Amigos Anonymous Influences
Inspired…Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Los Ninos Project -
Rotarians with Teenage Sons & Daughters & High School Students
Volunteering in Communities outside Tijuana, Mexico
Spring Breaks in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992
I participated in Amigos Anonymous at UC Berkeley in 1964-67 and volunteered in Huandacareo, Michoacan in the summer of 1965 with 14 students assigned to Huandacereo and overall 270 students working in 14 villages in Guanajuato and Michoacan during the 1965 summer. We were like a student Peace Corps volunteers from several universities primarily on the west coast donating our time for social justice and learning about social change and leadership. Participating students came from public and private universities including UC Berkeley, Davis, UCLA, Immaculate Heart in Los Angeles, Notre Dame College, Santa Clara U, Dominican College in San Rafael, SFSU and USF and Lone Mountain in San Francisco, St Marys in Moraga, Seattle U and Gonzaga U in Spokane, and others.
For me it was a no fee opportunity compared to enrolling in summer school in Mexico City. In addition it was an opportunity for us students to roll up our sleeves and get to work with our neighbors to the south and participate with non-urban Mexican families and communities. I even convinced my parents to loan their Wiley jeep pickup to assist with our work. Yes it broke down going up Mt Moroleon near Celaya. The 30 of us riding in the back standing against all safety requirements, jumped out, designated two to walk/hitchhike back to the nearest town, found auto workers and returned to watch the two workers diagnose the problem, make and weld a new part repairing the jeep and off we were to the top of the mountain a few hours later.
Turning 21 years old in Huandacareo at the end of the summer was a heartwarming surprise! It brings joy to my spirit whenever I remember the youth outside my window before dawn singing…. I awoke before sunrise to the sound of music, guitars and laughter and my family was busy in the kitchen making hot tea, cocoa and tortillas…. “Feliz cumpleanos para Marie…Ay, ay, ay, ay canta no llora… I quickly dressed and joined my family and they welcomed everyone in and served hot chocolate and hot tea with cinnamon and cloves and then tortillas, huevos and food was plentiful! All were invited to partake in celebrating my birthday bringing joy and festivities, laughter and love and a great party! Much thanks to the all the Amigos and my Mexican family and Padre Patino and all the neighbors!!
Amigos Anonymous taught me to be aware, consciously aware and to live my heart participating with social justice issues. So my story goes like this. In 1986, my Mom had passed, my husband had passed in 1981, my Dad had grown up in the Seattle area, I was offered a new job in Seattle, so I moved my son and self lock, stock and barrel to the Northwest. Other than a distant cousin who I had met once or twice in my life, I had no contacts and was on a brave new path in a brand new region. I did not know anyone!
So I decided to join Rotary, an international business organization, recently opened to women. This would give me new contacts and friends for my son and myself. Rotary has four service committees and every club is to have each of these committees –club, fundraising, community service, and international service. The international service committee had not developed a project and was looking for international health, education or community service. In Seattle, international meant Canada, Greenland or Mexico.
I joined the international service committee and the club poked around and had not come up with a workable project. I suggested Mexico as the best fit, and with further exploration we came up a possible outreach. The Rotary service committee chair –the owner of Scan Design Jens Brun asked me if I could assist him to begin an outreach project somewhere near the USA border in Mexico. So the idea of a weeklong Amigos Anonymous project arose. What evolved was spring break offers a school week off and Rotarians, their high school sons and daughters and other high school students could fly to San Diego, walk across the border and volunteer with Los Ninos –a Mexican-USA non-profit organization to assist with squatting communities outside of Tijuana to build water cisterns, education and community support.
Los Ninos was already set up to build cooperative projects with the squatting communities outside of Tijuana with Mexican and US American volunteers. These projects were on a cooperative basis where a community would ask for a project and agree to supply 50 percent of the labor and fresh cooked comidas each day, and we would supply 50 percent of the labor and $$ for materials. At night we would sleep in sleeping bags at the local catholic church. Wow! And this became a mini-Amigos Anonymous!
The first year was 1988 we took 15 Bellevue students and 10 Rotarians including my Dad, son and myself and we worked five days building a 1,000 gallon water cistern with the community men and all hand labor even mixing cement in pits. Many of the families invited us over after 4 pm for tea and to exchange ideas about immigration and news. The Bellevue high school students quickly observed the warm hospitality, well swept earthen floors, and the happiness of children playing without television and a lot of toys. When Saturday came and time to say good bye, there were tears in many of the students’ eyes.
Second year, we brought 18 students and 8 Rotarians and spouses and over six days built a one room school house with four walls, two windows, and door and roof to be added at later. The following year we returned to the same community and yes the door and roof had been added in addition to a water sink and one-stall shower room tapping into an unidentified water pipe. So creativity can come in all forms. This year -1990 we added a second room and water system working side by side and practicing a little Spanish and yes many of the Tijuanans spoke some English. Fourth and fifth year we worked in El Florida building a community center with concrete floor, cinder block walls and tarp roof until more supplies arrived. After the exhausting work and scrumptious comidas, the El Presidente de El Florida called a ceremony and expressed much appreciation and then delivered “Honorably Diplomas de Colegio del Florida” and this diploma still hands in my father’s office.
Now the nuts and bolts behind this was Alaska Airline provided discount tickets, Los Ninos and the Catholic Church provided housing, sleeping areas and first aid while we were in Tijuana. Bellevue Rotary provided funds for student air tickets, and building supplies. So this became voluntary service and the high school students received service credit and Rotary documented the service each year. The committee worked together before and after each spring trip with the students and Rotary participants for learning about Mexico, culture, Oscar Lewis Five Families and planning outreach in order to extend the fellowship and learning together about our southern neighbor. We encouraged dialogue about immigration, migrant labor, harvesting Washington apples and fruit, in addition to some of the legal and illegal issues about crossing an international border. (Note this was 8 years before 9/11).
The last two years we added an evening visiting a border “sanctuary” in Tijuana were people considering crossing the border were given a safe place to re-think their choices and uncensored information about “coyotes” and police and the rights and wrongs about crossing. This was 1991 and 1992 and the risks were high and mortality was often not reported.
Amigos Anonymous gave me the courage to explore and work this mini service project into action. AA taught me to dream and that there is always a way or ways to bring people together. The results were immense in the hearts and minds of those that participated. Now these Bellevue Rotarians and students –about 125 people have fresh, first-hand ideas about the Tijuana residents, school and education without supplies, immigration and crossing the border. There was outreach and making new friends and assisting where poverty exists. Being humble as we are all brothers and sisters and no barrier needs to be continued. Volunteering with migrant laborers –many who are Tijuana residents at these squatting communities opened our hearts.
The warmth and hospitality we all received each year made our hearts cry when the week was over and time to return to San Diego and Seattle. Several students have written to Rotary about how significant this one week at Tijuana enriched their high school experiences. The students were touched to meet and begin to get to know our Tijuana neighbors and their families. I believe for the 15 students each year or approximately 75 in total, Rotary and Los Ninos assisted in changing their views of our neighbors, Mexican families and immigration.
Maura S O’Brien
[email protected]
April 25, 2013