NO BORDER WALL EVENTS

State Representative Kino Flores speaking at the La Lomita NO BORDER WALL Festival – photo courtesy Scott Nicol

NO BORDER WALL announces a series of community events along the Lower Rio Grande to show we are united against a border wall!

Join us as we bring our message down the Rio Grande from Roma, Texas to the mouth of the river, Boca Chica.

Upcoming Events:

Brownsville No Border Wall Pachanga in the Park

September 29, 2007 at 5 pm

Dean Porter Park

Brownsville , Texas

This festive, family event will highlight the culture and community spirit of Brownsville. Participants hope to show the nation just what is at risk if a wall is built through the city of Brownsville and along the rest of the border. Bishop Raymundo J. Peña of the Diocese of Brownsville will be the keynote speaker. Community leaders, including state representatives Eddie Lucio III and Juan Escobar, will voice the concerns of their constituents, and local experts will discuss the negative impact a wall could have on our communities, historical landmarks, farms, and natural areas. While the children fly specially-made kites and smash a wall-shaped piñata, adults can listen and dance to live South Texas music into the evening.

Building a border wall along the Rio Grande will cut a wide swath through the city of Brownsville. Maps to date have shown the proposed wall following the flood control levee that runs through the city, rather than the river itself. Parts of the downtown area, with its rich history and charming old buildings, are at risk for demolition because they lie so close to this levee. The University of Texas at Brownsville’s International Technology, Education and Commerce Campus could be cut off entirely by the wall, since it lies to the south of the levee. A border wall could also threaten the close economic and social ties between Brownsville and its sister city Matamoros. Outside the city, landowners and farmers could lose land and critical access to river water for irrigation. A double-layered wall and Border Patrol road could also cut through nearby natural areas such as the Sabal Palm Audubon Sanctuary and the Nature Conservancy’s Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve. University of Texas at Brownsville Vice President of External Affairs Dr. Tony Zavaleta said, “In my forty odd years of studying the U.S.-Mexico border I have never seen anything suggested by either government that is so wrong headed and destructive to our communities and our people as this border wall.”

To get to Dean Porter Park in Brownsville, exit 6^th Street from Expressway 77/83. Turn right on 6^th and take another right at the first light, Ringgold Street. Turn right again onto Dean Porter Park Street. The park entrance will be on the left. For more information or to volunteer contact noborderwall@yahoo.com.

Art Against the Wall

Ramirez – International Friendship

Art in all mediums related to the Border Wall will be shown from

September 1 – November 1, 2007.

Exhibits will run concurrently at South Texas College’s libraries on the Mid-Valley and Pecan campuses, and in the Main Instruction Building in Rio Grande City.

Receptions are scheduled for September 27 (McAllen Pecan Campus), September 20 (Weslaco Mid-Valley Campus), and Oct. 11 (Starr County Campus).

For more information contact Rachael Brown

(956) 973-7606 or rfbrown@southtexascollege.edu

Past Events:

La Lomita NO BORDER WALL Festival

August 25

Mission, Texas

Procession at the La Lomita NO BORDER WALL Festival – photo courtesy Scott Nicol

Worried about the loss of this important cultural site and the other cultural, environmental, and economic destruction that a wall might cause to their border communities, over 300 people gathered on the grounds of La Lomita Chapel for a La Lomita No Border Wall Festival on August 25. People listened as Texas State Representatives Kino Flores and Aaron Peña spoke out against the border wall. “It would be a scar across our community,” Peña said. Aides for U.S. Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Ruben Hinojosa also relayed each congressman’s opposition to the border wall.

Dr. Sue Sill of the North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Park discussed the fate of the Rio Grande Valley wildlife corridor. Martha Sanchez of La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) encouraged the crowd to take a stand against the border wall because of the terrible message it sends to immigrants. Rey Anzaldua, a local resident and landowner whose family has lived in the area since the time of the Spanish land grants, decried the loss of homes and property that a border wall would surely bring.

Father Roy Snipes, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Mission, lead the crowd in a procession from the chapel onto the levee road. The marchers carried signs and the banners of the organizations represented at the festival, among them Holy Spirit Peace and Justice, Pax Christi, the Sierra Club, Frontera Audubon Society, LUPE, and the Coalition Against Immigrant Repression. They were accompanied by the music of the Our Lady of Guadalupe mariachi band on the way to the nearby Riverside Club and onto a pontoon boat docked on the river’s edge.

The boat, festooned with a “NO BORDER WALL” banner, made a circuit up and down the Rio Grande. Upriver, the boat cruised by riverside homes and campgrounds on the banks. Downriver, the vegetation becomes denser signaling the beginning of a tract of valuable wildlife habitat.

You can read more about the La Lomita NO BORDER WALL Festival on the NO BORDER WALL Blog.

Roma NO BORDER WALL Paddle and Hands-across-the River

July 14

Roma , Texas

Roma , Texas has a long and colorful history and is still a vibrant community. A wall tearing through this city would cause tremendous damage.

In order to highlight the river’s potential for recreation, paddlers put in upriver near the small community of Fronton and paddled the Rio Grande to Roma. When they arrived, they joined others in a courtyard behind the Roma Bluffs World Birding Center for a rally. Mayor Rogelio Ybarra of Roma, addressed the crowd, and he was joined by his Mexican counterpart, the alcalde of Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Tamaulipas and others, including environmentalists and a historian. After the rally, speakers and participants alike marched to the international bridge that connects Roma to its sister city on the Mexican side of the river. We linked our hands in a chain to represent the deep historical, cultural, economic, and familial ties between these two cities which were once apart of the same community.

Read the Associated Press and Reuters news articles about the Roma rally.

Contact: noborderwall@yahoo.com