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From Corpus Christi

February 13, 2009 | posted by Lars under united states, updates

I drafted the first paragraph of a post on Tuesday; now, just three days later, it seems hard to finish these thoughts, and not only because of the Spanish keyboards.  I hope this can stand alone for now… more to come (tomorrow?)

I am writing now from Corpus Christi, a town bearing the name of the Body of Christ; simultaneously universal and historical, whole and bloodied, forceful and weak, it’s a body mysterious enough to make one wonder what the city’s founders were thinking when they settled and named the area in 1519.  Here we are, though, with over 1500 miles (2400 km) behind us and the U.S.-Mexican border at Laredo 150 miles (240 km) through the desert ahead.  Resting with the Iglesia Menonita Principe de Paz in Corpus Christi, we are preparing ourselves and our bikes for a new and demanding stage of the journey we began over a month ago.  We’ve been warming up our Spanish with our hosts here and in New Orleans, talking to folks here about recent violence between drug cartels and law enforcement near the border as well as construction of “The Wall” along the border from Laredo to Brownsville.  On Saturday, our hosts in Tivoli, Texas told stories of immigrants walking through their ranch after their coyote (people immigrants pay to get them across the border and who generally take advantage of the immigrants) dumped them on the state highway nearby; tomorrow, we will be biking through the very same desert which migrants are currently crossing by night during the “cool” winter in south Texas.  In Harrisonburg, VA, the realities of immigration seem very present, but here we have no choice but to engage the issue, with all of its personal and socio-political complexities.