Border Community to Hold Public Response to Regulated Theft of Its Beloved River

(Mission, TX)-- A public ritual is planned to mourn the end of a way of life and inspire resistance. On Sunday, May 26, the day before the Memorial Day holiday, the No Border Wall Grassroots Coalition and other sponsoring organizations are planning an alternative celebration, more reckoning than relaxing. At 4:00 - 8:30 pm the public is invited to the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, to partake in a multi-faceted experience at the banks of the Rio Grande—invocation, procession, offering, community sing/voces del pueblo, and a meal—to memorialize the river that will be lost if the federal government walls it off from South Texas communities and the rest of the United States.

“We, who reside on the Rio Grande Delta, will not cede our river without a fight for our heritage,” said Jonathan Salinas, an organizer of next Sunday’s event and a spokesman for the coalition. “In Memoriam Rio Grande is not designed as a regular protest with speeches, signs and chants. This is something different, something meant to go deeper—a protest of the soul, if you will.”

In 2018 and 2019 appropriations bills, Congress allocated the funds to build more than 90 more miles of concrete slab and steel bollard border walls, enough to wall off most of the rest of the Rio Grande Valley from the river, creating a no man’s land. In addition to losing free access to the river that is the lifeblood of valley communities as well as the water source for over two million residents, if these walls go up, families will lose their homes and farms to a deeply flawed and discriminatory eminent domain condemnation process, wildlife habitat will be destroyed where only a remnant remains, and more migrants and asylum seekers could be pushed into crossing through hostile desert areas where so many have died so cruelly.

In an opening ceremony that will commence promptly at 5:00 pm, Edward Vidaurre, the Poet Laureate of McAllen, Texas will recite an elegaic poem specially composed for the occasion. A welcoming song in the Aztec language of Nahuatl will follow. Led by percussionists, participants will then walk a mile to a slow deliberate beat in procession on the grounds of the National Butterfly Center to the banks of the Rio Grande. All will sing selected river songs and songs of community solidarity as they process, accompanied by guitarists. Everyone is asked to make and bring original artworks to carry on procession and to place on an ofrenda or altar next to the river.

At the riverside stage, local cello ensemble, Camarata Cellista, will play lush contemplative works like the Barber Adagio, as the altar is decorated with paintings, garlands, cyanotpes and figurines. Movement elder and local hero Zulema Hernandez will sing an anthem of resistance to the gathering. More live music and poetry will follow as people engage with the art in the river setting. After the performances and a community sing-along, a meal will be served under a large tent and those gathered will enjoy fellowship by the Rio Grande until 8:30 p.m.

Organizer Martha Garcia of the Environmental Awareness Club at UTRGV invites everyone to feel welcome to attend and participate in this free community event.

“The art, music, and poetry are creative expressions of our grief at the destruction we face due to the border wall and militarization, and of our hope that together we’ll build enough people power to triumph over the forces of fear and hatred so that our home can remain unmolested by a border barrier wall,” she said.

The event cosponsors are Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Sierra Club, Environmental Awareness Club at UTRGV, National Butterfly Center, Texas Civil Rights Project, La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the Angry Tias and Abuelas, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Center for Biological Diversity.

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Additional Information and Links:

Children are welcome, and there will be children’s activities at the river—yoga, dance movement, art with nature, face-painting.

Procession songs (lyrics and videos will be available on event Facebook page):
“No nos Moverán”
“Sacred Ground”
“El pueblo unido jamás será vencido”
“Down By the Riverside”
“What Are Their Names?”

Community Sing/ Voces del Pueblo Songs (lyrics and videos will be available on event Facebook page):
"The River Keeps Flowing”
"Building Bridges" - four part canon
“Señora Santa Ana”
“River" (Bill Staines) - perform in D major
"Swimming to the Other Side” (Pat Humphries)
“Sailing Down My Golden River” (Pete Seeger)
“Come Along With Me” (Pete Seeger)
Responsive Chant: “I’m Not Giving Up”
“No nos Moverán”

All songs will be taught and practiced at an open community rehearsal to be held from 6 - 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hidalgo County, 1401 S. Nebraska Ave., San Juan, TX 78589.

The final community Art Build will be held at 5:30 p.m. - 8p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, at the McAllen Creative Incubator, 601 N. Main St., McAllen, TX 78501.

Camping will be available at the National Butterfly Center, 3333 Butterfly Park Dr., Mission, TX 78572, on Saturday and Sunday evenings, May 25 and 26, for this special event, so that folks from out of town will have a place to stay, and so that everyone has the unique experience of spending the night next to the beautiful Rio Grande. Tents can be checked out from the NBC. Please register HERE.

In Memoriam Poster English

In Memoriam Poster Spanish

For updated information join the event on the In Memoriam Rio Grande: A Protest Against the Border Wall Facebook page.