Border Street: Christian couple, viewed warily, might be welcome

By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, March 26, 2007

Longtime Eddie studies the newspaper article about the Christian couple now considering moving into the duplex they're trying to sell on Border Street. He reads it several times, trying, like others on the block, to figure them out.

Almost no one from the street showed up at the couple's open house, despite the cheerful fliers they taped to every door. Eddie stayed home and watched a movie. Before he went inside his house, he said: "They're white. You know, this neighborhood used to be white, but white people don't last long in this neighborhood. I don't know why."

Now he wishes he had gone to the open house. The next time he sees them, he says, he'll introduce himself. They lost their daughter when she was just 14 weeks old, he says, shaking his head. He knows what it's like to have your child die.

For that matter, so do the Teacher's mother and father - one of their sons died - and the Fed Up Neighbor, whose granddaughter was killed in a driveway accident. Longtime Eddie's youngest son was 17 when he was diagnosed with cancer and 34 when he died.

"We suffer a lot of broken hearts in this world," Eddie says. "There's no easy loss."

He runs his finger down the article again. "It says here they think it might be God's plan for them to live here to help the street." He puts the paper down, thinking. "Not necessarily. There is a purpose in them being here on this street. Definitely. Of that, there is no doubt in my mind."

Longtime Eddie is a Christian himself. Not any particular denomination, though he figures most of the street is Catholic, and on Sunday mornings they all leave early for the Spanish Mass, hoping to get a good seat. Eddie became a Christian about 15 years ago.

"To tell you the truth," he says, "I only went to church that day because I was trying to get a woman I worked with to go out on a date with me. She finally told me, 'OK, you can give me a ride to church.' So I did. I was going to wait for her in the truck, but then I felt stupid so I went in, too."

Eddie can get worked up over his worries, and when he does he paces and tugs at his hair and finds it hard to catch his breath. It calms him to read his Bible. Oh, yes, he says, picking up the paper again. I do believe God has called them here.

"It says here that they say, 'Who are we to think we can make a difference?' Well, they're children of God, that's who they are. I think their purpose might be that God wants them to understand the people here. They have to understand that there are conflicts among the poor here. They might think we are all the same, but we're not. But, the other thing is that they say they are 'so white.' Right now, they might look around and say there is a 'Mexican' or 'Salvadoran' or 'Chicano.' But, later, after a while, they would say, 'There is my brother.' "

He says this in a rush and then gives a short, satisfied nod as if - in trying to explain his reaction to the couple - he has figured out something for himself.

"They are more than welcome here," he says. "Would it be a good place for them to live? I don't know how to answer that. I mean, I live here and I think it's a street where people help each other out."

The rest of Border Street does not see things in the same way, which is not to say that they would not be welcoming.

"We need more white people here," says the Fed Up Neighbor. Like Eddie and the Teacher's parents, she is a U.S.-born Hispanic who remembers white families leaving the neighborhood after Hispanics started moving in. Only two longtime white families remain on the block, both believers in the "live and let live" school.

"We need good neighbors here," says the Teacher's mother. "The thing is everybody who has lived here for the last 20 years, we keep to ourselves. If you need help, we'll help, but we don't go door-to-door offering anything or asking for anything."

The American Spouse, who is white, reads about the couple not long after finding dirty women's underwear and a used condom in the backyard she shares with other subsidized housing tenants.

"They seem like such good people and they've been through so much, and then there's their daughter . . .," she says. "It would be a good idea for them to move here if this were a block of people like me who might appreciate their help. But, it's not."

Down the street, Maria the Other says she wanted to go to the couple's open house, "but then my mind kind of went crazy. I thought, 'Oh, what if it's a hate thing? What if I get pointed out as being here illegally? What if it's a trick?' I don't want to be humiliated. If they read the story about me, they would know I'm illegal and not want to hang out with me. I wanted to go, but then I thought, we probably don't have anything in common. It's nice, thank you, but no thank you."

If Maria the Other were in their place, with a small child and everything, she says she wouldn't move here now. Says, too, the Fed Up Neighbor and the American Spouse. Well, Eddie says, someone has to take the first step.

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com