John Quinones Standup OC
When the US-Mexican war ended in 1848, the border was drawn...with one exception. In southern Arizona, one last parcel of Mexican land was purchased by the US in 1854. But there were people living on this land...a Native American tribe who now found themselves on both sides of the border.
Once known as the Papago, they call themselves the Tohono O'odham. They found their ancestral lands cut in half by the new border. The area is a rugged land, and for generations, the Tohono O'odham continued to live as though the border didn't exist, crossing freely back and forth. Not many outsiders were attracted to the harsh conditions of this Sonoran desert.
But in the last few years, their lives have changed dramatically. Ironically, the isolation of their lands has become a magnet for two unlikely groups -- undocumented Mexicans trying to get into the US illegally and drug traffickers who are using the region as a convenient crossing point for illegal drugs.
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A PEOPLE DIVIDED
Produced by Hector Gonzalez
Angelo Joaquin
The land that we call the Tohono is the home of the Tohono O’odham or the Desert People. And it stretches from southern Arizona to about 60 miles into Mexico. In fact, when the international line was put down, it pretty much went right through the center of Tohono O’odham land.
Jim Griffith
This border, this stretch of the border, is special because of the presence of the Tohono O’odham. …they have lived here for hundreds of years. They lived here long before the United States and Mexico existed as entities, long before the border was placed through their middle of their country. And in some senses, the border is still immaterial to their way of thinking and the United States and Mexico are not terribly important because they’re O’odham and this is O’odham country.
Angelo Joaquin
One of the greatest challenges we face is to keep the influences of other nations, whether it’s the United States or whether it’s Mexico or whether it’s another form of government from completing wiping out the culture.
NARRATION
For Angelo Joaquin Jr., the influences of both Mexico and the United States make the preservation of Tohono O’odham culture increasingly difficult. If the culture is to survive… it will be up to people like Angelo and others who are willing to share their knowledge with younger generations of Tohono O’odham.
Angelo Joaquin
OK. Who can tell me what this is? It’s a wa:to, but what else is it? It’s a roundhouse. This is the best kind of meeting place is that where that everyone feels an equal. There, there are no real corners in this thing.
Somebody asked me about the creation story earlier. This isn’t the time of year to tell the stories like the creation and some of the others stories because the snakes are still awake. It’s when they go to sleep that you’re able to tell these stories. So in winter, that’s when the story of the creation will be told. It was a four night… (fades)
[SUPER: Waila Festival, Tucson, Arizona]
Band Leader on Stage
Good Evening ladies & gentlemen… (speaks in O’odham) so just get out there and have a good time and enjoy yourself and dance!
NARRATION
Like all peoples… the O’odham have borrowed elements from cultures they have come in contact with as seen in their crafts, food and music.
Jim Griffith
Waila is O’odham dance music. The rhythms are polkas, two-steps, matzurkas,
cumbia, which is a modern Caribbean dance from, originally from Colombia. And
this really is quintessentially border music because the O’odham have taken
things from Mexicanos, from the Texas border, from Anglo-Americans and they
put them together to make something very, very specifically O’odham.
Angelo Joaquin
And so we have O’odham living in Mexico today, probably about 4,000. We live on the second largest Indian reservation in the United States. It’s called the Tohono O’odham Nation. It’s just about forty miles to the west of here. We have about 22,000 tribal members… a lot of people didn’t know anything about O’odham because we had changed our name. Before that we were known as the Papago Tribe of Arizona. We changed our name to Tohono O’odham Nation. We’ve always called ourselves Tohono O’odham which means Desert People.
NARRATION
Frances Manuel lives on the Tohono O’odham reservation in the village of San Pedro. Like many of her people, she has roots on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Frances was raised by her father’s parents on the U.S. side. Her mother, from Sonora, Mexico, died when Frances was an infant. Now in her 80’s Frances is keenly interested in knowing more about her family history.
At a gathering of indigenous people from this border region, Frances meets with members from the neighboring Seri tribe in Mexico. They talk about the importance of maintaining cultural traditions. The Seris ask her to share a song.
Frances goes to visit a cousin she hasn’t seen in many years. He lives on the edge of the Tohono O’odham reservation… just a few yards from the US-Mexico border. She has an old photograph she wants him to look at. He immediately recognizes a man in that photograph…it’s Frances’ grandfather.
Frances has a faint memory of seeing this man in Mexico when she was a child. Every year Frances and her family would make a journey… a pilgrimage to a small town across the border in Mexico… Magdalena, Sonora.
On this early October day, Frances and her family and groups of O’odham from the reservation are once again making their way south across the border into Mexico. It’s the feast of St. Francis. In the past they traveled by horse and wagon… on back roads… a two-day journey. Today, the trip will take just hours.
Linda VO
We’ve got to get out papers for the vehicle and I guess insurance for the pilgrimage to Magdalena that we do every year… so that we can make a smooth transition from here to there.
NARRATION
Linda is Frances Manuel’s Daughter.
Linda
Well, when I, for myself I felt really good when we got near here because I know we’re going to see St. Francis, you know. And that makes me feel very, very good.
NARRATION
Every year, along with the O’odham, thousands of people from this region make the pilgrimage south of the border to Magdalena… Some in cars or trucks… This year, Frances grandson, Joseph, and her son-in-law, Francisco, are among those who walk the sixty miles down this highway from the US-Mexico border.
