Sophomore Sasha Bechtler-Levin’s De Colores trip proved to be a truly enlightening, gripping experience. What Sasha experienced was far from the usual Spring Break “shenanigans,” as she writes in her reflection below, and her selfless actions ended up changing not only herself, but those she worked with and continues to talk to. You can learn more about LMU’s De Colores program on their website here.
“When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change.”
~ Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.
This is what the backs of our t-shirts read. Over the course of the weekend, I began to feel the truth in these words. For a San Diego native, I knew shockingly little of the “immigration issue.” LMU Campus Ministry’s March De Colores trip to Tijuana, Mexico, shone a harsh light on this fact, and as often happens when we are thrown into bright lights, both literal and representative, it took my eyes a while to adjust. So it wasn’t until I had some time back on the bluff to properly reflect on the trip and the quotation that I really felt the weight of its meaning.
A volunteer at Casa del Migrante, one of our destinations on the trip, mentioned that the next stop on her tour of problematic borders of the world was the Morocco-Spain border. At this, my friend noted that she had crossed that very same border during her semester abroad in Spain, and had never even realized there was a conflict there. The truth is that many of us travel somewhat blindly. College may take us all over the world from mission trips to study abroad, even spring break shenanigans; if we do not, as Patrick, our faculty trip leader, gently reminded us, keep our hearts and minds open, we will miss so much of what goes on beyond our borders, or even in our own backyards.
In our final reflection on the beach at Friendship Park, the one area along the Mexico-U.S. fence where families and friends can interact, Patrick challenged us to, when asked how the trip went, tell two people about what we experienced, and how it touched us. In a society where the expected response to “How are you?” is “good,” this challenge was a daunting one. So far, the people I opened up to about the trip, have made it their mission to go on a De Colores trip at the next possible opportunity. The experience of sharing my reflection with friends has proved to be an extension of the trip itself. While that weekend served as a jumping off point, the true change is happening through the conversations that have followed.