by Daniel Montañez, Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University School of Theology
A segment of the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX.
“All too often people speak of the borderline, but not the borderlands.”[1] – Dr. David Carrasco
For Yonathan Moya, life on the borderlands is a perspective he knows all too well. Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) region of Texas, Yonathan leads Border Perspective, an organization that seeks to help equip, educate, and mobilize people of faith through biblical resources and service-learning trips along the US-Mexico border. I had the privilege of joining Border Perspective this past week and learn from the first-hand experiences of the people and places who live along the borderlands.
Our week began meeting with two border patrol agents at a local community center. A common misconception about border control is that their primary task is to detain and deport unauthorized immigrants. In reality, the agents shared that the purpose of border patrol was to deter cartel violence and drug smuggling along the border. However, with the rise of the humanitarian crisis facing migrants and refugees all across the world, the job description of border patrol agents has drastically shifted, resulting in a reactive and often imperfect response in the complex relationship between politics, global migration, and cartel violence. On this visit, I learned that there exists both agents who look down on immigrants as inferior, as well as those who see their job as the best way to provide aid to asylum seekers who are in need of refuge. Such is the complexity of life in the borderlands.
Our team also visited two local non-profits serving migrants at the border: Catholic Charities and Team Brownsville. Another misconception about the migrants arriving to these locations is that they are illegal. In reality, these individuals have been screened and processed at the border. These organizations serve as a place of refuge where they can find temporary housing, food and aid, clothing, and a place to rest. From there, volunteers help individuals purchase their plane or bus tickets so they can travel to their next destination where they will potentially meet a family member or friend and await their court date to plead their case. Without the aid of local community leaders and organizations like Catholic Charities and Team Brownsville, our modern immigration process would simply not function. In many ways, they are the glue that holds our modern immigration system together.
Our team also met with two local pastors who minister to the community of people who live in the borderlands. Pastor Tomas lives in the United States and pastors a church in Mexico. One Sunday morning as he walked across the border to church, he encountered a woman crying because her children had not eaten in two days. The Spirit moved Pastor Tomas to help her, and to mobilize his church to begin serving the needs of those waiting along the border. This resulted in an 8-month long food drive ministry to over 3,000 people daily.[2] Similarly, Pastor Miguel began a church on the US side of the RGV where nearly everyone lives below the poverty line. Through toil and sacrifice, he and his family worked to build a house of worship for the local community. When the Spirit moved his daughter to give the money her parents set aside for her quinceañera so the community could have a place to gather, the people were so moved they too began to provide one another in incredible ways. As faithful Christians respond like the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and the early church community in Acts 2, the Spirit can be witnessed in the testimonios[3] of the US-Mexico borderlands.
In his book, When the Spirit is Your Inheritance: Reflections on Borderlands Pentecostalism, Dr. Jonathan Calvillo observes that in the borderlands, “peoples on the margins on both sides of the border are often left to construct, reconstruct, and resurrect aspects of their humanities that have been lost amid colonial legacies.”[4] As the colonial legacies of politicians and pundits continue to narrate the experience of life at the border, it is the people, places, and faces of those living in the borderlands who bring a truly multidimensional perspective. It is a perspective that has existed among its people for centuries, as cultural belonging and identity transcend the borderline. It is a perspective that is filled with complexity, as communities adapt and acclimate to the changing needs of their region. It is the perspective of a community of the Spirit, who restlessly strive to love God and neighbor, immigrant and non-immigrant alike.
It is a Border Perspective, and one that invites you to “come and see what God is doing at the border.”
For more information about service-learning trips with Border Perspective, visit www.borderperspective.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube for more content like this.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Daniel Montañez was born in Visalia, CA to a Mexican mother and a Puerto Rican father. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Boston University School of Theology in the area of theology, ethics, and philosophy. He is the director of Mygration Christian Conference, and serves as the the director of the Migration Crisis Initiative for the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). Daniel is dedicated to serving his Latino/a community at the intersection of ministry in the Church, the scholarship in the academy, and social engagement in the public square.
Footnotes:
[1] David Carrasco in class lecture notes in “Human Migration and the Mexico-US Borderlands,” Harvard Divinity School, Fall 2015.
[2] See Dolores Cerda, “Notigape - Cortan Luz a Campamento Migrante, Detectan 300 Conexiones,” NotiGAPE, September 8, 2021, https://notigape.com/cortan-luz-a-campamento-migrante-detectan-300-conexiones/239282.
[3] Dr. Jonathan Calvillo defines testimonios as “stories of encounters with God, of revelations from God, of miracles—both mundane and momentous—that remind believers they are not alone.” Jonathan Calvillo, When The Spirit is Your Inheritance: Reflections on Borderlands Pentecostalism, (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2024), 20.
[4] Calvillo, When The Spirit is Your Inheritance, xvi.
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