CPTnet
16 June 2005
ARIZONA/SONORA REFLECTION: The power of nonviolent love
by Ross Rhizal
I was one of a Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) delegation of eight that
participated in the migrant walk from May 30 to June 5, 2005. On Friday
afternoon, our delegation held a memorial service for Maria Rodriguez, a
migrant who died in the Arizona desert. I was touched by her life, felt
genuine loss at her death and was deeply moved by the service. Taking time
to memorialize those that die gives us space and time to recognize their
humanity. When we realize that other people share our humanity, our
personal response to life, it becomes harder to hurt them, ignore them or
forget them.
Maybe this woman was moving to a new place to look for work so that she
could support her family and work for a better life. The dream of a better
life is the most common reason migrants travel to the US. I don't really
know this woman's story though, because she was found dead in the desert by
the US Border Patrol. My sorrow at her death is increased by the fact that
her family and those who really know her, those who would have many stories
to tell about who she was in the world, might never know her fate or receive
her body for proper burial. And while I find hope in her courage to brave
the heat and an unfamiliar land, risking death and imprisonment just to find
work, I am further frustrated and saddened by the thought that her voyage
and its difficulty is unnecessarily complicated by the United States'
militaristic and inhumane border and immigration policy.
The purpose for memorial services is similar to that of the Migrant Walk in
which the CPT delegation participated: to honor the lives of those who have
died. As we walk, we also display our solidarity with those attempting to
cross the Mexican/US border and Sonoran Desert while trying to hide from the
Border Patrol. The Migrant Walk also attempts to increase public awareness
of the deaths of migrants (currently more than 3000 since 1995). The deaths
are a recent phenomenon directly caused by recent shifts in border policy
and were anticipated by the US government, which hoped they would act as a
deterrent.
Both the memorial services and Migrant Walk are aimed at disarming the
structural violence by connecting us with the aspects of the migrant
experience and inviting us to take the stories back to our home communities.
The desert terrain evoked a vision of solidarity. Our hopes were inflamed,
our struggle for human rights invigorated. Our journey will not be complete
until all the walls-- those of concrete and those of greed and fear --are
dismantled by the power of nonviolent love.
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