to do but wait it out, enjoy some wondeful tacos con carne asada, the best food of the trip, from a road side stand and watch the myriad vendors and beggars whose income depends on us travellers. It was heartbreaking to see kids juggling and doing acrobatics on each other's backs between lanes as we inched along, the blanketed women who look 60 but are probably younger than I, but who am I to know whether their lives are any "worse" than those of us who pretend to be "in control" of our destinies. The saturation of shops, billboards, now animated with digital TV screens, hawkers and vendors introduces us back into the States and with a last squeeze like a labor pain resulting in birth, we are propelled forward at 80 miles an hour.

Noah is filled with questions, after having skateboarded up and down the sidewalk while we waited, about why people want to come to the U.S., why the homeless live in shanties and it's a great opportunity to talk about opportunity, poverty, education, politics. This area of MX is very different from Guanajuato, which he noted, felt just like Prague to him, so he got to see a different side of this country, where horses, chickens and dogs roam along side the cars. As long as he can get a hamburguesa and papitas he's happy, and no longer complains about the missing tech stuff he's used to at home. The kids still love to explore and I remember that age of excitement, the prospect of something new around the corner, even if it's a kitten hidden amongst some trash in an old resort, or a rusty swing or new seashells.