The Border Community Alliance is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to bridging the border and fostering community through education, collaboration and cultural exchange. |
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Dear Border Community Alliance (BCA) friends and supporters,
As the pace of BCA’s educational and cultural exchange programming slows down a bit for the summer so we can catch our breath, our Borderlands Ambassador internship program is just starting to get going!
We’re fortunate to welcome back Amy Tice, DSW, to be our Borderlands Ambassador Program Supervisor for the third year in a row. Amy is tremendously gifted at working with young people and we are glad to have her direct this program once again. Our Borderlands Ambassador program will run June 12-July 26 this year. Our interns will live in Nogales, AZ and conduct service learning projects in Nogales, Sonora for a nonprofit of their interest two days per week. The other days will be spent meeting with community leaders and residents in the borderlands and traveling to various borderlands communities, including Douglas/ Agua Prieta, Sells, Ambos Nogales, Tucson, Sonoyta and Ajo, among others.
We’ll be hosting two final presentation/ reception events to hear from our interns at the end of their stay with us. So please mark your calendars for:
• Monday, July 22, 3pm, at the United Methodist Church of Green Valley, 300 West Esperanza Blvd, Green Valley, AZ
• Friday, July 26, 4pm, at the Tubac Center of the Arts, 9 Plaza Road, Tubac, AZ
We hope you can join us for one of these events to meet and learn from our 2024 Borderlands Ambassadors.
Please see the article below to learn more about this year’s Ambassadors.
Wishing you a fulfilling and productive spring and we hope to see you at a BCA event, forum or tour soon.
In borderlands community,
Celia Bavier, Executive Director
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BCA would like to introduce our new 2024-2025 Board President, José López
José López was born and raised on the Mexican border in Laredo, Texas; the son of a Mexican immigrant father and Mexican American mother. He served in the US Army after graduating from the University of North Texas and is the father of three children and four grandkids.
His life's profession has been in education, starting as a teacher in Texas and eventually became a K12 administrator. Holding leadership positions as principal and subsequently as Superintendent of schools, José later moved to California in 1994 and started teaching Educational Leadership at the California State University, East Bay. He moved to Tubac in June 2019 and taught online classes and fully retired in 2021.
José joined the BCA Board of Directors in 2021. He served as Treasurer for 2 years and was elected President effective 2024. He seeks to broaden the reach of BCA into Tucson and Nogales.
“It is important for me to contribute to the BCA community given my lived experiences as a son of a Mexican immigrant and as Mexican American.” – José
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We'd also like to introduce two new BCA Board members,
Dusty DeHaven and Seth Schermerhorn.
Welcome Dusty and Seth!
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Dusty DeHaven retired to Tucson in 2020, after a career primarily in the nonprofit world and as the owner of a small boutique in her native Michigan. Her professional experience includes marketing and communications work for a newspaper, a hospice organization and with Michigan's federally designated organ and tissue recovery organization. She loves the arts, books and just about anything creative.
Dusty discovered BCA at the Tucson Festival of Books and was instantly enamored with its mission and the offerings it presents to learn more about the rich cultural heritage of the borderlands.
"This organization provides such an opportunity to listen, learn and share what is really happening in the communities of southern Arizona and northern Mexico and beyond," Dusty said. "I think BCA is unique in what it offers, and I am so happy and proud to be a part of it."
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Seth Schermerhorn is Associate Professor & Director of American Studies at Hamilton College. He is the author of Walking to Magdalena: Personhood and Place in Tohono O’odham Songs, Sticks, and Stories, which was co-published by the University of Nebraska Press and the American Philosophical Society in 2019. He is also the co-editor of Movement and Indigenous Religions, which was published by Routledge in 2024. He is the founding editor of Indigenous Religious Traditions.
“I started working with BCA in 2019 as a consultant as BCA was making Pilgrimage to Magdalena, an award-winning film that is, hands down, the best and single most accessible introduction to the Magdalena pilgrimage. It’s been a wonderful experience and I’m honored to become more deeply involved in BCA’s work as a board member.
