Sonic Trace: Returning to Oaxaca 15 years later

Congress is still shutdown. But that hasn’t stopped thousands of immigrants from gathering in Washington this month to protest the lack of comprehensive immigration reform.

This week, Sonic Trace partnered with To The Point to explore the story of one young activist, Lizbeth Mateo. For almost a decade Lizbeth has performed acts of civil disobedience across the country. But this summer, she took it to a new level. On July 30, her and a group of eight undocumented young people — who had left the US or had been deported — tried to enter legally through the Nogales port of entry in Arizona.

Listen to the whole segment on To The Point or to Lizbeth’s story here …

Lizbeth at her home in LA, two months after crossing the border in Nogales, Ariz.

Here is a snippet of a conversation that Lizbeth had with her mom, Maria, about their legal status.

Lizbeth arrived to the U.S. as a teen. We asked her what her process of assimilation to life in Los Angeles was like:

Lizbeth has been politically active for about a decade. At the beginning, she had a hard time telling her parents about the acts of civil disobedience that she participated in. For example, camping out in Sen. John McCain’s in a cap and gown to protest the rejection of the DREAM Act in Congress. But self-deporting to Mexico, and crossing back through Nogales, Sonora into Nogales, Arizona was just too big.

She talks about her parent’s reaction below:

Lizbeth Mateo with her brother at her grandmother’s grave in her native village in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Lizbeth left for Mexico three weeks before crossing the border at the Nogales Port of Entry. Her first stop while in Mexico was her native village in Oaxaca. She had not been back in 15 years. She talks about coming home … or was it home?