Landfill Families

As often as I visit Landfill sites, it never ceases to amaze me how determined human beings can be when they have absolutely nothing to lose, except their lives.

Over the past twenty years I have made many treks across the Mexican Border from Brownsville, Texas (My Hometown), to Matamoros, Mexico to visit these "shanty towns" to see for myself what we all know exists but do not see.

I live next to the actual Rio Grande River, and at times I smell the burning trash coming from the landfills. The stench permeates the air that is barely breathable for us, much less with the added acrid smoke.

Reality kicks in very quickly when you drive across any border from Deep South Texas to the border town of San Diego and its sister city, Tijuana. The bright lights and food that allude to excitement and great bargains for the Tourist, become beacons of salvation to the people that just want to sell enough to be able to buy food, clean water and maybe some treats, like milk and bread on their way home.

It's amazing how a winding river can divide such a lush and rich country from a burdened one. It is a disparity that is very visual to us that live on the lush and prosperous side. So many heads turn down when the subject of poverty and the poor in Mexico comes up. It's Mexico's problem, not ours. True, but a corrupted government can only buy so many lush homes and guns to fill them with. What happens to the rest of the money? No one knows. What we do know is poverty and apathy. Apathy that can be reversed and conquered through education and knowledge.