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This article was reprinted with permission from the FESAC Bulletin, Issue #15. (Other FESAC Bulletins and articles can be found here.)
In Loving Memory of Gilda Loureiro
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Introducing the 2024
BCA Borderlands Ambassadors
Amy Tice, BCA Intern Program Supervisor/Coordinator
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After receiving a record number of applicants (49), the internship committee had our work cut out for us with the task of narrowing a highly qualified pool down to the 6 students who were selected to participate in our program this summer. This year’s group ranges from those just completing their first year of college to recent college graduates and attend schools from the East Coast to the West, with a variety of academic backgrounds and interests.
Below is a summary bio for each participant, including their home state, college or university, year of graduation, major, and academic or personal interests. As you will see, we have an outstanding group of young people coming to the Arizona Borderlands this summer!
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Jamie Aciukewicz: Massachusetts; UMass-Lowell, class of 2023; World Language (Spanish); interested in photography, basketball and soccer, and is currently working in Querétaro, Mexico. In his application, Jamie stated, “The program’s focus on community work, encompassing volunteer projects and discussions with community leaders, is a highlight that resonates deeply with my belief that building connected communities is integral to addressing issues on a national scale.”
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Kai Carse: New York; Pomona College, class of 2024; International Relations; intends to pursue a career in immigration law and policy; loves the outdoors- specifically hiking and camping, mentoring, film, and sports. Kai has experience working with two legal aid organizations where he took or transcribed interviews of asylum applicants: Al Otro Lado in California and Safe Passage Project in New York.
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Juan Giron: Arizona; University of Arizona, class of 2027; Philosophy, Politics. Economics, and Law; interests include traveling, soccer, and politics. Juan is a current first-year student in the W.A. Franke Honors College and feels that “the opportunity to work with BCA without a doubt can be crucial to making political and cultural discoveries in Arizona which can very likely become the foundation for my future research.”
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Isabel Pan: California; Pitzer College, class of 2026; American Studies; interests include women in the labor industry, art, and creative writing. Isabel is both a practicing artist and an educator, with experience in art workshops and as a creative writing mentor for 2nd grade students. “At heart I am a story-teller, whether that is through visual arts or creative writing, and in this program I would be thrilled to open up a space to others to also practice their form of expressing themselves in creative ways.”
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Callie Stolar: Illinois; Northwestern University, class of 2025; Religious Studies with a concentration in law and politics; interested in indigenous culture, drawing and painting, and has a background in a variety of sports including basketball and Taekwondo. Callie is anticipating that “this internship will create a thread of human connection within border politics and broaden my understanding of the humanity at stake.”
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Mira Zaslow: New York; Wesleyan College, class of 2026; English and Anthropology; interests include migration, border politics, and human rights as well as public health and medical access, art, reading, and community partnerships. Mira has been involved in programs in New York where she taught art classes to migrant children, and provided tutoring in English.
