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In America: stories of struggle--and improbable success--from the colonias of South Texas.

Article Excerpt
ALONG THE TEXAS BORDER running between El Paso and Brownsville there are some 1,500 colonias: rural, unincorporated, and often poverty-stricken communities where immigrants have bought inexpensive lots and settled in for their first taste of the American dream. This winter I traveled to a handful of these communities, a few of which have existed now for more than four decades, to compile a portfolio of drawings that would tell some of the stories that make up the colonias experience. While I encountered many families living in deplorable conditions, I also witnessed countless acts of near-miraculous transformation. With the help of unions and churches, many of the residents I visited were wielding their political power for the first time and slowly creating a better existence--sometimes brick by brick--for their families.

The LOPEZ FAMILY

Mariano and Marta Lopez, of Colonia Lago, are trying to construct a permanent home, a common goal throughout the colonias. The family lives in a small blue trailer while Mariano builds their new house next door. "It's difficult," says Marta. "Whatever we save, we spend it on the house. My husband works all week, sometimes Saturday and Sunday. He started building here in December. My thirteen-year-old son is a very good helper." The design of the house was Mariano's idea: "I learned building in Mexico with my parents during the Mexico City earthquake, in 1985. Now I'm hoping to start my own Construction company. I have four workers. I registered my company under my name."

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U.S. senator KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON

Changes really started happening in the colonias when the politicians began to pay attention. Elizabeth Valdez, the lead organizer for Valley Interfaith, a network of more than forty churches and schools that helps organize residents along the border, showed me a picture of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's visit in 1994. "This is her at a colonia in Mercedes. It was raining that day. She slipped in the drainage ditch but didn't go all the way down. The roads weren't paved, and it was slush, mud, and water."

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CARMEN ANAYA

Ernesto Cortes, the Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, has been supervising the IAF's organizing in the colonias for the past three decades: "Valley Interfaith started working with residents in Las Milpas [outside of Pharr]. We saw that the real leader there was...

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