Francisco
We’re going to Magdalena to the church. It’s my saint day today so Francisco so we’re going to go on that. I got some, I got a new granddaughter and she’s a premature so that’s another reason and then for my mother-in-law, Frances Manuel, she’s going to get an operation the 28th of this month so this is a couple of reasons we’re coming to the San Francisco church, Magdalena, as you say.
Joseph Fedenheim
It may sound a little selfish, but it’s for my sobriety. I have two years in November and I hope to have, one day at a time, so I hope to get more. And that’s why I’m going down. It gives me strength to keep going. And for my family back east. It’s an experience. It's really, really nice.
NARRATION
Magdalena, Sonora, 60 miles south of the border. It’s October 4th… the feast day of St. Francis. Frances, her family and thousands devoted to St. Francis have finally arrived.
Edward Encinas
It gives everybody, it gives everybody a, a good feeling to be here, to be among relatives and friends. And as you can see, everywhere you look there’s O’odham all around and the O’odham, just like the, the Mexicans, have a lot of respect for St. Francis.
Frances Manuel
Can you please help me to see better… that’s all I ask for.
Jim Griffith
The pilgrimage to Magdalena isn’t the only journey of faith that happens in this area from south to north and north to south. A lot of people go to Magdalena, O’odham, Mexicano, Yaquis… as an act of faith. But in a sense, the people who come up here from further south in Mexico and Central America and try to walk across that grueling, punishing desert northwards towards political stability, economic stability, the other things that they’re searching are also making a journey of faith.
NARRATION
In the past, many Tohono O’odham have been able to ignore the US-Mexico Border running through their traditional lands. But that's changing as the Border Patrol and other federal agencies patrol the reservation in record numbers, in pursuit of undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers.
Ron Sanders
We use everything from tracking footprints in the desert to using horses to patrol for people to using motorcycles to high tech, technology such as airplanes.
NARRATION
Recently, in a one-year period along the US-Mexico border, more than one hundred and forty undocumented immigrants died while making their way into the United States. Most of them perished in the heat after running out of water.
Here on the Tohono O’odham reservation, this fence is all that separates the United States from Mexico. For generations, tribal members have freely crossed the border to make their way to their traditional lands in Mexico and returned at informal crossings like this one. But in a recent incident, members of the O’odham Nation were arrested while transporting tribal elders from across the border into the US for medical care… a tribal vehicle was confiscated. In the eyes of the Tohono O’odham government the situation has become critical…
Tribal leaders decide to fly to California to begin talks with other border tribes. They hope to enlist their support for legislation that will facilitate the passage of both tribal members and cultural materials across the border.
David Garcia
What we are intending to do is to submit a bill addressing the passing and repassing of the international border. Hopefully what we’re looking forward to is to meet with the California tribes basically to see what kind of, whether or not they’re also having basically the same problems and if so we’re asking for and looking for support on both sides.
NARRATION
Past efforts to introduce similar bills have failed. Many in Congress are reluctant to vote for legislation that might bring in a new class of immigrants to the United States.
Alexander Ritchie
Our message is, this is not an immigration bill. I think, if everybody can say that, you know, this is not an immigration bill, then that’s our sound bite. The second point is that since it’s not an immigration bill, what is it? Well, it’s an indigenous rights bill, it’s a religious rights bill. It’s fixing 200 years of a mess up. We were never signatories to any of those treaties but we should have been.
Kumeyaay Band Member #1
And the other thing is, it’s an emotional issue. It’s real emotional when you’re talking about your families being separated and, you know, refusing to be heard.
Kumeyaay Band Member #2
And so we see this window of opportunity for our people to come across so we need to get on this bandwagon and we need to start working on it fast.
NARRATION
Back on the reservation in San Pedro, Frances Manuel’s family receives tragic news. Frances’ only son, who has lived away from the reservation for most of his life, has died. Despite living a life far from his land and community… in death, he will once again be reunited with his people.
Priest at Funeral Service
We’ve come together this evening to pray for our brother, Lloyd. To pray for his mother and sisters…
(Participants sing Amazing Grace)
(prayer followed by procession to cemetery)
NARRATION
Over the years, many O’odham have left the reservation, leaving their families and sometimes their traditions behind them. But for the O’odham, culture and heritage are never truly left behind.
Danny Lopez
Remember your, your mom, your parents, wherever you’re at in this world, you young people. Don’t forget your faith and don’t forget that you’re O’odham. You’re always going to come back to your home. Whether you forget about your, your people and you’re out there someplace, you’re always going to come back.
NARRATION
Despite all the challenges to their culture, including an international border that cuts through the heart of their community, the O’odham are determined to survive in the land they have occupied for thousands of years.
Angelo Joaquin
Here in the southwest, or I should say specifically for O’odham, we still live on a portion of our land. Our sacred sites are still here. As Indian people, this is our land. This is where our ancestors have returned to the ground and we stay here, we work it out.
John Quinones Standup OC
The border as metaphor has always been an attractive idea for artists. The border is the edge, the margin, the frontier, the place beyond which reality changes in unforeseen and unconventional ways.
For many people who have never been to the region, the image of south of the border comes from the movies. Today, as Mexico and the US are wrestling as never before with their permanent geographical relationship, artists of all kinds have risen to the task of exploring images of the region.
As they force us to question our perceptions, they provide new interpretations for the ever-changing nature of the relationship between our two countries.
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