A BORDER STORY
(Broadcast May 24, 2004 on National Public Radio's All Things Considered)
What's the story?
For this month's News Break, we explore the subject of borders through the eyes of Elena Alvarez Huerta and Viry Martino Ruiz. Elena and Viry live on the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana, Baja California. They share a decided privilege in their industrial, arid border city. They can both live in the United States if they like, but neither of them wants to.
In this story, the border is both a concrete barrier and an imagined space. The story highlights the girls’ voices, as well as conversations, scenes, sounds, and songs that provide a window into the construction of border identities.
The friendship between Elena and Viry is an important subtext of the story, as the girls talk about the borders that exist within Mexico as well: between families who live on congested streets and those dwelling in “privadas,” or gated communities; between those who cross at will into the U.S., and those without such easy access.
Elena and Viry complicate the typical portrayal of the U.S.-Mexico border, with its associations to drug trafficking, illegal crossings, and desert despair. For them, the border is a site for personal and family narratives, and a reason to raise questions
Read this Script!
Listen to this Commentary!
Teach this News Break!
A Border Story
"Both of us CAN go and live in the U.S. but neither of us wants to."
By Elena Alvarez Huerta & Viry Martino Ruiz
Elena Alvarez Huerta and Viry Martino Ruiz live on the Mexican side of one of the busiest border crossings in the in world--Tijuana, Baja California. The city is home to nearly 2 million people. Many of them come from somewhere else, hoping to enter the United States one day. Elena and Viry are in a coveted position--both girls can cross the border whenever they like.
VIRY
Well, Hi! I’m Viridiana Martino Ruiz. I’m 17 years old and I’m from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.
ELENA
My name is Elena Alvarez Huerta. I was born in LA in the United States, but I’ve been living all my life here in Tijuana.
VIRY
That’s the sound of the revolving door between the U.S. and Mexico.
ELENA
Because we’re young and we’re living here on the border, we have access to a lot of things- including a lot of English. So we can tell our story without a translation. We also have more freedom to cross La Linea than most people in this city.
VIRY
Because I DO have that famous green card.
ELENA
And I have a U.S. Passport.
Here on the border, we use some words you should probably know so you can understand our story better.
VIRY
When we say HERE we are meaning Mexico and when we use the word THERE, we are meaning the U.S.
ELENA
The place where a lot of people in Tijuana would like to visit, but can’t, because they don’t have their visa.
VIRY
Or that FAMOUS green card.
ELENA
There’s also these other two words we also use: Gringo - you know what that means, and La Migra, the border patrol.
BORDER GUARD (on tape)
Just need you to go in for a random inspection. Come right in the middle there. It’s a computer generated inspection.
VIRY
The things that separate us from the U.S. are kinda like concrete walls, barbed wire, and also La Migra. But there are borders inside Mexico, too. A lot of really poor people live in Tijuana. And also a lot of really rich people live here. Elena and I fall somewhere in the middle, but we live pretty differently at home. I live at the top of a hill. It’s a gated street - we call them privadas, like a private street. And we have a lot of security and we have a guard. It’s a nice neighborhood.
ELENA
Well, I wouldn’t mind living in a house like yours. Mine, I’m not complaining about the size, I mean, it’s not like a big house, but it’s…Well actually, it is kinda crowded. It’s very little.
Okay, so this is my mom.
MA (on tape)
Maria Felix Huerta.
ELENA
This is what she does for a living - she sells fish tacos.
MA (on tape)
Tengo aqui viviendo en Tijuana 20 anos.
ELENA
My mom is from Jalisco, and she has lived here for 20 years. She gets up at 5 o’clock in the morning everyday to make fish tacos and she doesn’t stop working until 9 pm. We don’t have a lot of money, but we have enough and we’re happy here.
VIRY
So my dad gets up at 5am, too, but the difference is that he works in the U.S. So he earns dollars instead of pesos; which means that me and my family can afford to live in a big house and we have also access to U.S. health insurance.
ELENA
Even with these differences, Viry and I have this big thing in common. Both of us CAN go and live in the U.S. but neither of us wants to. We like it here, and we’re probably going to stay.
O.K. for this last part, you need to know two more words:
VIRY
“Beaner” and ‘Frijolero.” “Beaner” is what ignorant or racist Americans call us Mexicans.
ELENA
And “Frijolero” is us Mexicans making fun of the U.S. citizens who say “Beaner.”
