With so much conflict over borders, you can forget they’re manmade. Karina Moreno has this Perspective.
A few years ago, I sat atop Ryan Mountain in Joshua Tree National Park. All the guidebooks say you can see clear to Mexico from up there, but I remember struggling to find a line. Mexican and American terrain melded together in a beautiful desert bounty of rust and gold.
That view was a stark contrast to a recent experience crossing the southern border for a family quinceñera.
There, the razor wire and 30-foot steel wall don’t let you forget there’s a line.
I have traveled from the Bay to the border all my life. I grew up in Oakland, but the Calexico-Mexicali border was where I spent my childhood summers.