The garden is located about one-hundred feet East of the historical bi-national Monument and Friendship Plaza at the Southwestern most point of the United States and Northwestern most point of Mexico and sits atop a Mesa overlooking the Pacific Ocean dissected by the international border between Mexico and the United States. A community project, the garden of native plants is united as one through the rusty metal fence in the spirit of bi-national friendship and collaboration. It’s main purposes are to create a space where people from both countries can get to know each other, make friends, and collaborate in contributing to the improvement of the region’s environment and native habitat across the US/Mexico border.
This from the end of Part II, during the first two weeks of Dec, 2009:
[...I called and emailed several times over the following couple weeks with no response. Meanwhile, a couple of the plants that Agent Parks had planted that day had been uprooted by a storm and in general they needed to be tended to. I was becoming a bit more anxious about it all and I called the Imperial Beach station and this time asked for Patrol Chief in Charge Agent Zazueta instead of Agent Parks to see if there was anything that could be done as far accessing the plants. I asked if Agent Parks or anyone else could work with me and the answer was no and that they'll call me, don't call them. I felt, again, abandoned and betrayed by Border Patrol. I still had the general idea of civil disobedience in mind as an option and I now saw no other alternative than to try to access the plants myself to, if nothing else, make a statement about the importance of the garden, and hopefully actually reach them and be able to tend to them.]
(Picture taken through the fence from Mexican side after a storm at the beginning of December, 2009)
Part III - Dec 13th, 2009 - May 7th, 2010
On December 13th, 2009, I was planning to step over the plastic chains that have been installed to guide people into the restricted cage area at the Friendship Monument in order to get to the garden, which is in an area strictly prohibited for public access. There was a family there waiting to go into the enclosed area who had come from Los Angeles to meet with other family members they hadn’t seen in seven years waiting about 150 ft away, separated by immigration status and two fifteen ft high walls. The family members on the Mexican side had traveled four days on a bus from Vera Cruz. Two of the four were grandparents who would see there three and four year-old grand children for the first time. I remember, clearly, the young father's "Woo-hoo" with his daughter's hand in one and the other raised with a victory fist as they walked through the metal door and found a way to unite his family with his wife's parents and cousins. I was the only other person in the cage and met them all, but didn't say much cause I knew their time with each other was limited. The family members on the US side were in a half circle enclosed with a chest high railing as they looked and conversed with their family members pressed up against the tall rusty corrugated thick metal fence about five feet away. After thirty minutes, two agents watching over from the outside entered and asked all of us on the US side to leave.
Originally, as silly as it sounds, I was told that you had to leave every 30 minutes and, as long as there weren’t people waiting to go in because the 25 person max had been reached, you were allowed to re-enter, "like a ride at an amusement park" (quote from Border Patrol agent explaining rules about two minutes into this video). To my surprise when I stepped out, the agent told me that I could not go back in and that the rule was that you’re only allowed 30 min. I argued with them and called the station. At this point the family had already left. I called and no one that could help me answered. A supervisor arrived and told me that his understanding is that the rule is 30 min per person per day. I was very upset that I wasn't allowed to stay and make friends and that the family wasn't allowed to visit. In addition, it had foiled my plan to step over the railing and tend to the plants.
After attempting for another hour to get a hold of the station and getting the run-around, I realized the only way to get to the garden would be to go down the hill to the beach where the secondary barrier converts into a chainlink fence and ends at the mean high tideline. I would walk around it and then back up the hillside onto the mesa over to the garden. I decided it was worth it and was more encouraged when I saw my friend on the Mexican side had finally arrived and was standing by the garden with his camera ready to take a picture of me and whatever they did to me as I disobediently tended to it. My heart raced as soon as I decided to go through with it. The kind of racing where the only thing holding you back is fear. I felt right about it and was able to overcome the fear. I walked down the hill to the beach feeling the agent up on the hill’s eyes burning into my back even though he probably was just barely noticing me. I rounded the end of the fence into the no trespassing zone without hesitation and started up the hill toward the plants in need. The plants that represented, literally and symbolically, the unification and collaboration, that are so vital to our region.
I had walked around fifteen strides across the beach and started up the hill when I saw through the fence to my left, the Border Patrol vehicle rearing down. A few more strides up the hill and out of the corner of my eye I see the agent standing at the limit of the no access zone down on the beach. I could feel his anger as he hollered “Hey, come back here! You can’t be in there!“ I continued to walk and calmly turned my head toward him and said “I’m just going to walk up the hill and plant some plants”. Again he yelled and I answered back maintaining the same calm voice and façade. My nervous and scared energy on the inside was fueling me to be even more determined and focused and continue my trek up the hill. He ran up the hill and continued to yell as he got closer. I continued to walk and speak calmly as his rage came closer and closer. I knew, at this point, that I wasn’t going to reach my destination but I had to keep walking.
