Matamoros, Valle Hermoso, Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Blanca Navidad. These are the cities and community we visited during an overwhelming, insightful, and moving three-day trip along the Texas-Mexico border. It was a privilege to have Martha Ojeda, a worker and community rights activist guide us through our trip of the border cities. Her connections and knowledge allowed us the chance to explore deep inside communities and speak first hand with the workers, migrants, and figures I had previously known only through books and articles.
Each city we visited provided some insight into the current social, economic, and political crises facing the border. Our trip to Valle Hermoso gave us the opportunity to sit in during an organizing meeting of the Key Safety Systems factory workers, a group of determined women and men seeking to hold the U.S. company accountable for the health and safety dangers, inadequate salaries, and unjust intimidation it has shown towards workers. I have attended several organizing meetings before, so I felt familiar with the process of their meeting and the discussion. What really surprised me during that meeting was seeing the strength and determination of the workers. All of the people at the meeting were putting themselves at risk of being fired, of losing what could be the only or at least a significant portion of the income supporting their family. Even when they have so much to lose, they are willing to stand up and make their demands public. As an activist in the US, I have attended several workshops and lectures examining the injustices Mexican workers face in the maquiladoras along the border that have depicted these workers as victims. While it is true that the workers are facing huge obstacles and injustices, it is hard for me to see them as victims. These workers who have suffered so much are standing strong and firm. The same held true in the other cities we visited, especially in the neighborhood of Blanca Navidad, where residents stand determined to gain their right to housing even with the fear of suffering the strike of ongoing police repression.  
            Of all the places we visited, the migrant house touched me in a very personal way. We met so many migrants who had taken the dangerous journey from my home country, Honduras. They are leaving their country for the same reason my parents left – to seek a better life and to give a better life for those family members and loved ones staying in Honduras. They are determined to go to the United States despite the dangers they will be facing from the Border police and the Texas terrain. It pains me to see that they have to go through this, maybe even lose their lives along the way, simply so they can work and gain some money for their families. People should not have through such dangers and suffering when all they want to do is better their lives.
            I’m so glad I finally made the trip down to the border and had to chance to actually speak with the residents of those border towns. The women and men we met have so much courage and many of them were grateful to share their stories with us. We often tend to distance ourselves from the struggles “down South,” but the border, along with all the current human rights and workers struggles being fought out, are really not that far removed from us.