My name is juan and i would like to share some reflections on my experience at the border camp and some ideas that might have made the camp even more successful than it was. first off i would like to say that i whole heartedly include myself in the critiques that i'm offering up.

I'm always talking up the hugely successful "Root Cause" march from Lake Worth to Miami Florida which lead up to the FTAA protests. I think that it's a good event for others to compare themselves to because it went so well. A big part of it's success was the coalition building that went into the infrastructure of the march. There was a strong leadership and participation from people of color and a diverse set of groups w/ a diverse set of agendas were involved in putting it together. from what i recall there was the miami worker's center which advocates for worker's rights and services in miami. There was the coalition of imokoli workers who advocate for tomato growers in imokole and lead successful campaigns against taco bell and mcdonalds. and there was the art and revolution type crowd making big masks and puppets and costumes to make the whole spectacle beautiful to behold.

i know from speaking with some of the folks from San Diego that there were lots of effort and hurdles to jump over in order for coalition building to take place and that it didn't work out so well in the end but as a participant it definetly felt like this element was missing from the border camp. this could have added a bit more guidance in terms of what sort of actions to take and could have also amplified the levels of diversity in the camp in terms of race and age.

the other critique is where i wish i would have stepped up more. the camp and the march seemed to remain largely invisible to it's immediate surroundings. the initial march from the parking lot to the sight was not in a very visible place in calexico. it might have been better had it snaked around downtown a bit more than it had and could also have done the same on the mexican side of the border. it would have been good to have some handouts to give to onlookers to explain what the march was about. i wasn't at this march but it sounded like there was some confusion as to what our message was. Then the march that took place at the end was also in a very isolated part of downtown calexico. i know that it was symbolically on both sides of the fence but in hindsight it would have been great had it gone through downtown with a bit more beautiful spectacle because it was a busy day that day but not where the march was taking place. it could have then returned to the fence so we could be on either side of the fence again.

i was thinking that a cool visual for a march like this would have been lots of monarch butterfly wing flags. monarchs migrate north from mexico every year and also represent the souls of the dead returning for the day of the dead. i work with a group in austin that did a puppet show about monarch butterfly migration that would have been good for me to bring.

lastly there was the idea of doing more workshops and such at parks in calexico but i think it would have been better to bring workshops downtown. imagine waffle's slide show about immigrants in arizona on the streets of mexicali or calexico in the evening. or if i would have done a beehive collective presentation there. that would have been great! and things like this would have made the camp much more visible and culturally stimulating for the communities that were our nieghboors during the days of the border camp.

thanks to the organizers of this encampment who worked so hard to make it happen. it's hard to get things right the first time. i for one am really inspired by what we didn't do so that we can make it a better event next time.