Monday, August 25, 2008

Ciudad Juarez and the Tabor House - by Tyler





















Pictures: Mural painted by Betty. When visitors come, they inscribe the name of the dead, for example, a migrant who has lost their life in the desert crossing to the U.S. or one of the thousands of women who have been raped and killed in recent decades. Upper right: Peter and Betty. Lower: Looking north from Juarez to El Paso, TX mountains. Some few Mexicans obtain a "shopping visa" to spend money in U.S., but must return to Mexico.


We had met the remarkable priest-nun team - Carmelite Father, Peter Hinde, and Sister of Mercy, Betty Campbell, in San Antonio, Texas over 15 years ago when participating in the Crispaz orientation to prepare ourselves for post civil war El Salvador. Crispaz (Christians for Peace) was the volunteer service under whose auspices Daniel and I worked in El Salvador from 1992 to 1994). At that time, Betty and Peter welcomed us to Tabor House, their house of hospitality in the tradition of Catholic Worker houses, which provided hospitality to, and accompanied, the surge of immigrants pouring into Texas from Central America and Mexico and educating any who would listen about the atrocities of the US backed war in El Salvador and the history of repression and crushing of social movements in Central America. In their free time, Peter at 75 was running over 5 miles a day and Betty was growing an amazing garden and delivering its bounty to the community. Tabor House was a place for community, prayer, reflection and ultimately, action. Since returning to the states, every New Year we anxiously await their newsletter which documents their bus trips throughout Mexico and Central America visiting communities and getting the pulse on the impact of US foreign policy on the average campesino (small farmer) as well as celebrations and tribulations in their daily lives.

Over 10 years ago Peter and Betty relocated the Tabor House across the river from El Paso, TX to a very poor barrio upon a hill top in Ciudad Juarez. A small adobe house surrounded by tin sheets and wooden fences with plastic tarps is flourished with carefully painted murals of faces of young women, people crossing the desert in the blazing sun, images of martyrs. Long lists of names of the dead accompany each mural. Betty asks visiting delegations (church and university groups) from the states who come to learn about the border to honor those who have died by writing their names on the adobe walls.

I sit in a chair that has been chained to a post (to prevent it getting ripped off – even the local parish priest has had his dog stolen from behind barbed wire) and imagine all the grieving family members who wonder what happened to their beloveds. I can barely contemplate the last hours, let alone the last moments of the deceased’s lives. Within this shrine of discarded tin sheet walls and plastic rooftops a beautiful mandala that invokes the universe, community, and the spirit is painted on the wall behind a stone walking labyrinth. Betty created this stone labyrinth for neighborhood women and has walked this labyrinth with the women who find peace at Tabor House after long hours worked in the maquilas, after dealing with their angry unemployed husbands, and hungry children. Betty explains that if we destroy the world as we know it, somehow the beauty of the universe will survive.

Peter and Betty’s mission of accompaniment with the poor, hospitality and education remains as present and profound as ever as this extraordinary team persists amidst the warring drug cartels, gang violence, and ongoing brutal killings of young women. Of course despite these harsh realities children play happily in the streets, old women bless themselves in front of the Virgin painted on the wall of Tabor House, and people work hard providing for their families. Through leading their own humble lives of community service, Peter and Betty gain the community’s trust and learn about the realities for the poor of Ciudad Juarez, the city that has become the poster child for: the failures of NAFTA, the impact of globalization and ultimately the disintegration of community and families. Peter and Betty bid us farewell and make a plea for a return visit as we hit the road to the city of Chihuahua.

2 comments:

Maggie said...

Hi, I am interested in the work Tabor House does and was wondering if you would have the contact information for Tabor House (or for getting their newsletter.)

Thank you! Meg B.

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