Day 1 along the Arizona-Mexico Border

San Xavier del Bac

San Xavier del Bac

For the next few days, I am co-leading a faculty/staff trip from The University of Scranton to the Arizona-Mexico border in Nogales. We will be here through Thursday. This is my second time in Nogales, after having been a participant on the October 2014 trip. Today, we visited an active mission at San Xavier del Bac and then Mission Tumacácori. These two missions are on the road between Tucson and Nogales. Our first day is mostly travel. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to Atlanta to Tucson and then the drive to Nogales.

Tumacácori

The trip from Tucson to Nogales is beautiful. The sky is a perfect blue; the weather is nice and hot; and the surrounding hills are something infrequently seen in the Northeastern United States. Okay, never.

However, it is painful to realize that just beyond the hills to the west, migrants are risking their lives to make their way north, to escape gang and drug-related violence, reconnect with family, and seek out economic opportunity. More often than not, a combination of all three.

We are going to take a two-to-three hour desert walk on Monday. For a short time, we are going to walk the path of the migrants. It's a powerful experience when one sees the belongings that people left behind as they made their way north. Clothes, shoes, baby blankets. On this trip, the human connection is very important. It's somewhat educational, somewhat service-oriented (Tuesday/Wednesday), but always about the human connection. The trip will take on new meaning, however, after having recently watched La Jaula de Oro (The Golden Dream).