October 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 58

B O R D E R PA R K S

- the Rio Grande is the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. The park
partners on conservation efforts
with the World Wildlife Fund and
the Comisión Nacional de Áreas
Naturales Protegidas (CONANP),
a Mexican federal agency that protects natural areas and manages the

Santa Elena Canyon protected area
on the Mexican side of the border.
The Big Bend National Park has
law enforcement rangers who work
closely with U.S. Border Patrol
agents to ensure park safety. " This
is an amazing park, with breathtaking vistas, incredible biodiversity
and fantastic opportunities for rec-

reation. Its remoteness enhances
the park, giving it the darkest night
skies of any park in the continental
U.S., " says Jennette Jurado, public
information officer for Big Bend
National Park. In fact, Jurado
adds: " Its location on the border
gives visitors even more great opportunities, including the ability to
cross through our Port of Entry to
a remote village in Mexico, where
local border culture and amazing
food can add to your visit. "

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARIA TERESA FERNANDEZ

Balancing Visitation
with Security

t had been eight years since Noel had seen his parents. He came to the United
States from Mexico when he was 16 years old. Today, he works as a drywaller in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a special U.S. permit. Noel is married with two young
children, and he wanted his parents to see their grandchildren, whom they had
never met.
This past July, Noel and his family traveled from Milwaukee to Friendship
Park at the California/Mexico border to meet his parents who had traveled from
Guadalajara, Mexico: each traveling more than 2,000 miles. On a bright Saturday
morning for four hours, they visited, each standing on their side of the fence at
Friendship Park. " It looked like we were in jail with all the fencing, " Noel says.
" And, it was sad that we couldn't touch each other. "
Noel, his family and his parents returned the next day for another four-hour visit,
again with a fence between them. " It was so good to see them - it had been so long
since we had seen each other. " Noel and his family plan to make the trek to visit
each other at Friendship Park again in December.

Parks & Recreation

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Along our southern border, fencing that once consisted of wire has
been replaced by metal walls and
concrete posts in many areas. This
is the area being focused on in the
nationwide discussion about creating a wall along the entire southern
border. To date, almost 700 miles
of completed fencing spans the
1,900 miles of border with Mexico.
Nowhere else along our borders
is the conflict between security and
park visitors more apparent than
at Friendship Park, on the Tijuana and U.S. border. Since the mid1800s, people from both countries
have been meeting at this site. In
1971, First Lady Pat Nixon dedicated a park at the site as a symbol of friendship between the two
countries. Today, this site is the
only binational meeting place that
is federally designated along the
border with Mexico.
Until the mid-1990s, there was
no border fence at Friendship Park,
and people from both countries
visited each other in the park under the watchful eye of U.S. Border
Patrol. In 1994, a 14-mile fence
was constructed along this section
of the border, creating a physical
barrier between visitors, but people were still allowed to touch each

October 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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