The Border Crossed Us, is led by Jon Ayon, an AMR intern turned team member, that conducted field research to gather the stories of peoples and Tribes at the southern settler colonial border of the United States and Mexico. This political border was drawn with no respect for the Indigenous peoples that live here that have land claims that predate both colonial governments. And the unfortunately reality is that families and cultures are separated on either side. There are current cultural and religious permits in place for Native peoples to cross the border, but border crossing remains a complicated and formidable challenge due to the fact that the border control determines the which reasons are legitimate- often with little to no knowledge of traditions and this mediation is only made more difficult with a language barrier. Migration was considered normal and even necessary for so long to so many Indigenous peoples, and just recently has it been revoked and disqualified as a human right. A future for Indigenous peoples means free movement because heritage transcends borders. This is not political, rather this is protection of the sacred: the sacred land which holds buried ancestors, the sacred relationships between those that are family but are separated by walls running through longstanding Indigenous land, the sacred ability to move when needed to protect relatives, the sacred traditions that require a sense of place and home. Our relationality does not end at a structural, colonial boundary set up by governments that are a blip in comparison to how long the Tribes at the borders have been enduring. 

Additionally, we would like to include a trigger warning for violence and sexual assault which appears in some of the stories. If you are listening with younger children, or would like to avoid hearing for your own sake, we offer warning and encourage you to skip portions at your own discretion. 

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For our Patreon Subscribers, we will be offering a special  virtual screening of Jon Ayon's film, No Soy Óscar: https://jonayon.com/nosoyoscar/ with a special virtual q&a with Jon, Dr.Dr.Dez and Matika.

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Special thanks to the following people for sharing their voices:

Ral Christman

Martha and Stan Rodriguez 

Cynthia Parada 

Riss Hill

Willy White

Lori Cachorra

Tomas Jefferson

Penelope Jefferson

Preston Arrowweed

Dan Chein

Mike Benavides 

Andrea Rudnik 

Team Brownsville

Enrique Lopez

Emily Smith

Lupita Alonso

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Learn more about Team Brownsville:
https://www.teambrownsville.org/

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