VIRY
This song is by a Mexican punk group called Molotov. It’s called “Frijolero,” and that’s what it says: People from Mexico saying, “We don’t like you, and you are a gringo!” and people from the U.S. saying, ‘Why don’t you go back to where you came from, you beaner!’
ELENA
It’s like, “Don’t call me frijolero, you gringo!”
VIRY
“Well don’t call me gringo you beaner!” Some people really think that way.
ELENA
Of course, those people are not the reason we want to stay here in Tijuana.
Use the script and audio of the commentary in this Newsbreak to inspire students to explore these skills and themes:
Language Arts:
• Explore ideas of “home” and “borders” in contemporary descriptive narratives.
• Dissect media coverage of border issues and create their own in response.
Health:
• Define causes, symptoms, resources and treatment options for PTSD.
• Examine PTSD’s effects from personal to societal.
• Open up discussion on complexity of “asking for help”.
Social Science:
• Examine US immigration policy along US/Mexico border.
• Consider the difference between “voluntary” and “involuntary” migrants and how every American falls on that spectrum.
• Explore the definition and significance of “borders” in a modern, globalized world.
For this month's feature, you will access to these strategies and resources:
1. Ideas and Suggestions for lesson plans
2. Toolbox handouts
3. Synthesized Standards
4. Reporter Bios
5. Resources and further research
6. Youth Radio’s media production techniques
1. IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR LESSON PLANS
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Hearing Home: Something that stands out in Viry and Elena’s story is the use of sound to evoke a sense of place. Their story is an exploration of home. The reporters consider what it means to have access to one place, the United States, but to feel as if they are really from another place, Mexico. They also convey an image of what each of their homes is like within Mexico, with Elena’s scene of her mother preparing tacos as an example of a moment that is composed partially through the sound of fish immersed in bubbling oil. Home is never a simple idea, perhaps especially for those who have multiple homes, or who live away or apart from the place they consider home, or who have been denied a sense of home, or whose home is a space of struggle. Here are some questions for your students to ponder: What does your home sound like? Create a sound portrait of your home. What voices do you hear? What noises? Is it loud or quiet or silent? How does it sound different, depending on the moment? If you had to pick a musical soundtrack to accompany your sense of home, what would it be and why?
Personal Borders: In journal-writing students can explore the following questions: Where are the borders in your life? How do you recognize an invisible border? What’s the biggest border you’ve crossed? What borders do you erect for yourself? What borders have others created for you? What access do you have to the world across “your” border? What do you imagine about life across that border, and how it compares to your own life? How do these borders relate to Viry and Elena’s borders?
*MEDIA LITERACY:
Reading and Writing Borders in the News: Viry and Elena are not the only reporters interested in exploring the border. Nearly everyday, you can find a newspaper story about national borders as they relate to the arts and culture, finance and trade, immigration, foreign policy, war, drugs, the law, and other topics. Click here to link to a recent news story that features Mexico-United States border. If you have access to the web, see if you can find one other article in a newspaper from this year that addresses a national border somewhere in the world, or specifically, “La Linea” between the U.S. and Mexico. Consider how these stories compare to Elena and Viry’s narrative, in terms of:
• Point of view: Through whose perspective do you experience the border?
• Character: Who “speaks” in the story? What position(s) do they occupy in relation to the border?
• Topic and themes: What issues and tensions does each story focus on? What’s missing in each story?
• Assumptions: What is unspoken or “taken for granted” in each story? What assumptions are challenged and how?
• Narrative style: How is each story told?
If You Had the Microphone: Elena and Viry used their own personal experiences to tell this particular border story. Students can use their reflections on this News Break to think about how they might approach the topic differently. As we have seen, a border isn’t necessarily a concrete wall. It can be a metaphor, a line that demarcates separation, and also the possibility of crossing. In this sense, a border story could as easily be set in a tiny rural town, a space of suburban sprawl, an inner city neighborhood, or even a bedroom, apartment building or playground. For students: What questions would you want to raise, in your border story? Who would you interview? What sounds would you gather? How would you put the story together? Describe the most important audience for your story. What would you want your listeners to learn?
SOCIAL SCIENCE:
Border Patrol: Students can research articles that report on some of the technologies and policies the government uses to deter immigrants from entering the country and how governmental agencies (e.g. military) and transnational corporations deal with immigration and immigrant workers. What are the risks of crossing the Mexico/U.S. border? What is a coyote? What are some reasons that Viry and Elena share for not wanting to live in the United States? How do their lives differ from those who are trying to cross the border without documentation?
