Can you imagine how it would be like to live in a city near the border fence?

Filed in archive Latina Musings on June 28, 2007

A side note about another post from Latina Lista: In Addition to Building the Border Wall, Homeland Security Continues to Build a Wall Between Itself and Border Residents.

I lived in a border city since I was a pre-teen, until I got married. In fact, in two cities at the same time. Let me explain: Santana do Livramento (Brazil) and Rivera (Uruguay) are attached to the other; the border between them is a street.

This may sound strange to you, but for me and the people who live there, it's absolutely normal to go from one country to another, by taking a step. To build a fence in that border would be like the berlin wall. I felt like crying just imagining something like that.

And if you think this has nothing to do with the Mexico-US fence, she has news for you:

If Washington had a clue, or just did their homework or actually made a site visit, they would discover that a fence would actually divide the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville and cut off the international bridge from Brownsville into Matamoros.

Until today, I haven't realized how awful the fence would be to the border communities. Now I know, and I can't avoid to relate it with the Berlin Wall.