“The stories Bowden tells are often gut-wrenching, but she gives us hope in a world of angry political rhetoric in the resilience of the human spirit and the healing power of good works.”
About Peg Bowden
Peg is a retired nurse (RN, MS) who lives in Arizona close to the Mexico border. She says life in the borderlands is like having one foot in Mexico and one foot in the United States—a lifestyle rich in culture, diversity, and political discourse. When she crosses into Mexico several times per week and volunteers at an aid station known as el comedor, she serves breakfast, passes out needed clothing and medical supplies, and provides counsel to migrants and asylum seekers. Peg also gives talks and presentations on border issues, and campaigns for human rights.
When she’s not traveling across the border searching for the perfect fish taco, she plays the timpani in a concert band, paints watercolors of her beloved desert, and writes. Peg lives with her husband, two dogs, a feral cat named Tamale, and a lot of open range cattle.
—The family of Peg Bowden is very sorry to convey this sad news: Peg passed away on December 27th, 2020, of pancreatic cancer.
Spring prickly pear blossoms—delicate and definitely prickly.
Trekking on a remote trail carrying life-giving water.
About the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands
Life in the Arizona borderlands is an odd mix of sublime beauty and unmitigated turmoil. If you depend on the media, the news out of southern Arizona is always bad. Climate change, economic and political volatility, border disputes about who can cross and who cannot, and the passage of illicit drugs in the waiting markets of the U.S. all contribute to headlines in the newspapers.
In spite of the political unrest, the Mexican culture—the arts, food, music, celebrations—continues to be a vibrant element in the lives of the people. In the borderlands, there is a wonderful fusion of Latino restaurants, art galleries, musical groups, and products that you won’t see anywhere else in the country. Grocery stores feature ten or more different types of chilies and Mexican cheeses. Pottery, clothing and metal sculptors are featured in every border city. Most people have some fluency in both English and Spanish.
The border wall which covers 750 miles of the almost 2000 mile U.S./Mexico border is a death trap for desperate people trying to return to their families and jobs in los Estados Unidos. Many do not have the proper documents to cross legally, so they risk their lives to cross the border for jobs, for family, for love. The wall has funneled thousands of people into some of the most treacherous stretches of land in the world. Many (maybe most) will never be found; those that make it to their destination are scarred in ways we will never know. The people of Central America and the southern states of Mexico are fleeing their homes because of poverty, corruption, a lack of work, and violence in the streets. The government has failed to respond to the people’s need for security and safety. Children are kept home from school because of gang recruitment into the drug trade.
Droughts and floods destroy crops, and the small farmers of Mexico cannot survive. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has destroyed the peasant agrarian culture of Mexico. Trade agreements which favor North American agriculture have caused thousands of Mexican farmers to sell their land and migrate north. With the drama of global climate change and the political unrest in Latin America, the migration of people to a safer place is a human right.
In the summer of 2019, over one thousand people wait in simple shelters in Nogales, Mexico, for the chance to plead their asylum case. They want to enter the United States legally. This issue is not going away, and it is time for the United States to face that fact. It is time to legislate a humane, comprehensive policy which addresses the migration of desperate people.
Life in the borderlands is complex, and can be all-consuming. It is an exhilarating, confounding, and often exhausting place to spend my retirement years. There is no other place I would rather be.
- Peg
Fence politics in Ambos Nogales
“Truly welcoming the stranger, opening her heart and her home to those who are suffering, no one would ever be a stranger at Peg Bowden’s door.”