Update from the Border: Why'r they coming?, VOL V

To Those Good Folks With Whom I Like To Exchange Stories, share ideas, and mutually engage in real work, visit and generally keep up to date:

The question that nobody is asking, the question that everyone should
be asking, the question that I haven't answered, the question hanging
over all the border, national and international policy, transport,
trade, economics, immigration, emigration, migration, Mexicans,
Americans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, rich, poor,
middle class...

The question is this: Why are they coming? Border Patrol apprehended
350,000 people last year in the Tucson sector (about 2/3 of AZ) alone.
Probably that many folks made it through. Nobody knows for sure.
220 people have died in the desert this year trying to get through.
And still they come.

We asked our Border Patrol tour guide last Monday whether he ever got
frustrated with the apparent futility of his job. "Do you ever get
frustrated because nobody seems to be doing anything about why people
are coming?" He said, "It used to bother me. But now, I just try not
to let it get to me."

Last weekend, we visited an artist's house in the desert. Every
morning when she takes her dog on a walk, she discovers items dropped,
discarded, lost by the migrants. Back packs, jackets, water jugs,
children's shoes, electrolyte packets, Tylenol, notebooks, love notes,
cloth tortilla napkins, Disney backpacks with the likes of "A Bug's
Life" and "Monster's Inc" displayed in shiny plastic (the straps
pulled up tight to fit an eight-year-old), tooth brushes, diaries,
bibles, blankets, meds, socks, blister first-aid, hats. With all the
items, she creates art pieces. One display I will remember for a long
time.

It was a simple black frame holding sun-bleach photos of a Young
woman, a sweat-stained, white bra, and a half-taken packet of birth
control. The caption told about the story of woman migrants. It said:
Most women are recommended to begin taking birth control several weeks
before their departure for the US because: the chances are they'll get
raped on the way. And, if you don't want to carry the child of your
desert crossing, then...

And, yet they come? Why on earth? What would cause people to come
knowing, anticipating rape? What force drives them north? What would
it take?

~ ~ ~

Last Tuesday, we met with the director of BorderLinks in Mexico: Kiko,
or Francisco. I didn't realize the nickname until yesterday. He was
just "Kiko."

"I hear the same story over and over again," he told us. "They keep
coming from Oaxaca, Chiapas. Everyone is from Chiapas," he
exaggerated. "It's always the same story." He tried to jump forward
to the maquilas (factories) of Nogales. But, we held him back.
"What's the story? You keep mentioning it. What is it?" we asked.

~ ~ ~

The story:

People have been struggling for generations. Some up and some downs.
But enough. Most folks in Mexico were able to live a dignified life.
They were able to feed their kids, especially the farmers. They were
able to grow enough during the growing season to last through the dry
season. On a whole, "The were pretty happy," Kiko described.

As modernity crept in, folks didn't necessarily grind their own corn
and make their own tortillas any more, but it worked out. There were
two major tortilla producers in Mexico, and the tortilla producers
were required to buy the majority of their corn from local producers.
Local. Some could come from broader Mexico. In other words, a small
portion of the corn input could be purchased from Mexican
agri-business, but most had to be bought from small, local,
(Indigenous) farmers. And even less could be purchased from the
international market. The farmers adapted to modernity, sold to the
tortilla producers, and grew dependent on this market.

Then, thing began to change rather dramatically, especially after the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. They lost their
market share to the international market. The tortilla producers were
no longer required to purchase any of their input corn from local
producers. All Mexican farm subsidies were eliminated prior to the
ratification of NAFTA while all the US farm subsidies weren't reduced
at all. (I think this year US farm subsidies amounted to over 30
billion dollars. But, maybe I have my facts wrong.) Cheap corn
flooded the Mexican market. There's an economic word for this: it's
called "Dumping." Selling products in a foreign market below the cost
of production. It's supposedly illegal under global economic
agreements. Not under NAFTA.

"For generations," Kiko told us, "farming communities grew corn, saved
for themselves, and sold a little." Under NAFTA, they had no market.
"They couldn't compete with the big guys." Good ole economic
efficiency. Plus, prior to the ratification of NAFTA, all communally
held land (tribal land), was individualized by national decree.
"Private Property," declare the neo-classical economists, "is best for
everyone."

Speculators moved in, taxes went up. It's a story middle class
Americans are growing to dislike.

With no other option, the farmers put up their land for sale, hoping
the money would be enough for their migration to the United States.

Plus, of course, there are all those who subsisted as mechanics,
plumbers, store clerks, office workers, mule-trainers, all dependent
upon the farm economy as the foundation for their livelihood.

That's the story.

~ ~ ~

Is it a good enough reason? Well. Who's to say? There's probably a
whole lot more to it as there's a whole lot more between the lines of
that story.

Nathan