A Love Letter to the Samaritans: A Podcast with Shura Wallin and David Damian Figueroa

There is a scene in the short documentary Shura in which octogenarian Shura Wallin is standing at the U.S.-Mexico border as people cross under a string of barbed wire. She hands each person a granola bar. You can hear the voice of someone else, off camera, as they hand out bottles of water. They are part of the humanitarian aid group the Samaritans. The scene stands out for many reasons—the cinematography is something else (a slow-moving camera holds and intimately contemplates the scene) and, above all, this is an act of welcome through what is otherwise an infrastructure of exclusion.In the following interview, The Border Chronicle talks to Shura and David Damian Figueroa, who directed the film alongside Kayvon Derak Shanian. When you are on the border, Figueroa says, “the Border Patrol has machine guns, the border security for the construction company has machine guns, sometimes the vigilantes are out there and they have machine guns, and also right across the wall or the fence, or whatever you want to call it, is the cartel, and they are packing machine guns as well. The Samaritans are out there doing the work, and they have water and they have food.”The documentary, he says, is “a love letter to the Samaritans.”Our interview follows the same spirit. Both David and Shura recall how they first met, talk about the importance of humanitarian aid and the importance of kindness, among many other things.Shura, besides being a humanitarian aid volunteer (30 hours a week!), is also a black belt in karate and a Buddhist Jew. She is originally from Illinois but has been in southern Arizona since 2001. The documentary begins with Shura quoting the Dalai Lama: “Kindness is my religion.” David is an artist, filmmaker, author, activist, photographer, and humanitarian aid volunteer. He grew up in a family of farmworkers in southern Arizona and has been involved with social justice and civil rights his entire life.The Border Chronicle is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Border Chronicle at www.theborderchronicle.com/subscribe