The Furious Spinner

It was an eerie day at the Old Mermaid Sanctuary today. Cacti, mesquite, and palo verde trees shaking in the wind, dark clouds casting huge shadows over the Rincon Mountains. The air was so clear I could see the dark green woods on the mountains.

I made a lot of phone calls today and did a lot of research. On days like these, my journalism training comes in handy. Trackin' down a source, searching out a clue, bugging people until they comply. Although really, people are usually more than happy to talk with me. I haven't been able to get an INS investigator to return my calls yet, but I'm not giving up.

Tomorrow we're going to the Border Issues Fair in a town about an hour from here. I hope to meet some people and get more information. Even though I've been studying this issue (borderlands, immigration, etc.) for years, I still feel sometimes as though I'm stumbling around in the dark. Both Church of the Old Mermaids and the new Old Mermaids book deal with these issues, so I want to get them right. Next week I've got an appointment to talk with the Humane Borders people. The following week I'm talking with a lawyer who helps migrants who are trying to get legal status. I'm also hoping to go to the repatriation tent in Nogales, Sonora, that the No More Deaths volunteers run to help migrants who've been deported and dumped on the border. I'm also trying to find out how I can go to immigration court. No luck so far. They don't really make those kinds of things easily known. Plus I have a jaguar conference to attend again, and my sister is running a marathon on Sunday, so I'm going up to support her. And I'm trying to write many thousands of words a day. A lot of things going on!

All this means is that I might not post for a bit, although I am taking my camera tomorrow, so who knows?

May You Spin in Beauty!

Labels: Arizona, migrant issues

All photographs and written material copyright © 2003-2008 by Kim Antieau unless otherwise indicated. May not be used without permission.