Border Culture Bordering Subculture...

Not all crossings of the international border are illegal or alien or aggressive.

On the eve of the commemoration of Pancho Villa's raid on Columbus, NM (March 9, 1916), Agapi and I drove down to observe the 15th Cabalgata Binacional. Since 1999, this event has been held to celebrate continuing goodwill between Mexico and the US. (Mexico, by the way, is also an Estados Unidos...)

A cabalgata is a mass procession or parade of horses and riders, held not for display as much as participation. It is the Spanish derivation of the word "cavalcade." 

This 9-day ride starts in Mexico at the Hacienda San Jeronimo in the town of Bachiniva. where Villa is said to have planned the raid on Columbus. Up to 300 riders join the cabalgata for short stretches, but only 100 riders have permits to cross the border at Palomas. They meet up with riders from the US and all proceed to the central plaza of Columbus.

Several hundred people were there to greet the riders the day we attended. Booths had been set up to sell hand-made gorditas, burritos, tamales, tacos, candy apples, etc. Kids could ride on a mechanical bull or shush down an inflatable slide. Beer was available for adult recreation. A Deming-based Mariachi band played most of the time we were there. We had seen and heard them before at the Tamal Festival in Silver City and once in the foyer of Peppers supermarket in Deming, evidently raising money to tour. 

We were hoping to see the little girls in costume perform that couldn't help but dance to the Mariachi music. But the day was windy and cold, and cold because it was windy. It even rained a little. Agapi had already used up two sets of batteries taking pictures. She also recorded the music and crowd noises on her DAT, but because of the wind the recording wasn't successful. 

On the way out of town, we stopped at the City of the Sun.

--

Located just north of Columbus, this intentional community has been around since 1974. Its roots go back to Sologa, Inc., a non-profit established in 1959 in Melbourne, Florida. Sologa was the name of a being channeled by Grace Taylor, co-founder with her husband Wayne of Christ's Church and School of Wisdom which found a new home in New Mexico in 1968. The property is 159 acres and features more than 50 structures.

Apparently, City of the Sun has long outgrown its cult reputation. Meditations on the Vortex of Light and divine energies of the Central Sun apparently have been replaced by the everyday concerns of survival and sustainability.

As we sat in our car before the entrance to the community, with its sign forbidding un-permitted entry, a woman drove up in a station wagon and offered her help. Gracie, from California originally, had been a resident now for four years. She thought, when she first came here, that it would more of a community, with potlucks and all, but has seen it only deteriorating since. Most of the residents are much older than she (in her 50s) and unable to do much to improve or maintain the infrastructure. For various reasons, according to Gracie, the people are mostly bitter and anti-social as well. 

We asked if she knew Verlie. She did. We had met 91-year-old Verlie during the community meal for El Dia del Accion de Gracias (Thanksgiving Day) at the United Methodist Church on Buckeye Street in Deming. Agapi and I had volunteered to help prep and serve mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and turkey, etc. to the more than 300 people who attended. Verlie, a lively redhead (!) who enjoys dancing, told us of her connection to City of the Sun, laughingly saying, "I guess now I've found my Kingdom of the Sun." 

We thought she was only speaking metaphorically about her new-found Methodist faith, until one day we noticed that the housing complex across the street from the church was called Kingdom of the Sun. (!)

Gracie told us where we could find Verlie's cottage to which that pioneer communitarian still comes to retreat from time to time. She also told us that if anyone should stop us while we were touring the property to say "Gracie says it's okay."

So, we cruised Rainbow Lane, Universal Way, and similarly named thoroughfares, for awhile gawking and taking pictures (with what little battery power we had) of the unique and other-worldly structures there. A number are constructed with paper-crete bricks and, according to available literature, quite a few are essentially off-the-grid. 

And... at one time at least, the folks here had the energy be creative as well.