The Border Community Alliance is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to bridging the border and fostering community through education, collaboration and cultural exchange. |
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Dear BCA Friends,
It’s hard to believe that we’re almost two months into 2022 and many of us are already thinking about spring and summer plans!
Here at BCA, we’re also doing lots of planning. We’ve got a full slate of programming on the calendar for the next few months (see Upcoming Events section below). We’ve got two trips to Oaxaca scheduled for this year as well as other trips in the works. And we’re in full swing planning for our 10th Annual BCA “Borderlands Ambassador” Summer Internship Program.
BCA’s “Borderlands Ambassador” Summer Internship is one of our signature and most important programs. Each summer since 2011, we’ve sponsored and hosted 4 to 6 college-age youth from across the country - and the world - to experience and learn about the borderlands region through a six-week intensive experiential learning program.
The impact of this program cannot be understated.
As one of our interns, Andrew, told us: “My experience as an intern for Border Community Alliance was entirely transformative.”
Or as Marty told us: ““My internship with the BCA was one of the most memorable and influential times of my life.“
After implementing our internship program remotely for the past two years due to COVID, we’re thrilled to be doing an in-person program this summer. We’re also adding a 12--15 hour a week service-learning component to the program, so that each intern can work at a Nogales-area non-profit organization. We provide housing and a $1,000 stipend to each intern. We also provide transportation and a host of programming to introduce them to the culture, history, environment - and people - of the borderlands.
We know this is a life-changing experience for our interns and so we’re dedicated to making this program happen.
Our budget for this program is $25,000 and we’re trying to raise these funds by May 1st. Please help us to fund our 10th anniversary “Borderlands Ambassador” program by making a targeted donation here.
You can also help us support this program by joining us at our Breakfast at the Border event on Saturday, March 19 at 9am at the Desert Diamond Casino. All proceeds from this event will go directly towards funding this life-changing program.
Thank you for your continuing generous support of BCA and our mission to bridge the border and create community through education, collaboration, cultural exchange and social investment.
In community,
Celia Bavier
Executive Director
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Fundación Del Empresariado Sonorense A.C.
Update
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40th Anniversary of San Juan Bosco Shelter
Nogales is a border city that receives domestic and international migrants, displaced and deported 24/7.
The San Juan Bosco shelter is a vital non-profit that provides life-saving shelter and sustenance to so many. We’re so grateful for their incredibly dedicated work.
Thank you also to the BCA supporters who gave over $50,000 in 2021 in support of this shelter .
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From the beginning BCA has had a close relationship with FESAC, a Nogales, Sonora-based community foundation. This unique arrangement allows us to provide pass through donations to FESAC and to specific NGO community organizations that BCA/FESAC supports. We strongly stand with FESAC in lifting up local community by changing the narrative from charity to social investment. |
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Feb/March 2022
Upcoming Events
Mark your Calendar for these Events
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February 18, 10am-1pm: Presidio San Agustín del Tucson tour: Presidio San Agustín del Tucson was founded in 1775 by the Spanish military. The fort was located along the banks of the Santa Cruz River across from the Native American village of “Chuk-shon.” This tour will take place at the museum grounds located on the site of the original Presidio and will also include a portion of the “Turquoise Trail”. Lunch at a local restaurant included in the tour price. Fee: $35 members; $40 non-members (Tour is 90 minutes with some walking)
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February 20, 2pm: Tucson showing of the award-winning film, “Pilgrimage to Magdalena”, which documents the annual centuries-old, cross-border pilgrimage to Magdalena, Sonora. Panel discussion follows the film showing. Location: The Loft Cinema, Tucson, AZ. Co-sponsored with the Center for Latin American Studies & The Southwest Center, University of Arizona.
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February 24, 2pm: Economics & the Border: Panel presentations covering a broad overview of U.S.-Mexico economics as they relate to the border, and then focusing on one specific industry, produce. With Cónsul Victor Martinez Jimenez, Mexican Consulate in Nogales,AZ, Consul-General Laura Biedebach, U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora and Jaime Chamberlain, President, Chamberlain Distributing, Nogales, AZ. Location: Community Performance & Art Center (CPAC), Green Valley, AZ Co-sponsored with the Tucson-Mexico Sister Cities Association
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March 3, 2pm: An Update from our FESAC Partner, with Alma Cota de Yanez: Join us for an update on the work of BCA’s Sonoran community foundation partner, Fundación del Empresariado Sonorense, A.C. - FESAC, from their Executive Director. Location: United Methodist Church of Green Valley
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March 4, 10:30am: Tour the Amerind Museum, with museum staff-curated introduction to a self-guided tour of the museum in Dragoon, AZ. The Amerind Museum is a premier museum of Native American art, history, culture and archeology. Bring a picnic lunch to share on the museum grounds after the tour. Fee: $10 members; $15 non-members
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March 7, 8am-4pm: Ranching to Vineyards Tour: In the arid Southwest, ranching has dominated agriculture, with historically large ranches and a vibrant cowboy culture. More recently, vineyards have sprung up and some have done surprisingly well. This tour begins with a visit to the Santa Fe Ranch near Nogales, and an introduction to the challenge of arid ranching by Dean Fish, head cowboy. After a delicious lunch in Patagonia, we head to Sonoita and stop at Sonoita Vineyards, the oldest vineyard in Arizona, where winemaker Lori Reynolds, granddaughter of founder Gordon Dytt, will greet us and offer a glass. Our last stop is Empire Ranch for a private docent tour of this almost 150-year-old enterprise. Fee (includes lunch and snacks): $75 (members); $85 (nonmembers)(Note: Tour participants are responsible for their own transportation)
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March 9: Nogales Cross-Border tour: Visit our partner nonprofit organizations in Nogales, Sonora, lunch & afternoon coffee (all day tour). Fee: $75 members; $95 non-members. (All day tour) (Proof of full COVID vaccination and masking required.)
