last october i moved to san miguel de allende after living in los angeles for twenty two years. my partner and i visited here last june. we fell in love with the place and decided to pack up and move on down. so much has happened since then. prior to leaving i started this blog, thinking i would have a public journal of my experience.
well, as you can see, there has been virtually no activity since i got here. there's always some lame excuse for not sitting down and doing what i'm doing now. i could give you a hundred different reasons why and 99 of them would be bullshit. i have to give thanks to my friend john for making me get off my tired ass and do something. he's the one doing the BORDERSTORIES PROJECT. the website hasn't launched yet, but i wanted to take a moment to share with you his last email. i'm so proud of the work he's doing. and if i can do anything to drive traffic to his sight...even my little blog...then i will do whatever i can do.
so here's the latest from john:
I am relieved the site is just about there. It's been really intense trying to shoot, travel and make a website simultaneously. That woman I hired in San Miguel was a real let down and basically took $2000 from our humble budget without returning a single, functioning component. We have essentially built the site from scratch, splitting our time between motel rooms and the back of my van. It's quite an accomplishment given the working conditions, not to mention the fact that we shot, edited and translated 5 stories simultaneously. Now that the site is up, we can shift our focus strictly to content and this has reenergized me. Our next story for example, will make you cry. We went to the "Casa del Migrante" yesterday in Nuevo Laredo. As we sat waiting for it to open its doors, we watched young men accumulate outside the small, run-down building's premises. By the time the doors opened, there were over 40 men eagerly waiting to be let inside. I talked to 5 or 6 of them as they waited in a line, all of them with young and tired faces and learned that the majority of them were from Honduras and had been on the road for 1-2 months. They had hopped trains, watched women be raped and companeros murdered. There hands were dirty, as were the seat of their pants and their shoes. Each one had a different version of the same story to tell. I had to fight to keep myself from breaking down in front of them. They're just boys, in search of a dream that according to them, has turned dark and terrifying since they first decided to leave. And yet, outside this temporary refuge, sparks of hope and youth could still be seen. And God bless the Catholic volunteers that open the doors to these men. They provide them with a bed, 3 telephone calls and a chance to wash their clothes. They also give each person a chance to tell their story in a closed office, where they are alone with only other person who is purposely there to listen. The idea is to try and help restore their dignity before they are returned back onto the streets where the next border crossing awaits them. The casa is just that- a temporary holding ground where each person that arrives at its doors is given a chance to feel like a human being for a day or two. They cannot house or feed them any longer than that because 80 new faces appear each day, all with horrifying shadows under their eyes. Can you imagine? And this is just one of a dozen major border crossing towns.
The volunteers that run this place offer gospel services to those that want to hear, but the purpose of the mission is strictly to try and help restore human dignity before the men and the occasional woman are forced to fend for themselves again. Never in my life I have been so touched by a humanitarian service, let alone one affiliated with the Catholic church.
We are going back to the Casa today and will spend several hours interviewing those that want to go before the camera. Our hope is to have something for our audience to see by the end of the week. In many ways, this feels like just the beginning.
Much love,
JD
now you see why i'm off my ass and online. when faced with challanges like people are going through everyday just to survive, it makes my lame excuses seem even more obscene. i hope you've enjoyed hearing from john, and i promise to keep you, and myself, up to date
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