REFLECTION ON THE EL PASO, TX / JUÁREZ, MX IMMERSION TRIP
August 6 – 12, 2022
By participant Deacon Joseph (Joe) Ferrari, Ph.D.
This week was an opportunity to learn, listen, and live life. I engaged in a weeklong program through Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers to Juárez, Mexico and El Paso, TX to learn and listen, and witness life along the southern border ~ it was an opportunity to “ENCUENTRO CRISTO” ~ to encounter Christ.
When we encounter Christ, ‘up close and personal,’ we are changed. Like the Magi, we return home ‘in a different way’ … like the Woman at the Well, we return home ‘excited to Evangelize.’ But unlike Peter after the arrest following Christ “from a distance” [see John’s Gospel take of the Passion], we must return home after we meet the poor and marginalized - after encountering Christ - in a different way ~ excited to evangelize. [Some say, Leave God, to be with God]
This past week I was told “you ask a lot of questions” and another time, “you tell long stories.” It is true for both; I learn by inquiring and digging deeper into situations to learn and process [40 years the scientist], and I tell detailed studies [40 years the teacher]. So, this is a LONG reflection after asking LOTS of questions, and I suggest you *STOP* reading further if it’s too long a story for you. Thanks.
‘Tu Perteneces Aqui’ [You Belong Here]
Our weeklong journey came to an end: 10 persons from across the USA [clergy, laity] on a journey to encounter Christ along the southern US border with Mexico, from El Paso, TX. Four of us were waiting for our flights home at the airport. We said goodbye to two other fellow travelers, Maryknoll Seminarians from Kenya at Terminal A and we now were sitting for lunch at Terminal B – traveling to LA, Detroit, or Chicago. Two companions were having so many flight issues (their flight times kept changing), but mine seemed ok. In fact, I was delighted for the United flight home to be upgraded from seat 19D to 10B, Economy Plus!
After lunch, about 20 minutes before I was to board, I said goodbye [for now] to my new friends so I could refresh myself and then stand in line to board. As I stood in line it was there, I ENCOUNTERED the Turkish Man – confused, lost, not knowing what was happening and what he had to do to get on the plane. See, we learned that 68 different nationalities try to enter the USA through El Paso [including Turkish persons – for some reason, that was the only nationality I wrote in my journal three days before!].
So, I sensed this is a man trying to get to the USA through a sponsor traveling on the same United flight as myself – and he needs assistance. I sensed, he is an undocumented person with a travel certificate, and he kept saying “New Jersey.” He showed his boarding passes [El Paso to Chicago, Chicago to Newark] and he did not know what to do.
On the boarding line with me is another [young, strong] man who I guessed is a USA citizen, who tells me this man is from Turkey; he tries using Google translator to explain to our Turkish friend what to do since neither of us speak Turkish. The young man tells us during conversation that he travels to El Paso often for business. I suggest we help this Turkish Man – we DO THE GOOD THAT PRESENTS ITSELF, I think [thanks St Elizabeth Seton; thanks St Vincent DePaul].
We try to understand what the Turkish man is asking. The Turkish man speaks into his phone, but the translator gets messed up. For ex., we learn he wants to go to “Jersey”, but the translator keeps saying “Joker.” The Turkish man, from the gobbled translator asks us what ‘GATE’ do I go to in Newark? What ‘TRAIN’ in Chicago do I take at the airport to board a flight for Newark? My young businessman companion and I keep trying to say “NO Train” and we “Don’t know the Gate yet.” Our Turkish man is confused, does not seem to understand. In fact, at one point he called someone [his sponsor?], gave me his phone, and the person with a Turkish accent mentioned he was traveling to Newark. I said, I will help him as best I can along the journey; to explain that there is NO train and Don’t Know the Gate yet.
I approached the United Gate Agent, a young man new at the job [another Agent kept coming over to show what terminal buttons to press]. I mentioned to the Gate Agent this man is Turkish, speaks NO English, wants to transfer to a flight to Newark, is lost and confused and can United help. I say, may he board early with me [so I can show him his seat]. The Agent says fine, he will let agents in Chicago know about the man and they will help him. Great.
The Turkish man and I board, and I take him to SEAT 19D -- THAT WAS MY ORIGINAL SEAT! I almost cry but keep it together [God, you are such a Joker!]. He does not understand so I hold up his boarding pass saying 19D to the little label above his row saying 19D – he smiles and understands. He says ‘thanks.’ A few minutes later, as people board, I see the Turkish man now has his hood up from his hoodie, to keep warm, trying to work the dials above his head – he is cold from the A/C. I get up and go over to him to shut off the air, and he smiles.
We are welcomed on the flight by a female Flight Attendant, and I pull her aside to explain the situation for the Turkish Man. She understood, but this seemed to be something she was not aware of [btw, the Attendants were the SAME I met on my flight to El Paso, a week before; this is their usual schedule]. The Attendant tells me, she will let agents in Chicago know about the needs of the Turkish man [to make his connection] and they will have a wheelchair for him so he can go from gate to gate with no problem. Awesome! Well done! And I think == these agents are like the Border Patrol agents we met, who must keep to the policy and practices that they are trained for but they can show compassion and mercy within the system! [Christ, you have your way].
Yes, there is a little more….
During the 3-hr flight I get up to go to the bathroom and want to see how my Turkish friend was doing. He’s NOT sitting in 19D – WHAT? GONE? WAS THAT A DREAM? Instead, he now was in 22D. I see the female Flight Attendant and ask her what is up, and she tells me HE GAVE UP HIS SEAT so a young couple could sit together [seeming to be newlyweds since they were cuddling, and smiling, and whispering to each other, and WEARING MATCHING HOODIES! [LOL, my wife would no longer wear matching clothes!] The flight Attendant offered him extra snacks and drink [I gave him my comp crackers too, as I passed him; he had a 3+hr layover at O’Hare and we figured he would be hungry].
WOW, someone with so little gives what he can…. Hmmm, like the Gospel story of a poor widow giving her coin from “her essence,” not from “her excess.” I know from my teaching, the poor often give more than the wealthy, and as my grandma would say “the rich have it cause they don’t spend it on others.”
EPILOGUE
Next to me is a business guy who lives in El Paso and Germany, flying often. And the female Attendant flies this route often. NEITHER told me they knew that the undocumented cross into the US through El Paso, by flying if they have a sponsor. I thought, something I learned as an outsider to the area was “revealed” to residents.
When we landed in Chicago, I held off disembarking so I could walk and accompany off the plane the Turkish man. I gave him a bottle of water I took onto the plane, and a peanut butter sandwich I made for the flight but never ate – he will need these for his layover for some comfort. He took them.
We exit the plane, and I told the Gate Agent the situation. She was not informed of the man’s need but told me not to worry she will get that wheelchair. God takes over from here, finding others to help the Turkish traveler.
I will never see this Turkish man again, but I know I will meet “copies” of him again. My eyes were opened, my consciousness was raised [btw, as a young college student in 1977 I was told by Maryknollers in Peru they seek to “raise social consciousness”]. “SEE if you have eyes to see… LISTEN if you have ears to hear.” And then, I cried – how many of these names of the dead/missing we saw at the Shelter (in El Paso) had no one to help them? How many of those names listed by Sr. Betsy were lost, had no one to help them? How many moving forward? ‘Tu Perteneces Aqui’
Finally, on the way to our gates, we stopped at a “Southwest” boarding stand for info, and the Agent was named “ROSIE” == my mom’s name; so I knew she was with me and something special would happen. Plus, with this Agent was another employee who said he was studying to be a Presbyterian Deacon – I knew this would be a memorable flight home, changed from an encounter.