Mi Trabajo

For the past week or so I have been getting oriented to my position at Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey.  This church not only holds a powerful presence within the El Paso community, but the larger Lutheran community as well.  It serves as a beacon of hope for the population that it caters to within the neighborhood.  The Cristo Rey community is comprised almost exclusively of first-generation Mexican immigrants and their families, but all are welcome to take advantage of the many services that are provided.  No questions are asked as individuals walk through our doors.  Cristo Rey provides an afterschool program for local children, a health ministry, a border immersion experience for visiting groups, english classes, and anything and everything that the community needs.  The church ministers to individuals from both sides of the border and has various partnerships with social service agencies in both El Paso and Juarez.

My position within the Cristo Rey community officially is director of the Border Immersion Experience.  I am responsible for recruiting groups, planning activities, providing sources for education about the border, and guiding groups through their experience en la frontera.  Although my position with he church is director of the immersion program, I am counted on by the very short-staffed church to do really anything and everything.  I am taking on the task of helping with the afterschool program and teaching a weekly ESL class as well.  In short, I will always have something to do, and when immersion groups come through the church I will be counted on to work 60-80 hour weeks.  Although my daily tasks seem overwelming at this point, the work that I am counted on to do is what I want to be doing.  I enjoy this type of work and know that it is more fullfilling for me than anything else I can be doing.  Through interactions with the community, I am learning more than I could have ever desired to learn in textbooks and college classes.  I am learning about life, about the struggles that millions of individuals face every day, about a population living in the shadows scorned by the racist "pundits" on FOXnews.  I am learning spanish, not from the textbook, but from the true prophets of the border, the individuals that put their lives on the line to ensure the safety and well being of their families.

I am proud to say that I work at Cristo Rey.  Cristo Rey keeps impoverished children off the streets, ensures the health and well-being of thousands of individuals on both sides of the border, and introduces hundreds of individuals across the country to the border region as develop true relationships with the community.  Cristo Rey works not to provide a voice for the voiceless, but as translator for individuals with a loud, clear, and articulate voice that aren't heard because they are speaking another language and ignored by their host country.  It ensures that America continues to be the country built by immigrants, not the country that was built by immigrants.  I am working at a social service agency, disguised as a simple church located in a prime position to minister to those that need it most.  As I continue to become acquanted with the ins and outs of my work I will share.  I plan to write something about the actual fence and border patrol in the coming week. 

The Borderlands

In this past few days or so I have decided to create a blog that will enable me to document my experiences in El Paso.  In case you weren't aware, I will be on the border for the next year of my life, experiencing things quite new to me.  El Paso is a long way from Philadelphia, and the distance is becoming more and more aparent as the days pass.  The void created from chessesteak and soft pretzel withdrawl has been filled by enchiladas and burritos.  I am surrounded by a culture steeped not in any one distinct tradition, but a clear mix of several.  Many people here claim to be proficient in three languages, English, Spanish, and una mezcla "Spanglish".  The border is a place in which people will begin talking to you in one language and switch over to another mid sentence without noticing.  It is a place in which tacquerias and car washes share the same building.  It is a place in which some individuals prosper, while others live in constant fear, stuck in no man's land between no work and absolutely no work.  Border Patrol take on the police's work, while the police take on responsibilites they did not sign up for. They say the new "state of the art" fence here costs 7.7 million dollars a mile to errect, while individuals on both sides of that fence go starving each day.

The El Paso/ Juarez border presents a dichotomy unlike any other  I have ever seen.  I live in a fairly pristine neighborhood, sandwhiched between UTEP and downtown El Paso.  While El Paso is amongst the safest cities in the United States with only one recorded homicide in the current year, I live less than half a mile from Ciudad Juarez, which ranks amongst the most dangerous cities in the world, with over 1200 recorded homicdes this year.  One of the safest places in the area to run is a neighborhood in the hills, littered with mansions owned by some of the leaders of drug cartels competing for turf in Juarez.  While this neighborhood is very pleasant, it overlooks the war raging beyond the fence, the war perpetuated by these notorious celebrities living amongst us.  As the gunshots continue, I cannot help but to feel guilty as I realize why the drug trade is such a profitable business, because of the United States.

As I near the middle of my second week on the border, I realize that I have so much to learn.  While I have attempted to prepare myself for this, I really did not know what I was in store for.  I will write later about my job, as I am just now orienting myself to my daily tasks.