500th birthday celebration for Cuauhtemoc, last Aztec emperor !

Sunday was Cuauhtemoc's birthday - 500 years+ of resistance and counting. The Aztec Danza Omecoatl, joined by Danzantes from New Mexico, danced and prayed at Lincoln Center Park. The Kalpulli Tlalteca was there in force. Heroine Cecilia Rodríguez, founder of La Mujer Obrera - ¡Presente!, A beautiful day, the Chicano community was present, the Save the Lincoln Center Building Committee, members of the Bowie Alumni Association, alive and well.

On Saturday, a meeting with Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the American Watch at Cristo Rey Iglesia Luterana on Yandell St. Previous meetings had been held at Sacred Heart Church in el segundo. Christ knows neither boundary nor border, and there are many paths to the Word.

Sunday, about 100 people attended a bi-national meeting at the border at Anapra - Catholic priests and nuns on both sides of the border, people from other faith traditions, volunteers from Annunciation House and Casa Vides.

And a whole bunch of Border Patrol Trucks, paddy wagons, BP agents on horseback and bicycles, undercover infiltrators which were quickly spotted and outed, and, of course, the helicopter. And doubtless a drone or two, way up, unseen.

We couldn't park near the fence. Indeed, we were told to stay away from the fence - but, as in many other occasions, people reached through the chain link to touch and greet each other - one could feel the glare from the guardians of law and order. 

We marched from the meeting point to the end of the fence, flanked on one side by the fence and on the other by a couple of bp agents. I didn't think it was that far, but my legs nearly betrayed me.

On a little rise near the open border, a bit of street theatre. A man dressed in an Uncle Sam costume traded barbs with a woman dressed as Lady Liberty.

Then Fr. Roy spoke about the evils perpetrated through the training of military people at the School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, where, among other things, south of the border goons have learned the the fine art of torture.  He spoke of the damage done to Mexican society through the Merida Initiative, the Free Trade Agreement, all for the benefit of corporate interests in the United States.

Then he, his young aid, Niko ud-Gama, and a couple of our participants stepped over to the Mexican side to greet the people and children and to chat with a priest and nun who live and work among the poor in Juárez, good friends who shall go unnamed.

The moment they crossed to Mexico, one of the agents went for his cellular phone and obviously spoke to a superior for some minutes.

  Then they returned to our side, a few more words, and we marched back to the point of the beginning

A couple of purple heart Viet Nam Veterans, born in Mexico but who have lived in the U.S. their entire lives, and who are in deportation proceedings allegedly because the American Citizen mother was unaware she had to register them as American citizens born abroad spoke of their ordeal and their feelings at being treated, in the words of one, as "discarded trash."

After a few closing words, the ceremony ended, the crowd broke up and headed for their vehicles. Some of us sayed behind to continue the conversation with Fr. Roy and members of his entourage. When we had nearly cleared the area, a couple of agents grabbed Fr. Roy and Niko, and this happened.

A nun friend said to me, "stupid shits."  Some of us shouted "shame", others held out their right arm in blessing. One paricularly ugly goon stood, grinning, with his hands hitched on either side of his belt.

Pendejos. (Jackasses ! )

They arrested a servant of Christ at the border, they arrested a man of peace.

They proved, once again, that fear drives the stupidly named Department of Homeland Security. 
 
[Jesus B. Ochoa]