Border Mass

All Soul’s Day Mass at the border,

Sunland Park, NM/Anapra, Chihuahua

November 2, 2007

All Soul’s Day, Border Mass, NM/Chihuahua border

Nuns on both sides of border fence

Sunland Park, New Mexico/Anapra, Mexico

Today the Bishops of El Paso, Las Cruces, NM and Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico met at the border fence at Sunland Park, NM and Anapra, Chihuahua to protest current immigration policies and to promote understanding for immigrants from Mexico, as well as world wide. November 2 is All Soul’s Day, also known as Dia de los Muertos in Mexican culture. This mass is an annual event but had its largest attendance this year, perhaps because “immigration,” has been such a hotly contested issue in the past year.

“We gather together to remember all those who have lost their lives and to challenge the living to do what we can to look for a comprehensive (immigration) law,” said Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso and added, that “the Mass,” a tradition on the border, “was meant for the living as much as for the dead.”

This photo is from the U.S. side looking into Mexico. The fence separates the two countries, but the culture is seamless. One hundred and sixty years ago this spot had no fence and was not a border.

It was all Mexico.