Gaining ground

At Elizabeth and West Sixth streets, the group of "No Border Wall Walk" protesters paused: after carefully planning their 126-mile walk from Roma, they had arrived in Brownsville's downtown just few minutes early.

With one mile to go and an hour until their arrival at a scheduled rally of dancers, speakers and song at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, they halted the police cars securing their route and stopped at the last of the many churches that had nourished and sheltered them in border towns along the way.

Dressed neatly in a blue button down shirt, John Moore, a teacher at Besteiro Middle School and one of the walk's principal organizers, lay serenely on his stomach in the shade of a palm tree and put his pen to paper. He chose the words he would soon deliver to those gathered on the Jacob Brown Auditorium lawn in the final moments of a trip he'd anticipated for months.

Elizabeth Stephens, a teacher at Rivera High School who had walked the entire distance from Roma along the proposed path of the United States-Mexico border fence, sat with a notebook in her lap, condensing the lessons of the passage into what felt like an impossibly short message.

After a few minutes had passed, the group of about 40 walkers rose to its feet and slowly made their way down Elizabeth Street. Organizer Matthew Webster, a whirling dervish dancing and grinning through the crowd, led rally chants of "we don't need no border wall, we love people one and all" as he jaunted down the street.

The core group of walkers - nine Valley activists from diverse backgrounds - were approaching the end of a momentous journey, re-enacting the non-violent marches of the civil rights era that helped to bring an end to some of the greatest racial atrocities in the United States.

But unlike Martin Luther King's journeys through southern communities unsympathetic to desegregation, the walkers found themselves welcomed by friends and strangers alike.

"People would pick grapefruits from their yard and bring them to us or buy us meals if they could," Webster said. "Maybe they couldn't walk the border, but it was their way of being a part of the walk. Hopefully they will continue to be a part of this."

While the journey created a statement - indeed media outlets from all over the country filmed and photographed nearly ever mile - the organizers say this was just part one.

When Stephens took the mike and delivered the words she'd been laboring over, she asked those gathered to turn to the person beside them and say this:

"Please do what you can to stop this wall. Please do what you can to help me to stop this wall."

Kiel Harell, Matthew Webster, and John Moore, all Teach for America volunteers in the Brownsville Independent School District, initially conceptualized the walk when they learned about Jay Johnson-Castro, the self-proclaimed Border Ambassador. Johnson-Castro decided to walk the border at age 60 when the Secure Fence Act was initially passed.

To date, Johnson-Castro has walked 700 miles along the border.

"This is the world that young people will be inheriting, and I don't want that wall to be a part of it," Johnson-Castro said. "To me, young people have always been the ones who changed the world. It's never been the adults: adults live in the world the way they've created it."

One adult at least, Eloisa Tamez, is making a difference in slowing the construction process. Tamez's family has owned land along the path of the border fence in El Calaboz since 1784.

On March 6, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen ruled that negotiations must take place between landowners like Tamez and the Department of Homeland Security before their land is seized, even though the Declaration of Taking Act permits the federal government to condemn the land.

The battle was hard-won by Tamez and her lawyer Peter Shey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. During the walk, Tamez joined the group to inform other landowners along the border of their rights.

"Most people think that it is just Mexicans and Mexican Americans making a fuss about this wall," Tamez said. "I love that such a diverse group from different parts of the country is doing this. They've come here and gotten to know the people and they want justice."

After Hanen's ruling, the court began scheduling 25 new cases that will begin today.

Though he does not have a claim in court, Moore says the walk has provided a way to channel his opposition into a peaceful demonstration.

"I have had to temper the raw emotion of my anger and control it into something very focused," Moore said. "Anger can be unproductive and undirected. Through a walk we can direct that."

Now that the walk has ended, the organizers are hopeful they have come to a new beginning.

"Everything comes to an end," Moore said. "Now we have skills to take the next step."

