The Beggar’s Hand

Dinero para comida

Walking across the Progreso International Bridge System from the American side to Nuevo Progreso in Tamaulipas, Mexico is eye-opening.

I enter Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande and see homeless people living on the bank of the river begging each traveler to give them money.

No one acknowledges them. They are heard but not seen. The bridge conceals their identity.

A hand reaches through a large crack in the wall holding a plastic cup. The person on the other side of the wall speaks “dinero para comida” which I later learn means “money for food.”

Heartbreaking, yet I am filled with skepticism and reservation.

I snap a photo and walk on by.