Understanding Immigration: Dr. John Ogbu, a Nigerian professor from UC Berkeley said that everyone in the United States except Native Americans is an immigrant. According to Ogbu’s explanation, “voluntary immigrants” include people from other countries who came to the United States by choice. “Non-voluntary immigrants” are slaves and refugees who were forced to come to the United States. Journal writing or class discussions can help students think about: Which group characterizes your family’s experience and why? If your family were trying to immigrate to the United States today, do you think you would share the same views as Viry and Elena? Why or why not?
Military: What is the USCIS? What do they require of their citizenship applicants who have served in the military? When does the military offer this special immigration process to non-citizens? What are the potential benefits and costs of joining the military before gaining citizenship to the United States? What do your students think Viry and Elena’s opinion would be on this topic?
Defining Borders: The teacher could create a border in the classroom with different or unequal resources on each side. Each “country” could create a constitution, a flag, and a national anthem. The key is to have some students actively observing the dynamics and interactions between people from each “country”. Questions to process: Is the border protected? How? Why? What are the citizens of each country doing? How do they work together? Did each group have access to everything they needed? If not, how did they handle it? What did they do? How do the reactions of the students compare to Viry and Elena’s Border Story?
National Borders: What does “globalization” mean to your students? Do they feel like borders are more or less important today than they have been in the past? In what ways do new technologies connect students to people and ideas that are geographically far away? In what ways are national borders, and national identities, policed and reinforced? To what extent do they define themselves on the basis of the country where they live?
Use these to help students focus and extend understanding...Coming Soon!
Subject: LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading: Comprehension
Reading: Connections
Reading: Response
Writing: Process
Writing: Product
Language Conventions: Word Choice/Style
Listening & Speaking: Discussion
Media Literacy: Analysis
Media Literacy: Evaluation
Subject: SOCIAL SCIENCE
US Democracy
Economics
Psychology
Subject: HEALTH
Health Promotion & Disease Prevention
Interpersonal Communication
Decision Making & Goal Setting
Practice & Activity
4. Meet the Youth Radio REPORTERS who produced the story:
Viry Martino Ruiz, 18
My name is Viridiana Martino Ruiz, but I like to be called “Viry.” I was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and I’ve lived here all my life. I like to do all kinds of things, well...not all kinds. I don’t like to ride roller coasters for example. I live in the city that has the busiest border crossing in the world, and I have a permanent resident card from the United States (the “green card.”) I am very used to the crossing of this border. I go to the U.S. very often. But I only view the U.S.A. as an opportunity where I can have not a better job, but better earnings, so that I can have a better life (in Tijuana, of course...) I consider this city the best place to live. It has people from all over the country, and that gives it a rich mixture of cultures, and, as my mom says, it’s a young city in the process of growing better every day.
Elena Alvarez Huerta, 18
I was born in Los Angeles, California, but I live in Tijuana with my family. I thank God I just finished high school. I like to think that I’m a very cheerful person, because I try to see the bright side of things. I try to learn from every situation that life throws at me. I’m a U.S. citizen, and now that I’m 18, I’m old enough to apply for dual citizenship and register to vote in the U.S. I just started university at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California in Tijuana. I play the violin (although I’m not good at it), and I used to practice Tae Kwon Do.
5. RESOURCES AND RESEARCH related to the story's themes:
•"Mexican California" gives a brief history about a time when California was a part of Mexico. (California History Collection)
•"The United States and California" describes how Mexico became a part of the United States. (California History Collection)
•"Rich Land, Poor People: Exports vs. Food Security in Mexico" (Rethinking Schools Online)
•"Trade Brings Riches, But Not to Mexico's Poor" (Washington Post 22mar03 NAFTA)
•Life and Death on the Southwest Border(National Geographic Magazine)
"Legal Immigrants will Help Social Security" (Washington Times 17feb05)
•U.S. Department of Labor: Minimum Wage Laws in the United States
•U.S. Department of Homeland Security: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Related YR Stories:
•From India to Afghanistan
•Three Dreams from Haiti
•Roya's Return to Afghanistan
6. MEDIA PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES:
Guides and inspiration for creative media-making projects: conducting interviews, writing commentaries, and producing features.
For many more hands-on resources and behind-the-scenes accounts of youth media production, check out the new book, Drop That Knowledge: Youth Radio Stories. Written by Youth Radio's Research Director and Senior Producer, Elisabeth Soep, and San Francisco State Professor Vivian Chavez, it's being touted by media experts as a "landmark contribution to our understanding of media and youth movements in the US."
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