SAN DIEGO — Sections of the border wall on Friendship Park were dismantled due to construction.
Local community organizations united to safeguard 20 parts and preserve them to be showcased to the community in the future. Each section of wall is 18 feet high, eight feet wide and weighs more than 4,000 pounds.
The Mexican side of the wall became a space for artists and community members to share their creativity and send a message through their craft.
“They speak to a specific time period but also point to the future of how we want to build a society that's either built on friendship, on genuine hope, on the expectation of togetherness,” American Friends Service Committee Pedro Rios said.
Friendship Park became a place where people from both sides of the border united. However, that hasn't been the case in recent years.
“Before the pandemic, border patrol decided to not to permit anyone to enter that specific enforcement zone and prevent it people from entering. It's been more than four years now that people have not been permitted to enter that area,” Rios said.
Friends of Friendship Park along with the 'Museum of Us' will get together in the coming months to determine the future of these sections of the border wall and how they will be showcased.
“These are large cultural artifacts and we look forward to working with the community to discover where these can find a permanent home,” Friends of Friendship Park member John Fanestil said.
Pedro Rios is part of the community advisory council that will make those decisions. He hopes to see these pieces of border wall displayed beyond San Diego county.
“They speak to a timeline of how people expressed their sentiments of having large walls dividing two countries,” Rios said.
The community advisory council is still being assembled and there's no date on when the sections of border wall will be at exhibits.
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