Journey For Justice Dec 13th, Day 13 Nogales: Walking Tour

We stayed at the Quality Inn International Hotel on Grand Ave in Nogales - rather I stayed in the parking lot and Marina bunked in with other caravners as it was 27 degrees last night and she is more suspectible to the cold than I am.

This hotel is under new owners but it has always been the gathering site of the SOAWatch and Puente actions to bring awareness of what is happening here on the border. First of all, the largest immigrant detention center in Arizona is less than 3 hours north. I'm betting from Eloy to Florence there are several prisons taking over square miles of that part of Arizona. It's horrific.

The other first of all are all the awesome, committed volunteers and organizations that are working tirelessly to assist human survival in these harsh, cruel, mean policed and militarized areas. And those incredible determined and brave individuals who were able to secure asylum - and even those who were imprisoned - who are willing to return or stay to try to share their stories and try to help others.

We are joined this morning by a womon volunteer who takes us on a walking tour of Nogales, Mexico.

Our first stop, as we trudge along the Mexico side of our 'wall', is an elementary school that faces the wall so the children see steel beams & barbed wire daily. Yet the beautiful murals on their walls along with the fierce defiance painted on the border wall contrast brilliantly and hopefully.