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Mark Your Calendars -
Upcoming BCA Events & Tours
May 2, 6pm, “Borderlands Forum with Atascosa Borderlands”. Atascosa Borderlands is a long-term visual storytelling project by Luke Swenson (Documentary Photographer) and Jack Dash (Naturalist and Writer). Since 2017, they have been working to better understand the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands alongside ecologists, cattle ranchers, humanitarian aid workers, migrants, hunters, ex-border patrol agents, and indigenous community members. This project will ultimately bring together hundreds of original film photographs, oral history interviews, botanical specimens, historical images, and found objects; creating a living archive dedicated to this remote 42-mile section of the US-Mexico border. During this presentation, Luke & Jack will share the photographs and some of the stories they’ve collected so far in this project. Location: BCA Office, 8 Burruel Street, Tubac. Free event - donations welcome. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
May 3, 8:30am-2pm, “Humanitarian Aid in the Borderlands: A Tour of the Arivaca community’s response”. We’ll meet at BCA’s office in Tubac at 8:30am and hop in a van for a drive to the community of Arivaca. We’ll visit the humanitarian aid office there and hear a presentation from aid workers. We’ll then head to site of a Humane Borders water tank and witness some of the crosses planted as markers to those who have died while migrating. The tour will conclude with lunch at La Gitana Cantina in Arivaca. Tour fee: $45 members; $55 non-members. Includes van transportation, tour guides and lunch. Location: Meet at the BCA Office, 8 Burruel Street at 8:30am. THIS TOUR IS FULL - THERE IS A WAITLIST. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
May 8, 10-11:30am, Borderlands Literature & Film Circle event: “Mountain Time: A Field Guide to Astonishment” by Renata Golden. Interview & discussion with the author about her new book which interweaves stories from her own life with stories of the ever evolving systems of the Southwest, particularly the Chiricuhua Mountains in southeast Arizona, and by extension all the borderlands sky islands, riparian areas and desert spaces. Event is on Zoom. Free event - Suggested donation of $10. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area. Via Zoom
May 14, 9am-1pm, “The Renaissance of Nogales, AZ Tour”. if you haven’t been to downtown Nogales, AZ lately, you’ll be amazed at the beautiful murals and galleries that are popping up. We’ll begin at the old Courthouse on Morley Avenue. This is a walking tour that will take us to the Wittner Museum and La Linea Gallery where Nogales native and historian, Evan Kory, will tell us about efforts to revive the arts culture in Nogales. We’ll walk down Morley and look at the new murals all around and near the border wall. We’ll end with a guided tour of the Pimeria Alta Historical Society Museum. We encourage you to treat yourself to lunch at any of the many great eateries in Nogales, and further explore. Tour fee: $15. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
May 16, 5:30pm, Borderlands Forum: “Ceremonial & Sacred Plants of Border Cultures”. Join us for a forum with Gary Paul Nabhan, internationally recognized nature writer, agrarian activist, and ethnobiologist. This forum will focus on borderlands plants used for food and medicinal purposes, as well as sacred and ceremonial purposes by various borderlands cultures for millennia. The forum will highlight the work of a new collaboration of tribal spiritual leaders, faith-based nonprofits, scientific organizations and habitat restoration institututes, who are working to restore these important plants and restore their natural habitats. Free event - Suggestion donation of $15. Location: Tin Shed Theater, Patagonia. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
May 23, 10am, “Hummingbirds of the Borderlands" with Jeff Babson. During this session will hear about the fascinating world of hummingbirds, which are found only in the Americas, from above the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America. Jeff owns Sky Island Tours, an environmental education and eco-tour company. Jeff is also the Wildlife Viewing Program Specialist for the Pima County Department of Natural Resources, Parks, and Recreation, where he offers a range of walks and programs on a wide range of topics on the natural world. Free Event, $10 Suggested Donation. On Zoom. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
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Join us for the Southern Arizona Community Water Forum - cohosted by ASU and Border Community Alliance. Located in the beautiful Wittner Museum, the forum will be an enlightening event focused on all things water-related. Dive into discussions, presentations, and activities centered around our community’s most precious resource. Connect with fellow community members, experts, and hear directly from local leaders passionate about shaping Arizona’s water future. Don't miss this opportunity to learn, engage, and make a difference.
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Teatro Dignidad presents a World Premier of the new play
by renowned Mexican playwright Hugo Salcedo:
2NOGALES
Directed by Eva Zorilla Tessler
Hugo Salcedo weaves the words of asylum seekers staying at a shelter in Nogales, Sonora back and forth inside the mouths of a group of actors traversing an unknown stage. In this compelling new play and multimedia production, these true accounts bring forth testimonials of harrowing journeys and stories of hope and resistance.
May 9-26, 2024
Temple of Music & Art, Cabaret Theater (upstairs)
330 S. Scott Avenue, Tucson, AZ
For information and to purchase tickets, go here.
BCA is a partnering sponsor of this event.
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Office Hours Vary
Call for appointment
(520)398-3229
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Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 1863
Tubac, AZ 85646
Physical Address (no mail):
8 Burruel St
Tubac, AZ 85646
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