Ltillman@brownsvilleherald.com

Gaining ground in border wall protest

By Laura Tillman

The Brownsville Herald

At Elizabeth and West Sixth streets, the group of ‘No Border Wall Walk' protesters paused: after carefully planning their 126-mile walk from Roma, they had arrived in Brownsville's downtown just few minutes early.

With one mile to go and an hour until their due arrival at the rally of dancers, speakers, and song awaiting them at UTB/TSC, they halted the police cars securing their route and stopped at the last of the many churches that had nourished and sheltered them in border towns along the way.

Dressed neatly in a blue button down shirt, John Moore, a teacher at Besteiro Middle School and one of the walk's principle organizers, lay serenely on his stomach in the shade of a palm tree and put his pen to paper. He chose the words he would soon deliver to those gathered on the Jacob Brown Auditorium lawn in the final moments of a trip he'd anticipated for months.

Elizabeth Stephens, a teacher at Rivera High School who had walked the entire length of the proposed path of the United States-Mexico border fence, sat with a notebook in her lap, condensing the lessons of the passage into what felt like an impossibly short message.

After a few minutes had passed, the group of about 40 walkers rose to their feet and slowly made their way down Elizabeth Street. Organizer Matthew Webster, a whirling dervish dancing and grinning through the crowd, lead rally chants of "we don't need no border wall, we love people one and all" as he jaunted down the street.

The core group of walkers - nine Valley activists from diverse backgrounds - were approaching the end of a momentous journey, re-enacting the non-violent marches of the civil rights era that helped to bring an end to some of the greatest racial atrocities in the United States.

But unlike Martin Luther King's journeys through southern communities unsympathetic to desegregation, the walkers found themselves welcomed by friends and strangers alike.

"People would pick grapefruits from their yard and bring them to us or buy us meals if they could," Webster said. "Maybe they couldn't walk the border, but it was their way of being a part of the walk. Hopefully they will continue to be a part of this."

While the journey created a statement - indeed media outlets from all over the country filmed and photographed nearly ever mile - the organizers say this was just part one.

When Stephens took the mike and delivered the words she'd been laboring over, she asked those gathered to turn to the person beside them and say this,

"Please do what you can to stop this wall. Please do what you can to help me to stop this wall."

Kiel Harell, Matthew Webster, and John Moore, all Teach for America volunteers in BISD, initially conceptualized the walk when they learned about Jay Johnson-Castro, the self-proclaimed Border Ambassador. Johnson-Castro decided to walk the border at age 60 when the Secure Fence Act was initially passed.

To date, Johnson-Castro has walked 700 miles along the border.

"This is the world that young people will be inheriting, and I don't want that wall to be a part of it," Johnson-Castro said. "To me, young people have always been the ones who changed the world. It's never been the adults: adults live in the world the way they've created it."

One adult at least, Eloisa Tamez, is making a difference in slowing the construction process. Tamez's family has owned land along the path of the border fence in El Calaboz since 1784.

On March 6, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen ruled that negotiations must take place between landowners like Tamez and the Department of Homeland Security before their land is seized, even though the Declaration of Taking Act permits the federal government to condemn the land.

The battle was hard-won by Tamez and her lawyer Peter Shey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles. During the walk, Tamez joined the group to inform other landowners along the border of their rights.

"Most people think that it is just Mexicans and Mexican Americans making a fuss about this wall," Tamez said. "I love that such a diverse group from different parts of the country is doing this. They've come here and gotten to know the people and they want justice."

After Hanen's ruling, the court began scheduling 25 new cases that will begin today.

Though he does not have a claim in court, Moore says the walk has provided a way to channel his opposition into a peaceful demonstration.

"I have had to temper the raw emotion of my anger and control it into something very focused," Moore said. "Anger can be unproductive and undirected. Through a walk we can direct that."

Now that the walk has ended, the organizers are hopeful they have come to a new beginning.

"Everything comes to an end," Moore said. "Now we have skills to take the next step."