SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The New York-based Mellon Foundation has given almost $1 million to Friends of Friendship Park in San Diego to pursue a cross-border meeting place at the western end of the U.S.-Mexico border just above the Pacific Ocean.
“Members of our fronterizo communities have been working for almost two decades to protect Friendship Park,” said John Fanestil, executive director of Friends of Friendship Park. “The true potential of this site can only be realized through the creation of a truly international park at this iconic location, something akin to the Peace Arch Park at the western end of the U.S.-Canada border.”
Until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Friendship Park provided a place where people could meet and talk with the border barrier between them as Border Patrol agents controlled and monitored visitors on the U.S. side.
In recent years, the agency has been hesitant to allow access due to safety and staffing concerns.
Construction of two new 30-foot barriers in the last 18 months has further limited public entry.
The cross-border park concept would take it a step further, giving people from both countries the opportunity to interact and walk freely in a site that straddles the border without any walls between them.
“We are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for investing in this dream,” Fanestil said. “We intend to pursue this dream with a hope-filled realism, the support from the Mellon Foundation comes from the organization’s Monuments Project, an unprecedented multi-year commitment aimed at transforming the nation’s commemorative landscape.”
Fanestil admits building the cross-border park may take years, especially in the current political climate.
“We have to be able to demonstrate that this is a site of great significance so when those political stars come into alignment we can create something that will make a lasting difference and we think a site of international importance.”
He says they will take the concept beyond San Diego as a way to build public support and understanding.
“Right now, they’ve put up two new 30-foot walls down there and it looks pretty grim if you’re not familiar with it, so we have to be able to demonstrate the potential of the site, we have to start family reunions once again, so people can see the potential of site for bringing people together here,” he said.
As a way to build awareness, Friends of Friendship Park is staging an art exhibit at the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center in Chula Vista from Feb. 8 through March 28.
“People will be able to come and see the different perspectives of Friendship Park and how photographers, performers, graphic artists have really generated a message the resonates from this site that resonates, we hope, far and wide.”
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