Jon Lowenstein

THE HEART: Shadow Lives USA

Migrants slip into the Rio Grande on their way to the United States. This group made it through without being detained. Pedro Mendoza, lower right corner, lives in Reynosa and has worked as a low-level coyote. I connected with him through a man I met in Chicago at Juan Diego Democratic Worker Center. We went down to the border and met up with Pedro. Pedro had passed more than 20 people at one time and sometimes had to save people who were drowning in the river or the canals that the migrants must pass over in that stretch of the border. Before he would connect me with the migrants we sat down in his room and talked until dawn one night. He posed very challenging questions about my role in the experience. “What will you do when two people fall in and are drowning? Will you just take pictures or will you jump in and help me to save these people.” When he crossed people he received $100 per person. In 2003, when I crossed he was going over to the other side to work in construction in Edinburgh, Texas.
Migrants slip into the Rio Grande on their way to the United States. This group made it through without being detained. Pedro Mendoza, lower right corner, lives in Reynosa and has worked as a low-level coyote. I connected with him through a man I met in Chicago at Juan Diego Democratic Worker Center. We went down to the border and met up with Pedro. Pedro had passed more than 20 people at one time and sometimes had to save people who were drowning in the river or the canals that the migrants must pass over in that stretch of the border. Before he would connect me with the migrants we sat down in his room and talked until dawn one night. He posed very challenging questions about my role in the experience. “What will you do when two people fall in and are drowning? Will you just take pictures or will you jump in and help me to save these people.” When he crossed people he received $100 per person. In 2003, when I crossed he was going over to the other side to work in construction in Edinburgh, Texas.