He reached me and grabbed my elbow and pushed my upper arm toward the ground making my body follow. I felt an overwhelming sense of calm. I’d done what I could do that day. I did not resist. I was a little upset because we were hidden from view. As he threw me to the ground, I may have even said out loud slightly, “darn, no one can see us.” The wall to the south hid us from view of the spectators from Tijuana and, being on the hillside still, no one could see us in the park above on the mesa top and the camera friend I had planted by the garden up on the hill still another 100 ft away, had no idea what was going on. The agent continued to make movements as if I were resisting even as he put the handcuffs on me and I lay flat on the ground. “It’s ok. You’ve got me.” I told him and he relaxed a bit. When we got back down the hill and out of the restricted area, he said in a raised voice “You’re putting your life and mine in danger.” He was blush and sweating and had a confused and angry look in his eyes.
“To plant some plants?!?” was his repeated WTF reaction every time I answered his incensent question of why I went in there. He eventually took the handcuffs off and detained me in the back of his vehicle that is made to transport people to custody.
He took me to the top of the hill and radioed in some other officers. While we were waiting, he opened the back door of the detention vehicle as I sat there. He had calmed down quite a bit and asked "What are you an activist or something?" I took about ten minutes to explain to him the reason for the garden and purpose of Border encuentro to bring people together across the border to make friends. I told him about all the events that we had done and how this is my contribution to bettering the region.
"You never learn do you Dan?" said Fish and Wildlife officer Arnold Grassi as he rounded the corner of the detention vehicle and the sarcastic look on his face came into view. Arnold had arrested me seven-months prior when I stood in front of the bull dozers that were building the secondary wall in the park and had threatened to arrest me on a few other ocassions when I was filming the construction of the entire 3.5 mile wall project from 2006-8. Border Patrol, although I think they are qualified to, aren't used to arresting US citizens, so they always call Arnold to be the designated "hard-ass" to take care of "punks" like me that get on Border Patrol's nerves. He genuinely scares me sometimes and although it appears he might actually relish in the "asshole" role, I believe that he takes his job very seriously and somehow is convinced that he needs to be this way in order to complete his enforcement duties. I suspect, and have seen signs, that he's actually a nice guy. Whatever. He gave me a sermon about how much of a pain in the ass I am and how I should follow the rules more and then let me go with a 72 hour restriction from frequenting the park. The annual Posada Sin Fronteras was that afternoon/evening at the same place. I really wanted to participate, so I rode my bicycle over to the Mexican side and joined everyone from there. I still had a bit of adrenaline left over from the incident and barely noticed a slight knee injury that had occurred when agent Field forced me to the ground. It was swollen slightly, but was minor.
There really was absolutely no danger for anyone in what I did trying to get to the garden and I couldn't make sense of what Agent Field was so flustered about. Later that evening, I was telling my roommate the story and she thought he was probably genuinely scared. This makes me wonder if Border Patrol are trained to believe that the border is an extremely dangerous place. This would be more dangerous than any perilous situation that might actually occur there.
At the end of January 2010, I was called in for a meeting with acting San Diego Sector Chief Barlow, Assitant Partrol Chief in Charge at Imprerial Beach Daniel Parks (who still hadn’t contacted me), and Patrol Chief in Charge at Imperial Beach Moises Zazueta. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about the garden and to talk about Border encuentro events in general. I sent and brought in a set of proposed terms for access to the garden I wanted to negotiate, slightly adjusted from the original terms I had sent in November 09. Agent Zazueta wanted to know how long I needed to wait before I break the rules and said that I didn’t give them enough time to respond to my emails. He wanted to make a deal with me and said he would work with me on events allowing for more than the normal thirty minutes, as he did with those who organized the Posada, and if he found that he could trust me after doing this for four months then he would consider re-looking at the garden. He was unwilling to talk about the terms I had brought in to negotiate. I wasn’t ok with the deal because it was the same story I’ve been told by border Patrol for 2 years now that “we’ll see how things go in X amount of time and see what we can do then…”
Trust was the word throughout the meeting that the three agents continued to repeat and go back to. The Chief expressed from the beginning that that’s what he was looking for, trust. I told him I was glad about that and was looking for the same. At one point, Agent Zazueta asked me if I’d be willing to go through a criminal background check if they asked me to. It was a weird question, had nothing to do with the subject at hand. Of course I told him I would be especially if it would help to establish the trust. There was an uncofortable feeling at the end of the meeting, a bit of sour discord. The three agents came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be happy until I got my way and therefore I wasn’t worth dealing with. I was willing to negotiate the terms I’d brought to the table and the only thing I was insisting on was that they actually be negotiated instead of put off for four more months. During the meeting I was a bit upset, frustrated, nervous, and sleep deprived, and I didn’t express myself as clearly as I would’ve liked and my frustration came through and probably got in the way of a more civil discussion.
