AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In the national dialogue and Republican politics, the U.S.-Mexico border is often depicted as a no-man's-land of destitute migrants, razor wire and men with guns. A new performance project in Texas wants to challenge that notion, using music, photographs and spoken word. Reporter John Burnett has this preview of Postcards From The Border.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: Oscar Casares conceived this project as a series of postcards written to his then-10-year-old daughter, Elena. He's a writer, English professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and a native son of the south Texas borderlands. Casares and photographer Joel Salcido zigzag down the international river from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico, stopping along the way. This excerpt is from the just-released soundtrack of the production.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
OSCAR CASARES: (As himself) Hi, Elena. In the little town of Los Avenos, there is no bridge to get to the other side of the river. Six strong men pull the ferry across the water.
BURNETT: In this vignette, he and Salcido cross the Rio Grande in a hand-pulled ferry. Attendants muscle the tiny barge across the water by means of a rope anchored on both sides of the river. It's been there long before the U.S. border was bristling with electronic sensors and surveillance cameras.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CASARES: (As himself) This is the last hand-drawn ferry along the entire river. And when you're on it, it feels like the men are pulling you back in time.
BURNETT: The "Postcards" production chronicles all manner of life along the international divide - a Mexican family playing in the river, a trans singer who crosses a border that's inside of her, a father and son from Africa cleaning windshields for tips in Mexico, and miracle seekers who trek to a Catholic shrine in Texas. The idea was to humanize this political hotbed. Casares and Salcido made the downstream journey in 2019, during Donald Trump's first term with its headlines about the wall and migrant detention and family separation. The border is about to heat up again with the returning president's vows to shut it down and initiate mass deportations.
CASARES: I think when we took this trip, we had a very clear sense of the story we were looking for. We understood the story that the Trump administration was telling about the border. Our mission was to go out and find that other story 'cause we'd lived it.
BURNETT: Raised in the Rio Grand Valley, Casares is weary of seeing his homeland defined by encounters between migrants and the border patrol.
CASARES: I imagined that people who weren't from there could only think of it as some sort of wasteland, deprived of any civility, of anything that makes that area so incredibly rich - the families, the culture, the languages.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CUMBIA DE LA FRONTERA")
CARRIE RODRIGUEZ: (Singing in Spanish).
BURNETT: His musical collaborator is Carrie Rodriguez, the acclaimed singer, songwriter and fiddler based in Austin. She describes her music as Americhicana (ph).
ROGRIGUEZ: I really knew nothing about the border. And as soon as I got there, I just felt like I was in - it's like it's its own country.
BURNETT: Rodriguez grew up in a wealthy Anglo neighborhood of Austin. Some of her music, including the Postcards project, is an exploration of her bicultural identity. Her introduction to the border was a Casares family picnic with tacos and pinatas and ice cold beer.
ROGRIGUEZ: And I just completely fell in love with the way of life and the people and the way that English and Spanish flows back and forth like water. I think part of me felt a little bit of sadness, too, because I got to know Oscar's family. And I saw so many families who have been able to hold onto their culture in a way that a lot of Mexican-Americans here in Texas haven't, including my own family.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CASARES: (As himself) Hola, Elena. This is my last postcard. Today, we reached the very end of the river, where it meets the gulf.
BURNETT: Casares says, when he finally reached the mouth of the Rio Grande, he slipped into the river by accident and then decided to swim to the Mexican side.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CASARES: (As himself) I only stayed long enough to feel the sand between my toes, then I swam out again. But this time, I let the current push me closer to where it stopped being a river and became a sea, out to where, suddenly, there were no sides. And it was just me floating on my back under a sky that belonged to all of us. See you soon. Dad.
BURNETT: The premiere of Postcards From The Border next weekend in Austin has sold out. Oscar, Carrie and Joel plan to take their stage production to Texas border cities and then, hopefully, nationwide to offer folks a different view of a misunderstood region.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MILES AWAY")
ROGRIGUEZ: (Singing in Spanish). (Singing) Don't hurry. Just wait to see a great era.
BURNETT: She sings, tell me a story, something other than the news today. Let's feel our roots grow strong beyond the banks that roll along the Rio Grande, even when we're miles away.
For NPR News, I'm John Burnett in Austin.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MILES AWAY")
ROGRIGUEZ: (Singing) Let's turn the radio on and play a new (singing in Spanish). Tell me a story, something other than the news today. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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