Don’t Let Go

HUGS NOT WALLS is organized by the Border Network for Human Rights. 915-577-0724; bnhr.org

Hernan Hernandez and his mother, Leticia Lozano Martinez, are sitting on a park bench in South El Paso. They take cover from the sun underneath a black umbrella that rests over Martinez’s right shoulder. It’s a hot June morning in 2021. They, along with hundreds of others, are wearing blue T-shirts with #HugsNotWalls on the back.

Hernandez and Martinez wait, staring at the people forming a long line that wraps around a park and ends underneath the shade of a gazebo next to the community center in Chihuahuita, one of El Paso’s oldest neighborhoods. Not far from them, children laugh on a playground no more than 20 feet from the border wall. Hernandez and Martinez listen to other families talk among