In the calm before the storm…

It is less than 24 hours until Hurricane Alex makes landfall and residents here in the Rio Grande Valley (“the Valley”) are preparing for the worst. Lines at grocery stores snake through the aisles as residents stock up on water, sand bags, coolers, and anything else they might need if the power goes out or rain begins to pour in during the storm. McAllen, TX is expecting between 12 and 18 inches of rain in just a few hours. The city has opened floodgates to lower the river and buses and various emergency vehicles are being readied to evacuate those hit hardest. But despite the best preparations, some families have more to fear as the clouds roll in.

The Valley is home to over 1,200 of Texas’ 2,294 “colonias” or unincorporated subdivisions. While colonias exist in New Mexico and Arizona, Texas with more than 400,000 people, has the most residents living in colonias. More than 65% of colonia residents, and 85% of those under 18, are U.S. citizens. So what does an “unincorporated subdivision” mean? Well, much of the land that the colonias were/are built on is what Texas Secretary of State, Hope Andrade, calls “worthless land”—land that is too full of pesticides to continue to farm, or is located on a floodplain. Starting in the 1950s this unusable land was sold, lot by tiny lot, to low income families with little or no infrastructure in place. Developers, not required to provide potable water or sewage connections, leave new residents to fend for themselves. The result is often dirt roads, home-built outhouses or shallow septic tanks, hoses and extension cords snaking through windows to share water supplies and electricity between neighbors and makeshift homes barely holding together even in the best of weather. Residents build their homes on this land using scrap materials, tar paper, packing crates, old RV’s and whatever else can be found. This land, while cheaper than most, is sold at much more than it is worth and families who can not pay for it outright (and most cannot) face interests rates as high as 30%. Decades later, many families struggle get out from under the burden of this debt, and find themselves still unable to improve their homes. During floods it is these communities, the Valley’s poorest, who will suffer the most. Outhouses and makeshift septic fields are prone to overflow. Roads wash out. Roofs leak and whole houses collapse in the wind and rain. Today’s news warned that low laying areas can expect 3-5 feet of water tomorrow.

During our stay in the Valley, Carolyn and I will be working with Proyecto Azteca, a non-profit that helps provide affordable homes and repairs to families in the colonias using a combination of 0% interest loans, sweat equity hours, and small repairs grants. We will be walking door to door with Proyecto Azteca staffers administering questionnaires to determine what condition homes are in and what level of assistance they qualify for. During our visit in January 2010 we were privileged to witness as family, a mother and her two young sons, visiting their new home as the finishing touches were being applied. The boys raced around the house laughing and explaining to anyone interested that “this is our new home”.

Ann Cass, Proyecto Azteca’s executive director called us a few hours ago to let us know that they would be closed tomorrow and most likely Thursday and Friday because of the storm. Staffers who are able, will be joining Valley volunteer teams at local shelters to care for those that are displaced by the storm. She promised she would call on us as soon as soon as the worst of the storm had passed, expressing gratitude that two extra sets of hands would be on board.

Yesterday a front running gubernatorial candidate was murdered along with three aides just over the border in Mexico (one of 23,000 is the last 3 ½ years who’s lives have been lost to the drug related violence in Mexico). Tonight patches of blue sky are still visible and hummingbirds flit around the orange tree as neighbors return home with gallons of extra water. An hour away along the coast, people continue to watch for oil to wash up on Gulf beaches. As the sunset over the borderlands we sit and wait for what tomorrow will bring. Grateful to be here, bearing witness as life unfolds.

- link to video made in January about the colonias by a Union student: