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Pink Seesaws Bridge US-Mexico Border Divide

VOA News

   Children on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border had a chance to play
   together, despite the physical barriers that divide them.

   Two California professors installed three pink seesaws through the
   steel border fence on the outskirts of El Paso in Texas and Ciudad
   Juarez in Mexico.

   Ronald Rael, an architecture professor at the University of California,
   Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an associate design professor at
   San Jose State University, first came up with the concept of
   Teetertotter Wall for the border more than 10 years ago. This week,
   they saw it become a reality.

   "The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S.-Mexico relations, and
   children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides
   with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have
   a direct consequence on the other side," Rael said on Instagram.

   In a video posted on social media, children and adults on both sides of
   the fence could be seen playing and interacting. Rael said the event
   was about bringing "joy, excitement and togetherness at the border
   wall."

   "The symbolism of the seesaw is just magical," said Claudia Tristan,
   director of Latinx messaging for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate
   Beto O'Rourke.

   "A border fence will not keep us from our neighbors," she wrote on
   Twitter.

     The symbolism of the seesaw is just magical. A [1]#Border fence will
     not keep us from our neighbors. Que bella idea usar un subibajas
     para unir las comunidades de ambas naciones.
     [2]https://t.co/iJTAj08vZB
     -- Claudia Tristán (@tristan_claudia) [3]July 29, 2019

   U.S. President Donald Trump has long promised to build a physical
   barrier along the country's southern border to keep out people trying
   to cross into the U.S. illegally.

   Late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the administration could
   use some $2.5 billion of Pentagon funds to build sections of a border
   wall with Mexico.

References

   1. https://twitter.com/hashtag/Border?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
   2. https://t.co/iJTAj08vZB
   3. https://twitter.com/tristan_claudia/status/1155953232486658048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw