Friedship Park
For all of our events, we meet in Mexico and the US simultaneously through the border fence. On the US side, we convene at Border Field State Park and right next to the light house on the Mexican side. We meet inside a cirulcar cement plaza that unites people from both sides through the corrugated US/Mex border fence. The cement circle was made in a single pour and designated in 1972 by then first lady Patricia Nixon as the center of Friendship Park allowing people to converse freely and easily across the US/Mex border. We have been utilizing this friendship circle as well as the beach area and the grassy area to the east, where we installed the bi-national garden in 2007, since August of 2004 to do our events. At the beginning of 2008, there was an additional physical barrier put in place that restricted access to 150 ft from the primary barrier in the whole park and at the beach. From this time until the end of 2009, we held our Signing Through and Richochet language exchange events. We managed, with these events, to not only complete our goal of getting to know each other and making friends across the new distnace, but find a theme that was accentuated and enhanced when implemented from a distance. In November of 2009, slightly more access was granted to the bi-national area. This allowed Border encuentro to return to the gatherings that require closer proximity and allows access in general on Sat and Sun from 10a-2p inside a chest high enclosure around the US half of the circle and that stops 5 ft before the primary barrier and bi-national monument. Border encuentro is part of a coalition of several organizations (humanitarian, cultural, environmental, peace activist, and others) called Friends of Friendship Park who has been working to restore access to the primary barrier at the monument, the bi-national garden, and the beach. Access before January of 2008:
Access between January 2008 and Nov 2009:
Current Access:
Design the Friends of Friendship Park coalition is working toward:
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