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BorderLinks Gives Quality Time on Mexican Frontier
by Mee Vang
Participants in the lunch program at the Casa De Misericordia |
As a senior at Mars Hill College, Bethany Brooks wanted to learn more about Spanish
language and culture. “I wanted the chance to work with Spanish-speaking
people.” BorderLinks gave her the opportunity to experience the culture
as well as explore the political and social issues of Mexican border communities.
Brooks, who graduated in May 2005, now works at the college in the LifeWorks
program. She participated in BorderLinks in spring 2005. She stayed with a Mexican
family in Nogales while she worked on her internship in social work.
Brooks did not have much trouble adjusting to the culture since her family lived
near the border where it was convenient to go to the store. Although her family
provided her with her own room, bathroom and the food she enjoyed, the experience
was exhausting and challenging because of the language barrier. “I know
I wasn’t communicating well with broken English.”
BorderLinks is a non-profit program that offers students the chance to explore
the issues of U.S./Mexico border communities and experience the Spanish-speaking
world first hand. The economic and social issues along the U.S./Mexico border
have been heightened since establishment of the free trade zone in 1965. Many
cities along the border have faced health problems, poverty, and crime.
Mars Hill College is one of 15 colleges across the country that has partnered
with BorderLinks to give students the opportunity to spend a semester learning
about a different culture.
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The
Nogales Arizona/Mexico border
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BorderLinks Academic Coordinator Jerry Gill, former chair of the board of directors,
directs the “Semester on the Border” program. “BorderLinks
has been providing short term delegation opportunities for U.S. church groups
and student groups for about 18 years now,” he said in an interview.
Students spend their first semester in Tucson, where they are housed in a dormitory.
During the semester, says Gill, they will develop a deeper understanding of
the global economy for residents in communities along the border.
“We typically put folks in vans and run them up and down the border, visiting
“maquiladoras.” These are sweat shop assembly plants run by American
companies on the basis of the very cheap labor provided by Mexican people for
about $1.00 per hour.
Gill said, “The semester program was introduced about five years ago to
provide more in-depth, long-term opportunities for college students.”
The other half of the semester is spent on a Mexican campus, Casa de la Misericordia,
where students experience life in Nogales, Sonora. Participants also spend weeks
living with local families where living arrangement may vary: hot water and
running water may not be available.
The last BorderLinks dinner of the trip (click for a larger image) |
The trip is not a relaxing vacation, and it can be physically and emotionally
exhausting. Students are exposed to the hardship and poverty of the border.
A day with BorderLinks consists of meetings, viewpoints, and reflection on issues
with individuals whose lives been directly affected by the border. Groups get
the chance to visit both old and new industrial parks and meet families in Colonia
Las Torres, a squatters’ settlement on the edge of Nogales.
“BorderLinks is important,” said Gill, “because the vast majority
of North Americans know next to nothing and could care less about the U.S./Mexico
border, and this is very bad because it is our border.”
The border area is also one of the most important regions in the world, says
Gill. It is fast becoming an international hot spot. And the general concept
of borders dominates stories in the morning newspaper – who was here first,
who gets to draw the lines.
Brooks says she learned more about the border and economic issues. “I
enjoyed the people I met both personally and professionally.”
Brooks, her Spanish teacher, and her teacher's daughter |
BorderLinks offers 15 semester credits, including five different courses: History
of Mexico, Peace and Justice Studies, Liberation Theology, Culture of the Borderlands,
and Conversational Spanish at the intermediate and advanced levels.
The cost of the program depends on the student financial aid package.
BorderLinks is funded by the fees it charges participants and by donors’
gifts. “We do sometimes receive grants from various organizations,”
Gill said.
The spring semester begins the last week of January and is over in mid-May.
For more information, visit: http://www.borderlinks.org/bl/index.htm
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