You may want to get on the Big Bend Chat Page or the Big Bend National Park web page and see what the latest information is on crossings.
Geary -----Original Message----- From: Nico Escamilla [mailto:pitboun...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 6:27 PM To: Mike Gross Cc: Ted Samsel; Cave Texas Subject: Re: [Texascavers] All border crossings to be put into a data base. Last year Tone Garot and I were scouting for bat caves in that area. we heard stories about that little cafe/diner thingie and it was our intention to actually go there but two things kept us from doing so, we from locals that both the La Linda and the Boquillas crossings had been shut for a while the cafe owner had died and so did his business, and number two, the roads were in terrible shape, that is without mentioning the locked gates along the road. beautiful landscapes, lots of shelter caves. On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 6:15 PM, Mike Gross <mgr...@cwa-tseu.org> wrote: There is a more tragic element to this basic story. The town of Boquillas del Carmen sits across the river from the upstream end of Boquillas Canyon, near Rio Grande Village at Big Bend National Park. It was part of a long-standing -- over 100 years -- cross-border community, with people from Boquillas historically coming across to shop, families with members on both sides, and until recently Boquillas making nearly all of the town's income from park visitors crossing over for dinner, curios, a drink, etc. It's a long, hard drive to any major town or city in Mexico -- 300 or so km to Monclova and probably over 400 to Saltillo. Many long-time BBNP visitors knew the Falcon family in Boquillas. Jose (he was the guy in the wheelchair) ran the cafe for many years, died a few years ago, and his wife and daughter kept it going. The crossing at Boquillas had been unstaffed on either side at least since the early 1970's. The US facilities consisted of an old iron gate that could be either walked around or just opened. At times when the river was too high to just walk across there were always guys in boats (one was two car hoods welded together) to ferry you over. Dinner and a beer in Boquillas was a great way to end a day in Big Bend. All was OK, even after 9/11, until an enterprising reporter from New York came through in mid-2002 or so, wrote up a big expose' of the "porous border" down there, people coming and going at will, etc etc (I remember reading the article and having a bad feeling about it). The result was that the crossing was slammed shut, with what I understand is almost-certain arrest by Border Patrol for anyone crossing in either direction. For the people of Boquillas (and also the people of nearby San Vicente, many of whom came across to work at Lajitas) it was a disaster. There was no work, no income, no food, no anything, and the situation apparently got very desperate before nearly everyone left the two towns. I've asked in several places, including a couple of longtime staff at BBNP, and nobody knows what became, for instance, of the Falcon family, except that "it was pretty bad". I've subjected you to this rambling rant because it is truly a tragedy, where a thoughtless, fun little trip and story idea for some reporter ruined a community and the lives of numerous people. Off & on I've tried to find some way to get more in touch with what is happening in Boquillas, maybe find a way to help a little, but without much luck so far. Regards Mike Gross At 02:01 PM 8/20/2008 -0400, Ted Samsel wrote: I grew up 40 miles from Eagle Pass, but went to high school in San Antonio.. one of the rights of passage for a lot of teenaged boys along the border was going over after the football game to Boys Town.. Wonder how "Friday Night Lights" is gonna skew the data. T. http://home.infionline.net/~tbsamsel/----------------------------------- ---------------------------------- <http://home.infionline.net/%7Etbsamsel/-------------------------------- -------------------------------------> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