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March 12: Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Tour-North: Visit Missions Gardens, El Presidio San Agustin, Tucson Courthouse and Barrio Viejo (itinerary subject to change). Fee: $55 members /$65 non-members (All day tour, 9 am- 3 pm). Lunch at a local restaurant included in the tour price.
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March 19, 9am: Breakfast & the Border, with U.S. Consul-General Laura Biedebach and special guests. A Celebration of and Fundraiser for BCA’s Summer 2022 “Borderlands Ambassador” Internship Program. Location: Desert Diamond Casino. Tickets: $50 members; $60 non-members; $500 for a table. All proceeds will fund BCA’s 10th annual internship program in Summer 2022.
A donation of $10 is requested for events, unless a fee is required
as shown on the event registration page.
or call Suzy at (520) 398-3229.
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BCA To Have Booth & Author Signings at
TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
March 12 - 13, 2022
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We at BCA are proud to announce our first-time participation in the Tucson Festival of Books on the Tucson University of Arizona Campus March 12-13, 2022! Our booth will be a sure-fire draw to the more than 125,000 festival visitors expected, with a Mexican theme, information and handouts, members on hand, and 6 author signing events throughout the weekend.
Here are our author signing schedules with the books read by our Borderlands Film and Literature Circle (BLFC): HINT: BRING YOUR OWN BOOKS FOR THEM TO SIGN!
· Saturday, March 12, 10:30 a.m. Francisco “Paco” Cantu, “The Line Becomes a River”
· Saturday , March 12, 12:30 p.m. - Gary Paul Nabhan, “Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities” and “Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System”
· Saturday, March 12, 2:00 p.m. - Todd Miller, “Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Displacement, and Borders” and “Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders”
· Sunday, March 13, 11:00 a.m. - Luis Alberto Urrea: “Hummingbird’s Daughter” and “Into the Beautiful North”
· Sunday, March 13, 12:30 p.m. - Wynne Brown, “The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon’s Life of Science and Art”
· Sunday. March 13, 2:30 p.m. - Lawrence Taylor, Mauve Hickey, “Tales from the Desert Borderlands”
We don’t know our location on the campus yet, but look for the bold letters “Border Community Alliance” on the front entrance to the 10X10 booth. Spaces for volunteer booth attendees are very limited, but if you have a burning desire to represent BCA there, please contact Rita Cantu at rcantu@bordercommunityalliance.org
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BCA is looking for a new, affordable office or meeting space |
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Have a vehicle to rent, lease or loan us for 6 weeks this summer? |
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BCA is looking for a 7 passenger vehicle to transport interns this summer (June 20--July 29). If you have a vehicle you don’t use much and could do without for 6 weeks, please let us know. Contact us at cbavier@bordercommunityalliance.org or (520) 398-3229
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Book Review
by Jerry Haas
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Separated:
Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid
by William D. Lopez.
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The United States-Mexico border now runs through Washtenaw County, Michigan. That’s what it seems like after reading Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid by William D. Lopez. The book is a case study; documenting the impact of an immigration stop on Santiago, his family and the Hispanic neighborhood where he lived. Suspected of trafficking drugs, Santiago’s arrest is followed by a raid on his household, terrifying family and children. No drugs were found, but Santiago was deported anyway. However, the story is about much more than one individual caught without a green card. The story is about the ensuing trauma inflicted on the family and the wider community following Santiago’s arrest and the subsequent ICE raid on his home. (ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security). Detailed by Lopez, now a professor with the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, the images are vivid and hard to forget. Lopez stayed in contact with the family members years after the incident, interviewing them and recording the ways in which the experience affected them. One example of the impact is Santiago’s wife Fernanda stopped producing breast milk for their baby the night of the ICE raid. “Se me fue la leche,” she said, “The milk just left me.” Another example of the impact is the Hispanic neighborhood, which had a close working relationship with the Sheriff’s department, was now shattered. And Hispanics had a difficult time trusting each other for fear of guilt by association.
Lopez is a careful researcher. He interviewed government agents, police and sheriff deputies, volunteers and staff from a local nonprofit, Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights as well as the family members referred to here. He does not sensationalize the story. He does include some of the wider context, for example, what it means for him as an educated, fair-skinned Hispanic to be involved in the interview process. His approach helps me understand in a much more comprehensive way the reality of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) for the individuals and communities affected, which is why I recommend the book. Lopez does not tell us what to do, but it’s clear that wherever one lives in the United States today, you can engage in “border work” right where you are.
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We’re looking to expand our programming,
support our internship program
and keep the lights on.
Help us move forward with our mission
by giving a generous gift today. Thank you!
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Office Hours Vary
Call for appointment
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Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 1863
Tubac, AZ 85646
Physical Address (no mail):
I-19 2221 E. Frontage Rd.
Bldg F201
Tubac, AZ 85646
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