Artist dedicates memorial: Solemn ceremony reflects occasion

Arivaca—“The Golden Gates/Bridge Over Troubled Borders” was opened officially Thursday night in a short ceremony attended by about 30 people, most from Arivaca and Green Valley.

Since the dedication started late, several people left before the floodlights illuminating the 40-foot-long, 30-foot- high bridge constructed on industrial pipe painted gold were turned on by the artist/architect, Neil Bernstein of Tucson.

Draped in golden fabric, the memorial makes for an impressive sight, especially after dark.

The bridge was built as a memorial to all the illegal immigrants who have died in the Southern Arizona desert, Bernstein said.

An American flag flies over the bridge and, for the ceremony, a white casket lined with white fabric embroidered with the symbol Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico’s leading religious symbol, was positioned in the middle of the bridge. Above the casket, hung a pair of tiny sneakers, belonging to a 3-year-old girl who died crossing the desert, the artist said.

The artist sat on the casket and read a poem he had composed about the inspiration for the bridge “which appeared to me early one morning in the clouds near Venus.’

He said he hoped the bridge, built on private property located off Arivaca Road, between Mileposts 10 and 9, “will instill hope in the hopeless and help people to come to some sort of rational agreement about the terrible problem of illegal immigration.

Bernstein said he plans to take the bridge across the border to Mexico and ask people to donates artifacts, personal possessions, religious icons and other items in honor of those Mexicans who died crossing.

The bridge will remain in place until May, when the artist said he’ll transport it to Washington, D.C. “and dump it in front of the White House” to spur a federal solution.

Also at the ceremony, Randy Ford, a Tucson playwright and owner of a Tucson art gallery that displays Bernstein’s work, read excerpts from an opera he has written about the plight of illegals in this country.

There was no violence at the event and no law enforcement personnel were visible.

The bridge stands behind a locked gate surrounded by a barbed wire fence. It’s located on a known pathway for illegals crossing into Arizona.

A sign on the gate reads “No Trespassing. No Alcohol. No Guns” and “No More Deaths.”

The sign caused some amusement among Arivaca residents at the event, who said that flyers were distributed in Arivaca this week inviting residents to the ceremony and promising “free food and wine.”

Kathy Engle is a freelance writer who lives in Amado. kdengle@earthlink.net