U.S.-Mexico border walk, near San Diego and Tijuana
Source: Alex Jones, via Dan Watman

Even if you support the U.S. border fence with Mexico, you cannot help but feel deeply saddened by the very idea of a wall going up between two close nations whose citizens’ lives and cultures overlap eternally.

A high Stalag-style fence to keep “intruders” out is a disturbing specter between friends Mexico and the U.S. It’s an ugly intrusion and an artificial marker of otherness. Sure it may be in the name of sovereignty, but it comes at the cost of unity.

The concept of a border fence may bring peace to people who don’t have to look at it daily, but even if there’s a reason to build it – to deter criminal networks – it’s still a terrible scar in the faces of those who have to live each and every day with its high presence and the memory of a freer time when there was no fence.

That’s why people who live in San Diego, and people who live in Tijuana are taking their own action. They are organizing long border walks to express solidarity to one another, and to protest the fence. They are spontaneously showing that this fence has consequences. No government agency is encouraging this, it’s pure civil society based on reality on the ground.

They are also organizing cross border ‘abrazos,’ where Mexicans and U.S.-Americans embrace each other across border walls. Again, all spontaneously, and all on their own.

Of course they are revolutionaries.

I can’t think of a sweeter sight in the eyes of the world than to see two divided peoples reaching out to each other to prevent a Berlin-type wall from going up. Hugging each other through bars to express disapproval to permitting any walls at all. Does this happen anywhere else on earth?

You don’t have to be for or against the wall to be moved by this. These acts are good in their own right.

If you have time and live near the border area, feel free to join the abrazo group with this post from the excellent Dan Watman here.

Or see some of his slideshows about the civic action at this link here.