The Devils Highway - Luis Alberto Urrea [95]
Is there a solution to what’s happening along the border?
Of course there’s a solution. There are any number of solutions. That doesn’t mean I know what they are. The New York Times has been doing an incredible job lately of revealing some of the economic realities behind the United States’ semi-secret welcoming of undocumented workers. You could begin by studying their coverage. Clearly, the Mexican government is culpable. Bring them to account. United States corporate bosses are culpable. Border enforcement policy is out of date and unworkable.
It seems evident at this point that the promised benefits of NAFTA have moved on to benefit China and the Indian subcontinent. I could go on with this litany of woes. Everybody knows that there’s trouble on the border.
However, we must look at the thousands of visionary localized efforts on both sides of the border to change the paradigm. I’ve already pointed out in The Devil’s Highway how the Wellton Border Patrol station has erected life-saving towers. Such groups as Tucson’s Humane Borders save lives. Think what you will of the Minutemen, whether they are patriots or racist stooges, they give evidence that Americans are deeply concerned, even if their government doesn’t seem to be. What I wish is that these citizens could learn about the sources of this biblical exodus north. As one Border Patrol agent said to me, “If I had my way, I wouldn’t patrol the border. I’d patrol corporate headquarters of [insert your favorite fast food chain restaurant here].”
The immense flow of remittance money to Mexico from the United States is transforming myriad communities almost overnight. It turns out we have an overwhelmingly generous foreign aid policy to Mexico: it’s just filtered through Burger King. Groups of investment bankers across the U.S. Border are creating micro-economic zones in mainland Mexico. These small, intense investment zones support localized industries in the hopes that they can reach critical mass and begin to network into a new economy. Along with the financial investment into Mexico, you cannot discount the effect of the Americanized Mexican who will vote in Mexican elections and who is now indoctrinated with certain truths that we hold dear. You will see an era, if we play this right, of border perestroika.
The arts are flourishing. Music, film, and literature flow back and forth across the border. Human information flows more than ever. It seems incredible, but there is an Internet café at the site of the Tijuana municipal garbage dump. People who pick the trash have teenagers who can surf the ’net. The era of cell phones, satellite dishes, the Internet is not only affecting the Middle East. Democracy is on a roll south of the border.
Finally, in a small—and I find humorous—way, change is afoot in my old homeland of Baja California. Not only is the vast Fox movie studio south of Tijuana, and Cabo-mania at the far tip of the state, but, in between, Baja is changing into a mecca for American retirees. Certain projections suggest that within the decade, there will be more than one million white North Americans living permanently in Baja California. I suggest that when you have one million American retirees somewhere, it is no longer Mexico, it is Iowa.
Questions and topics for discussion
1. At its heart, The Devil’s Highway is the story of a journey in the hope of starting a better life. Every family in the United States arrived here from somewhere else. What is your family’s story?
2. The Devil’s Highway is the story of the U.S.-Mexico border, but it is also about many other invisible borders. Aside from the physical border itself, what other borders separate