World Day of Migrants

Border Bishops celebrate with Mass in Matamoros

By Aaron Nelsen
The Brownsville Herald

January 15, 2007 — Lourdes and Marisol Aguilar stood along the grassy banks of the Rio Grande, watching white flower petals float down the green waters of the river.

After a two-month journey, which began near the Honduras and Nicaragua border, the road-weary cousins surveyed the final obstacle, separating them from the opportunity to work even as immigration Jeeps parked on the U.S-side of the river.

The comforting arms of the Rev, Michael D. Pfeifer, a bishop from San Angelo, Texas, hooked over the shoulders of Lourdes and Marisol, who were dressed in clothes donated from the Casa Migrante.

“We want to get to the other side,” Lourdes said. “I have a cousin living in Virginia. That’s where we’re headed.”

Pfeifer assured the woman that they would reach their destination by the grace of God. His words were returned with timid smiles.

“We have faith in God,” Lourdes said. “Thanks to God we got to where we are.”

On Sunday, the Aguilars began a much shorter pilgrimage.

Hundreds of residents and religious clergy marched from Sacred Heart Parish in Matamoros to the Rio Grande, the site of an outdoor Mass for migrants to celebrate the 93rd World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

On Saturday, a second Casa Del Migrante was inaugurated in Matamoros, the city’s second house for migrants.

Participants in the pilgrim walk carried gladiolas and wooden crosses, bearing the names of migrants who have failed to make it to the U.S. or died trying.

Ahead of the symbolic and real pilgrims, Danza Juan Diego dance troupe twirled to the rhythmic pounding of a drum.

As they marched down the street, passing banks, shoe bazaars and pharmacies, the percussive beat of the drum echoed off buildings.

Eugene Novogradsky, a part-time teacher at the University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, joined the procession to do his part to raise awareness of human rights.

“I’m getting tired of the distinction between people with papers and people without papers and people who are legal and people who aren’t,” said Novogradsky. “I made a vow recently to stop asking people if they have papers.

Novogradsky said he is trying hard to grasp that the border separating the U.S. from Mexico is an artificial.

“If they don’t want to live here and want to work here it should be very easy to come and go,” Novogradsky said.

At the banks of the Rio Grande, the procession gradually settled in for a Mass presided over by Texas and Mexico Border Bishops.

The Most Rev. Raymundo Peña, bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville, gave the homily, calling for politicians to design laws that provide a reasonable path to legalization for migrants.

“Only a comprehensive answer to immigration will serve the true and best interests of our communities,” Peña said.

Peña also criticized the imminent construction of a border wall.

“The construction of a wall that places new taxes on North Americans and destroys the good existing relations to date between neighbors cannot bring us towards a common goal,” Peña said.

The Mass concluded on the river’s edge, with congregates tossing the flowers they had carried from Sacred Heart Parish into the swift waters.

Lourdes and her cousin Marisol had already been in Matamoros 10 days, biding their time.

Neither offered a flower because they didn’t have the means to buy one.

Lourdes said she left behind her five daughters and son, but hopes for a brighter future.

“I’ve cried a lot for them,” Lourdes said. “But, Honduras is a poor country. There isn’t work and we have a big family. I have faith in God that we will make it.”

anelsen@brownsvilleherald.com