When I set out a little over two weeks ago my dreams were of being lost in the suburbs, but my first night staying at a ranch north of La Jola changed all that. I walk to the window and look over a Yucatan-like scene. The sky is full of birds of every imaginable color and size, fantastical creatures. Feathers and sunshine swirl everywhere. Many more dreams like this and I may not leave.
The desk I have been given to work at is said to be my host’s great-grandfather’s. Another honor. Catarino Garza was a “journalist, revolutionary, and folk hero,” according to Handbook of Texas Online.
Finally settled in the Rio Grande Valley, I am beginning to enter the heart of Homeland Security’s war on private property in its attempt to raise the Wall on the Texas-Mexico border.
Granjedo is the first Spanish Land Grant community I enter. Once up to 16,000 acres in size, this community that predates the creation of the United States is now under 100 acres. The town incorporated only a decade ago, in part to protect itself from rich, influential developers (aka Ray Hunt of Halliburton fame) crowding in on them.
Today, Granjedo gets the wall. Hunt’s upscale subdivisions unobstructed views.
Meet Reynaldo Anzaldua:
Muro del Odio 