I view my work as important as Border Patrol's and yet the policy at the border is set up in such a way that they are told and believe that their work of enforcement is more important than my work of bringing people together to make friends and collaborate across the border. I view enforcement as important. All I want is an equal spot at the table of working together to improve the region. I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all and I wasn't having fun anymore.
I decided the situation might be a bit more than I could handle on my own and decided to propose to the bigger Friends of Friendship Park Coalition that we take the garden on together as part of the mission for more access. I feel like I have a strong support in the coalition and this showed when four of us had a meeting with some of the same agents in February as the representatives of the Friends of Friendship Park coalition (John Fanestil, Pedro Rios, Christian Ramirez, and I) and one of the major points of the meeting was that we would be developing a proposal for them that would include three points of bi-national access, the monument, the beach, and the garden. We established a standing quarterly meeting with Border Patrol and, with the help of architect James Brown, we put together a concept proposal and presented it to Border Patrol on Friday April 23rd, 2010. We presented it as an idea that could be worked on in conjunction with Border Patrol and the Friends of Friendship Park Coalition. It is an ingenious concept that James Brown came up with and it was well received, but without promises, from Border Patrol.
I feel like now, things are starting to come to a head with the garden as, on the Mexican side, they are working on a redesign of the whole bi-national park area, per a directive from the first lady of Mexico, Margarita Zavala. This wasn't necessarily good news for the garden at first as it wasn't included in the original concept design. It took a strong voice from the organizations involved to make it part of the design. One of the architects assigned to the the redesign on the Mexican side of the park also happened to be a member of one of the twelve organizations working to maintain the garden. After some informal meetings with him, several of us met with his colleague and the lead architect for the project. The lead was a bit obstinate about the plan that didn't include the garden and proposed moving the garden to another area. I insisted that it would loose it's binational purpose in this case. At one point he reacted to my bi-national friendship persistence by saying "...too bad you guys put that fifteen foot wall up." I can't say I blame him for this attitude. I look at it as a defensive reaction to an aggressive and offensive act...more fallout from the construction of the wall and division.
This meeting was a bit disheartening but the garden coalition on the Mexican side continued to meet with both architects and more and more members of the coalition started attending and voicing their opinion. Margarita Diaz from Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental, proposed we make a win-win agreement that entailed the government letting us adapt this area and us maintaining it. It was a great idea because the Mexican government had allocated funds for the redesign but not for the maintenance yet and we had already established a calendar that distributes the work of tending to the garden so that each month of the year one of the organizations is assigned to the garden to water, weed, expand, and add their own touch.
Eventually the lead architect assigned the garden area to the original architect and we're now in talks with the government to adapt the area and anticipate it being official by the middle of summer, 2010. In the meantime, we continue to meet with the architects throghout the construction process and the garden has been incorporated into the redesign.
I'm proud of this coalition (El grupo de los doce) and feel a deep sense of satisfaction that so many people and organizations on the Mexican side, have gotten behind the garden and it's goal to bring people together in friendship and contribute to the native habitat of the region.
On Monday, April 26th, Architect James Brown who is helping the Friends of Frienship Park Coalition on the US side, came with me to the Mexican side to meet with the architects and the garden community coalition during our weekly meeting at the garden. The architects on both sides are including the garden as part of their designs and they were able to coordinate in general to assure their designs correspond to each other. The meeting went well and the connections between the architects and their designs made me feel really hopeful about the binational cooperation and a bright future for Friendship Park. The lead architect, after a strong message from the community and garden coalition, seems now genuinely interested in maintaining the binational garden. The creatively painted decorative fencing around the garden was removed, temporarily, for construction of the new design around it so the garden is requiring constant vigilance during construction to make sure that the workers and the general public don’t damage it.
The area covered by the garden on the US side is still off limits to the public. I've been in contact with Border Patrol and they have assigned the maintenance to the "Explorers", a junior Border Patrol (like junior life guards or the ROTC program). On Sat May 8th, one of the organizations in the garden coalition will be out working on the garden and, by coincidence, the Explorers, will also be working on it the same morning. There's a decent chance all will be there working on the garden together at the same time. I plan to be there on the Mexican side and look forward to the interaction and collaboration and to the Explorers learning about the native habitat of our region from enviros on the Mexican side through the fence.
You can now go to a separate blog dedicated solely to the binational friendship garden to keep up on how it is doing. It is populated by content received from the all the organizations involved and maintained by Ricardo Arana with Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental.
There you will find a list of organizations involved and a calendar of care. Contact me or any of these organizations if you want to get involved or simply show up to the garden on one of the scheduled work/care days.
Click here for The Tale of the Binational Friendship Garden - Follow up
Click here for The Tale of the Binational Friendship Garden - Follow up
