Pages tagged "Mexico"

On a quiet residential street in the heart of Mexico City, in the former home and studio of the noted muralist Jose Clemente Orozco, your find a modest Quaker institution. To the casual observer, this is a spacious residence, frequented occasionally by young foreigners. It appears at various times to be a home, a guesthouse, or a community center. It is, in fact, a quiet non-profit with a unique flavor, Casa de Los Amigos.

An interview with Adriana Jasso by Greg Elliott

Dear Editor:  I was greatly interested in Burton Housman’s article, “Between Two Civilizations” in the Jan/Feb issue.  I was one of seven Quakers (four Californians, one each from New York, New Mexico, and Nevada) who attended the first Quaker Social Action in Mexico Learning Tour hosted by the Casa de los Amigos team in Mexico City in January this year.  During our nine days there, we learned much about the critical humanitarian work, peace programs, and partnering done by their dedicated, bright, enthusiastic staff and volunteers.

To Friends in all the world:

Saturday morning, I reach the border at Nogales, Arizona. From near and far, the fence rises. From a distance, it appears as a blade that slices apart both the wholeness of the natural world and the wholeness of a human community. Up close, the twenty-foot barrier imprisons and excludes, looming like a nightmare. The huge, vertical, rust-colored metal slats nearly overlap. I peer through them, looking down a cliff at a street below, and at the sidewalk across that street, in front of a little store. On that spot, sixteen-year-old Josè Antonio Elena Rodrìguez was killed, shot repeatedly by a jumpy American border guard.

How peaceful it is to take an evening walk along Grand Avenue in Mancos, a little community of fourteen hundred people, nestled in the Mancos Valley of southwest Colorado! The sunset’s glow is reflected off the La Plata Mountains to the east, and shadows begin to shroud Mesa Verde in the west.

To Friends Everywhere: September 26th marks the first anniversary of the horrific enforced disappearance of 43 students from the rural Ayotzinapa teaching college in Guerrero, Mexico. We carry a heavy weight, as hopes for justice seem increasingly dim. Yet we continue to raise our voices alongside the parents and classmates in remembrance.

“Did you see the letters?” asked the little 7-year-old at my side. I had just returned from a trip overseas and was recounting some of the highlights. Letters?