Kujo y Colonias
Today we got to see the area outside of LUPE’s grounds. The day began with a guide bringing us to what are called colonias; these are neighborhoods which are set up by illegal residents who do not have means to afford suitable housing. They often lack sanitation development and many other basic necessities that are provided through local governments, due to their illegality. For more information view the wikipedia page on colonias here.
It was really interesting to walk around the colonias and hand out papers on behalf of LUPE in order to increase awareness about the organization and a march that they are planning on having this coming Saturday. It will be a march in memory of Cesar Chavez and they expect to have 800 people involved, followed by a fiesta.I had difficulty with the lack of Spanish that I have, but luckily through the help of five confident Spanish speakers we got the job done. That does not mean I didn’t try out my Spanish all day (much to my dismay when I ordered dinner in Spanish as Plato y Mexicano the waiter responded by saying Mexican plate).
It seems that many people own dogs in the colonias and near LUPE’s camp, but they all appear to just ramble on down the road throughout the day. Many of them appear to be harmless, even with their incessant barking, but the people in our group seem to be afraid that all of the dogs are rabies infested Kujo-type dogs.
There is a debate that exists inside me that is a bit confused about the whole idea of the colonias though. I understand that they are openly accepted as areas where illegal immigrants live, but I am confused as to how/why the border patrol do not invade these areas. Perhaps it’s a legality issue, or perhaps it’s a manpower issue, or perhaps something else. I do know that Texas has the largest amount of colonias in the United States (920 of which reside in Hidalgo County – where LUPE is located). It is all a very interesting situation and I look forward to finding out more. Apparently since they are illegal neighborhoods they do not have garbage collected, so we will somehow be working on cleaning out garbage in the colonias tomorrow.
The weather has warmed up a bit since we have gotten here and this past evening it looked like it was going to rain a terrible storm. No rain ever did come and it makes me wonder how the plants can survive in such dry weather.
Today has once again proved to be an interesting day, traveling around and seeing the disparities between various areas. Extravagantly and economically stable houses are sporadically strewn about in neighborhoods that look to be little above squalor. I certainly look forward to exploring the greater area of San Juan more in the last few days that we have here. We definitely saw an interesting side of the area in the town of McAllen which seems like driving down the street of Anysuburb, USA fit with Buffalo Wild Wings, Fudruckers, and Bennigan’s. We slipped our way into what we hoped would be an authentic Mexican restaurant, but it was nothing compared to the food we have had made by our authentic friends at LUPE. Tomorrow we look for elote, Mexican corn on the cob.
Tags: Bennigan's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cesar Chavez, Fudruckers, Hidalgo County, LUPE, McAllen, San Juan
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