Bruce Jensen

Sort of barbaric and ancient

The public radio station here doesn’t do local news, so it was a welcome surprise yesterday to hear a long NPR story about the malevolent drive to build the Great Wall of Mexico here along the Rio Grande.

Those golfers I mentioned a couple weeks ago are at the center of this report. They’re the ones at the University of Texas-Brownsville whose fairways might be walled off from the rest of their campus. The Border Patrol hopes to channel northbound travelers toward the practice tee. Unless the #1 woman golfer in the world, Lorena Ochoa, decides to exit her native Mexico that way, this won’t be such a good fit.

Most border crossers aren’t looking to spend time on the golf course when they come here, aside from possibly mowing grass and maintaining sprinkler systems--just ask NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Mayor Mike favors the wall, by the way, albeit from a safe distance. Not so UTB golfer April Martinez who might have to loft wedge shots over it some day. She told NPR that stopping illegal immigration is worth doing, "but not with a fence. That seems sort of barbaric and ancient."

The operator of the course is equally unenthused about Homeland Security’s big project. He recently spent nearly a million dollars on improvements. A married couple also featured in the story has something to lose, too. Their home of 30 years is near the river:

The couple no longer [does migrant agricultural work]. They live off a small pension and the sale of their goats.

Last December, a U.S. Border Patrol agent asked Muñiz to sign a paper allowing the government to survey his land for the border fence. Muñiz, who doesn't read or write, refused. The government sued. The family sought help from rural legal aid lawyers...

You can find tremendous photographs and reporter Carrie Kahn’s stories right here. Please don’t miss the audio slideshow of the hand-pulled ferry that crosses the river just a few minutes up the road from where your intrepid blogger sits. My typing hands are nowhere near as calloused as those of the guys who pull that chalán all day.

One quibble with this altogether wonderful report is that it’s not "sixty miles to the nearest international bridge," but really about 30. Which is still a pretty long hike in the South Texas sun.

If you want to read a view of the ferry across the Rio Grande through the eyes of a fellow who grew up under that sun, see "Once More to the River" by Erasmo Guerra.  He lives in Mr. Bloomberg's city, now.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on March 25, 2008 | Comments (0)