‘We have to show up for each other’: Night market raises funds for aid at US-Mexico border

Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts under way and the ongoing “national emergency” at the U.S.-Mexico border — with nearly 8,500 recently deployed National Guard troops and an approved budget increase that allocates over $170 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — local Phoenix artists and businesses are banding together to fundraise for a non-profit humanitarian aid group with a goal to prevent further loss of life along the more than 370-mile stretch of land that separates Arizona and Mexico.

In partnership with various local artists, vendors and performers to raise money and supplies for aid at the border, provided by the No Mas Muertes coalition, October’s first Friday marked the first-ever Spooky Night Market organized by the popular downtown restaurant Olla Olla Crepes, with the hope of making this an ongoing benefit. 

The local creperie, located near Van Buren Street and 19th Avenue in Phoenix, held the outdoor market and fundraising event that both supported the local organization and offered over 45 vendors a space to share in that cause. In their mission to deliver 100 humanitarian aid bags to southern Arizona, the restaurant owner asked people to donate hand sanitizer, socks, eye drops, lip balm, shirts and other needed supplies.

“I’m here to collect donations for anti-ICE efforts… and then I’m just here to sell my art. It’s all politically charged,” Paige Daniel, artist and vendor who runs Punk Bubblegum Zines, said at the event. “It's very important because obviously there's huge ICE raids right now, and people are being killed and stolen. We just have to show up for each other.” 

The event brought together dozens of art, jewelry and clothing vendors, with food trucks offering up delights, tattoo artists selling flash designs and local performers bringing life to a makeshift stage.

Active since 2004 and based out of southern Arizona, No Mas Muertes is a humanitarian coalition of community and faith groups dedicated to not only preventing the deaths of migrants making the dangerous trek through the Sonoran desert by supplying aid, but by also reporting on the conditions they face during their journey. In one of several reports released by the organization on “dispossession through deportation,” they found that of the 400,000 people deported in 2013, nearly one-third were deported without their money and/or personal belongings, a standard pattern of abuse and neglect practiced by ICE and U.S. Border Patrol agents. 

“I think a lot of folks are really, really angry at the way — rightfully so — that they're being treated. So, we've definitely gotten a spike in interest for people doing benefits on our behalf,” media and outreach coordinator with No Mas Muertes, Mónica Ruiz House, told CALÓ News. “We deliver humanitarian aid to migrants who are crossing through really remote and dangerous areas that have been pushed into these remote and dangerous areas because of border policy, like the 1994 policy Prevention Through Deterrence.” 

According to a study funded by the University of California, Los Angeles, at least 7,800 migrants have died attempting to cross from Mexico into the U.S. between 1998 and 2019.

“So, our goal as a humanitarian aid organization is — one, we want to stop those deaths, and two, we're going to try to mitigate that by leaving food, water and also providing direct medical assistance.” 

Fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries, thousands of migrants make the dangerous trek from South and Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border in hopes of seeking a better home and life for themselves and their families in the U.S.

However, with the highly militarized presence across the border, as implemented by the Trump administration’s newly named Department of War, No Mas Muertes said while they aren’t seeing a spike of more people crossing in the areas they typically provide aid in, they believe the presence of the National Guard at the border have pushed migrants towards the more extreme outer-terrains of the Sonoran Desert, making it harder to seek and receive aid. 

“We saw this during the first Trump administration. It's like people just go into more and more desolate areas. So, it's not that people aren't needing that humanitarian capacity. It's just that we're not seeing that because we can't have eyes and ears everywhere,” Ruiz House said, speaking about several other smaller, lesser-known projects and grassroots organizations that are also funded by smaller donors, similar to No Mas Muertes, that could also benefit from local fundraisers. 

“People are rising to meet the moment. We've seen some amazing organizing happening in Tucson, not just for folks from No Mas Muertes, but folks, like I mentioned, homeless funds, people from Scholarships A-to-Z that are good, even rapid response groups who are going out there and tracking ICE,” Ruiz House said. “This is a moment where I think people are waking up and realizing, ‘hey, I see what's happening to my neighbors, I see what's happening to my own family, and that is something I will not accept.’” 

That’s the reason why Mo Jimenez of Mo Tattoos participated in the fundraiser Olla Olla Crepes hosted. While they don’t have a shop of their own, they agreed to participate after the restaurant owner reached out and helped secure a space for them among other vendors for a good cause. 

“I definitely appreciate the culture and just the space that Olla provides… people like me, you know, Brown, queer, alternative, inclusive and safe space to be around and be with, and that's just the type of clients that I want my business to be associated with,” Jimenez said. “So, anything I could do to provide that space for whoever would like a tattoo… for me to be able to put that on someone's body means so much to me.” 

Plans for future events have yet to be released, but the vendors who attended the first event at Olla Olla were passionate and more than willing to return for another round of fundraising for a good cause. 

“It's a community's responsibility right now, because obviously our government does not protect us, and it never has, so we have to show up for each other. That's kind of why we're all here. It's to kind of create the community that we want,” Daniel said. “So, it's great that we have artists and bands and all kinds of folks here to create a space where we all feel safe and comfortable and we're able to, you know, celebrate our culture and everything in a safe space, because we don't have that at all right now.”

Analisa Valdez (she/her) is a freelance journalist based in Phoenix. Her reporting includes community & culture, social justice, arts, business, and politics.