Visibilize, mobilize, and amplify: These three goals represented the driving force behind a recent learning trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, organized for 15 funders by Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) and Grantmakers Concerned with Imigrants and Refugees (GCIR). This delegation traveled to McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico in early May to connect with nonprofits providing critical services. Humanitarian relief, legal services, power-building, and advocacy are just some examples of the vital work groups are leading in border communities.
A group photo of the learning trip delegation.
The learning trip left a lasting impact on Lincoln Mondy, a program officer at the Andrus Family Fund. He joined GCIR's Vice President of Programs Ivy O. Suriyopas and HIP's Director of the Migration and Climate Mobility Andrea Villaseñor de la Vega to share his personal reflections and experiences. You can hear his interview by pressing the orange play button below. Interview highlights, clips, and bonus audio in which Lincoln interviews Ivy and Andrea are also included below. We also invite you to read "A Powerful Journey to the US-Mexico Border," a blog post about the trip authored by HIP.
On how the learning trip changed Lincoln's perspectives on narratives about the U.S.-Mexico Border
Lincoln: "There were a lot of connections as I was listening to other experiences, other knowledge I have from the youth justice space, from the reproductive justice space, from youth organizing before philanthropy. It all just became clearer and clearer because partners and community members were talking about how no one wants to have to leave their family, to leave the only life they know, leave the region, leave their culture. No one wants to do that. That is a connection I also see in the family policing space, where a lot of cases revolve around punishing poverty. They don't want to have a leaky roof, they don't want to have not great access to water, but that's their reality. And if you're not going to fix their roof, if you're not going to give them water, then why are you the judge of their family? That is the connection that I started to see a lot more, it's always been about policing families.
I also recall a trip to Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Museum, and it's just all so clear that a lot of this has to do with racialized capitalism, it has to do with extraction, labor. It was really visceral with ARISE in the van going up to the border and on the drive there seeing this massive industrial space, I'm talking hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of warehouses. Stories were told about why there was a smell around some of the colonias or why the infrastructure was lacking, and no one could tell them until they started trying to build the International Bridge. I think that's a perfect example of what's at stake and also the barriers in place - and the systems. It's not on an individual basis, these are systems that are really, really intentional and designed to separate families, designed to have a default of whiteness, have a default of what an American patriot is, and just really tries to violently spell that out to anyone who dares to flee or want a better life or want different circumstances."
Pictured: Lincoln Mondy (center) pictured with members of the GCIR/HIP delegation.
On a memorable moment from the learning trip that stuck with Lincoln
Lincoln: "The one that comes to mind is riding in the van the first day with Ramona from ARISE and hearing her story about how she was looking for answers about problems that she saw in her community, and went to a neighborhood meeting. That's when she was in her early 20s, and here she is decades later leading the work and still in community. I think that was really powerful because, that's the story of a lot of youth advocates, young people who grow up and say, 'I'm not going to leave these morals and principles behind. I'm going to have the optimism to hope, to dare to beat back against these systems.' That's what Ramona did, and she was so welcoming and so warm with her time and her stories and the space. The best work I think is in community. In the neighborhood, in the colonias. It reminds me of the Black church and how that's always been a center of organizing because of proximity and usually there are a lot of Black families who live around Black churches so it just makes sense to organize in that space.
I think there's also, in my rationalized, trying-to-think-about-strategy brain that reminds me that a lot of our grantee partners, as I am learning and reading, are asking for more - or imploring - that there needs to be more third spaces, more physical spaces for organizing, more physical spaces for community because of attacks on public spaces - New York City doesn't have open libraries on the weekends anymore - things like that. People don't feel safe in other public settings. So I think it just really emphasized how important investing in organizing and funding organizing is, also place-based organizing, and also just wanting for there to be thousands more Ramonas out there. How do we build a pipeline, a system where people can live into their passions and live into what they see as solutions for their community?"
The learning trip delegation poses with ARISE.
BONUS AUDIO: Lincoln Interviews Ivy and Andrea
Listen as Lincoln asks Ivy and Andrea about what future learning trips might look like, and advice they would give to themselves upon entering philanthropy.