'Agua de la Libertad': Frontier Fiesta Shows the Folly of U.S.- Mexico Border Controls Sasha von Oldershausen - Fusion
go to original May 26, 2016

People from both sides of the border meet in the Rio Grande for this unique annual celebration. (Sasha von Oldershausen/Fusion)

“Es el agua de la libertad” (It’s the water of freedom) shouted a Mexican man, standing knee-deep in the middle of the murky Rio Grande as part of the fourth annual “Voices from Both Sides” border festival.

The yearly celebration, which was started in 2013 as a form of peaceful protest over stricter border controls following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, drew crowds to the Texas border town of Lajitas and its Mexican neighbor, Paso Lajitas.

The event, done with the permission of U.S. border patrol, was monitored only by a few Mexican police officers, who carried assault rifles and watched from the southern bank of the river.

A band played on the Texas side as people danced ruddy-cheeked and tipsy along the riverbank under the glaringly hot sun. Just across the border, a Mexican crowd of elderly people observed from beneath the shade of a gazebo, as young children slid down the muddy bank to the river’s edge.

Some people were there for the party. But others came because it’s one of the only opportunities they have each year to see their family members on the other side of the border.

Read the rest at Fusion

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