Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

The walls of academe
March 7, 2008

This weekend I’ll be at a piñata down in Brownsville. A birthday party for an adorable kid. It will feature special appearances by such luminaries as Hello Kitty, Spiderman, Barney the Dinosaur, and Scooby Doo. They’ll all be there, in just about the southernmost place in the lower forty-eight. There will be Texans at the party and there will be Mexicans.

The mom of the little cumpleañerita, the birthday girl, is a librarian. Her parents both work at the same university. The Department of Homeland Security wants to erect an 18-foot wall between their two departments there.

You think I’m kidding? Can’t imagine a high wall cutting across the campus of a university? Get a load of the map on this page showing the proposed barrier.

Perhaps you’re not convinced of the educational merits of this ambitious public works project. The president of the University of Texas-Brownsville shares your skepticism. She has denied occupation of the campus by government surveyors and the Army Corps of Engineers, has Dr. Juliet García.

One of the many cleverly conceived strategies of the fence plan is to facilitate arrest of illegal river-crossers by funneling them through the golf team’s practice tee. But the president refuses to put her school’s linksmen & linkswomen in danger.

We’ve written before on this wall. Dr. García is one of many prominent people who have stood up to monkeywrench the megafence. And this weekend’s contest, now, is all about you: what have you, your library, or your store done to tumble down some kind of wall?

It need not be anything huge. We’re just looking for little tales about a barrier of any kind that you have leveled, no matter how minor or insignificant you say it is. Put your story in the comments box below.  You've got till Monday afternoon. The winner gets this handsome plate, of the purest melamine, created by South Texas artist Christina Sosa Noriega. Or you can have a coffee mug if you prefer; same design. These are from her fabulous My Loteria collection. They make exceptional birthday presents.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on March 7, 2008 | Comments (0)