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Story | Jon Dieringer
Each spring, the Late Night Christian Fellowship, a campus ministry, embarks on a trip down to the U.S.-Mexican border. In this, the Border Awareness Experience, members experience the reality of the social issues there: immigration, border patrol and maquiladoras.
Rosemary Reilman has been on this trip twice—once in 2002 and as a co-leader in 2004. This spring, she will return to lead Late Night’s fifth trip.
Reilman, a senior photojournalism major, spoke to The Burr about her experiences with the men, women and children whose lives she touched and who, in turn, touched hers. This is her story:
In Mexico, the cities are all right. It’s pretty much the same; you probably wouldn’t even know you crossed over. But we did stay in a colonial, which is like a poor suburb of the city. Back there, there were no paved streets, and the houses were pretty much pieces of whatever people could find and put together. There are dogs running around everywhere, and cats, too.
A lot of groups go down for mission trips to help the people that live in these impoverished communities. It’s funny because this trip is like a reverse mission trip: We go down there, and they are the ones that teach us.
We stayed in these Catholic worker houses, and they basically are hospitality houses. There are three houses: two on the U.S. side and one in Juarez (Casa Peregrina). The one in Juarez is for battered women and women and children who have no place to go. One in the U.S. (Casa Vides) is for people who are in the process of getting documents or visas or can only collect social security from a spouse who has died, and they have to live in the U.S. for a month out of the year or so to collect benefits. The other is called Annunciation House, and that’s for people who don’t have anywhere to go because they either don’t have documents or don’t know what’s going on.
The last time I went there was this guy named Ramos who traveled from El Salvador all the way to here in like three months or something, and it was mostly by foot and train. He was beat up by gangs, and his money was stolen. The faith that he had in God was the only thing he had because literally all he owned were the clothes he had on his body. It was just really inspiring to listen to him. Ramos said once, “All I had was God, and that’s all I needed to trust, because that’s all I had.” Even his family had been taken from him.
Before, there was a little kid named Diego. I didn’t know any Spanish, so I could not really communicate with him, but it was just cool to hang out with him. He tried to teach me how to spell in Spanish. He didn’t understand English, but we’d just play.
It’s sort of sad to see the effects of American companies on the border. Workers are paid very little. They’re part of this big problem—they’re part of the problem of poverty there.
I think this trip helps me to see how I can care for my Mexican neighbors and realize that how I live here in Ohio can and does affect the people of Juarez. That, I think, is what the trip is all about: seeing what’s going on and talking about why it’s like this.