What It's Like to Live in Mexico and Commute Daily to School in the United States Heriberto Garcia - Borderzine
go to original December 24, 2016

More than 20,000 people pass through El Paso's ports of entry every day. Many of them are students. (Borderzine Reporting Across Fronteras)

Mariana Sierra taps the steering wheel and stares at the line of cars ahead of her Dodge Nitro on the Paso Del Norte International Bridge as she waits for her turn to cross into El Paso from Juárez, Mexico.

She’s been in the express lane for 30 minutes.

Sierra’s favorite musicians, the Mexican Girl group Ha-Ash plays on the radio. With one hand on her mascara and the other on the steering wheel, Sierra slowly inches her car forward as the line moves. She estimates it will take at least another ten minutes before she reaches the point of entry, hand her U.S. Passport to the border patrol officer, and recite the same daily response.

“I am on my way to school, sir,” she says.

The 22-year-old is a junior at the University of Texas at El Paso, studying multimedia journalism. She began her daily commute across the border when she was a high school student at Loretto Academy, an all-girl Catholic school in Central El Paso. During this time she would cross the bridge every day either with her mother, or carpooling with some classmates who also lived in Juárez.

“I wake up two hours in advance to be on time to class or to work. Its something natural to me. However, when I share my experience with others, (they are shocked) but the thing is that its normal to us. Its another struggle we have to face and we are okay with that,” Sierra said.

While some find crossing the border to be a frustrating experience with long wait times and street vendors, it isn’t considered a big deal by fronterizos, people who regularly commute la Frontera, the border, said Hector Padilla a political science lecturer at UTEP and professor at UACJ.

Read the rest at Borderzine

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