Editor’s Note

• Author: Joyce A. Arditti
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00400.x
• Published date: 01 July 2006
• Date: 01 July 2006

Editor’s Note

A recent trip to the border city of Nogales, Sonora,

provides the context for my introductory comments

for Family Relations’ special issue on Latino Fami-

lies. The trip was coordinated through BorderLinks,

an organization based in Tucson, Arizona, devoted

to immersion education on the U.S./Mexico border.

Walking the dirt streets of a colonia (neighborhood)

with colleagues from the Groves Conference on Mar-

riage and Family, I witnessed the abject poverty of

the region. Together, four of us and our BorderLinks

guide shared a modest lunch with a local family in

their particle board shack and visited area social wel-

fare agencies. One of our stops was ‘‘Grupo Beta,’’

a Mexican government organization that works to

assist migrants who are unsuccessful in their attempts

to cross the border to the United States. In the small

orange building that houses this agency, migrants

receive noodle soup and 25% of the funds toward

a bus ticket in order to return them to their places of

origin. All the clientele on this particular day (approx-

imately 15) were male, some of whom were still chil-

dren, and most of whom were fathers. All were

penniless having already paid the $3,000 – $4,000 to

the guide entrusted to bring them across the border

or perhaps, as four men recounted to us, they were

robbed of their precious funds at the border by

bandidos. Two men emotionally explain in Spanish

while the rest nod in agreement: ‘‘the Border Patrol

treat us like animals, like dirt, like we don’t matter.’’

They elaborate, ‘‘We know we are doing something

wrong but it is not to hurt anyone but to feed our

families. We have nothing to eat (at our homes).’’

After listening to the stories of deported migrants

whose failed border crossing had brought them to this

place, I keenly felt the uncertainty and marginaliza-

tion of the families in this region.

I also bore witness to the human agency and

resilience of the people of the borderlands. People

like Jorge Rau

´l Tapia Moreno, director of Desarrollo

Integral de la Familia (DIF), a government organiza-

tion that provides social services to the economically

challenged population in Nogales, Sonora, works

hard to meet the growing demands placed on his

agency. For example, Sen

˜or Moreno explained that

across the border in Nogales, Arizona (population

35,000), the comparable agency has a budget of 11

million dollars to serve the needy. In sharp contrast,

the DIF budget this past fiscal year in Nogales,

Sonora (population 350,000), was 1 million dollars.

Yet, DIF has 15 programs, some of which are based

solely on volunteer staff, all of which depend on

agency personnel’s resourcefulness, creativity, and

success in securing ‘‘in-kind’’ charitable offerings.

We are told that ‘‘Children’s Day’’—a celebration

for the children served by DIF—is April 30, and

yet, there is no budget for Children’s Day. As I left

the meeting I shook hands with Sen

˜or Moreno and

asked him, ‘‘What can I send DIF for Children’s

Day?’’ He explained it was difficult to send toys

from the United States. He suggests candy, and

then, as I made my way to the door, he adds that

what is really needed are socks and underwear for

the many children in the shelter (almost 350

a day come through) operated by DIF—shelter

children who have been deported by the United

States and who traveled without their parents or

another adult. Some of these children are infants

and toddlers, sent ahead first by anxious parents

with the hope they will make it to ‘‘the other

side’’ to relatives while their parents make the dan-

gerous crossing through the desert independently.

Deported by the Border Patrol, without papers or

identification, it is difficult for DIF to find the

families to which they belong.

Polita Acun

˜a was another example of courage

and resilience in the face of adversity. She is one of

two women from the Alianza Fronteriza de Obreros

(the Alliance of Border Workers) who went door to

door educating working men and women on Mexi-

can labor law. Her goal is that workers in Nogales,

Sonora, will understand their rights and in doing so,

experience better working conditions and fair treat-

ment by their employers. When the closed doors of

the maguiladora industry1disallowed her access to

factory employees, Polita, armed with pamphlets,

1Internationally owned factories, the majority of which are American, along the

Mexican side of the border.

Family Relations, 55 (July 2006), 263–266. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2006 by the National Council on Family Relations.