On Sunday, November 24, I will be presenting my paper entitled “We Already Have A Border Wall: The Us/Mexican Border As Cultural Complex” at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in the Psychology, Culture, and Religion Unit with the theme: Denial in the Midst of Cultural Crisis: Psychological and Religious Responses to Climate Change and Migration on Sunday, November 24 from 5:30 PM–7:00 PM in the San Diego Convention Center-28A (Upper Level East).
This is a really big deal for me. There are over 1,000 sessions, workshops, and other events taking place and thousands of participants. I
In the early 1980s, I visited West and East Berlin and took a photo of a wall that came down thirty years ago. Visiting East Berlin and being hassled over my passport on the way back was an unnerving experience. Now I live in a country that supports border walls even though we were opposed to the Berlin Wall.
I have lived in San Diego more than half my life and this paper is my attempt to understand why people who don’t live here are so concerned about how the San Diego / Tijuana Metropolitan area address issues of economy, environment, and family.
In working on this paper, I have come to realize how huge this topic is. This is only the first in what I hope are a series of papers on cultural complexes and how we as a nation can start healing.