Cintio - Walls : travels along the barricades

Acknowledgements

I owe a great debt to the other wall thinkers out there, especially Bryon Finoki, whose work both inspired and informed this book; and Christine A. Leuenberger, who first introduced me to the concept of Mauerkrankheit. I would also like to thank Jayinta Ray, Wendy Brown, Colm Heatley, Elisabeth Vallet, Miguel Diaz-Barriga, Margaret Dorsey, and Ronald Rael for their work on the walls.

I am most grateful to those I met along the Walls who were so generous with their stories, their insights, and their time. This book is for them. They are:

In the Western Sahara: Malainin Lakhal, Abdulahe, Damaha Lahcen, Mustapha Said Bashir, Nasiri and Hamid in Smara, the two Saleks, and all the refugee families who welcomed me into their homes. Also John Thorne, Eve Coulon, Tom Pfeiffer, and Sadat in Tarfaya.

In Ceuta and Melilla: Rocky Ghotra, Benji Lopez, Mercedes Rubio, Jos Palazn, Linda Ebbers, Kevin ODonovan, Sha, and the staff at Centro UNESCO Melilla.

In India: James Perry, Kazu Ahmed, Xonzoi Barbora, Utpal Barman, Debunker, Dhanya Pilo, and Angad Chowdury.

In Cyprus: Stavros Stavrou Karayanni, Thodoris Tzalavras, Ioanna Mavrou, Stephanos Stephanides, Paul Stewart,ncel Polili, Yiannis Papadakis, Captain Mike Solonynko, andNilgn Gney.

In Israel: Ilene Prusher, David Elhrich, and Ir-Amim.

In Palestine: Mohammad Othman, Aidan Macdonald, Basel Abbas, Yusef Njim, Faris Arouri, and Mahmoud Abu Hashhash.

Along the U.S.Mexico border: Bill Odle, Kat Rodriguez, Ofelia Rivas, Walter Collins, Glenn Weyant, Father Peter Neely and the KINO Border Initiative, Margaret Regan, Randy Serraglio, Steve Johnston, John Heid, No More Deaths, Patricia, Mark Adams, Ginny Jordan, John Fanestil, Alberto Rios, and Kinsee Morlan.

In Belfast: Teena Patrick, Breandn Clarke, Neil Jarman, Ian McLaughlin, Billy and Violet, Santos, Manpreet Singh, Frankie Quinn, Martin Adams, Andrew Johnston, Robin Wilson, Ruth Graham, Ursula Burke, and Zo Murdoch. (Thank you, too, to Will Ferguson for the pile of books.)

In Montreal: Mary Deros, Giuliana Fumagalli, Mary McCutcheon, Tamara Atchman, Toby Gilsig, Jill Moroz, Nick Semeniuk, Gisele Amantea, Emmanuelle Hbert, Maria Di Giambattiste, Vijay Patel, and Carmine Starnino.

I would like to thank the Banff Centre and, especially, those who worked with me during the 2008 Literary Journalism Program: Ian Pearson, Marni Jackson, Moira Farr, Rich Poplak, Medeine Tribinevicius, Jeff Warren, Jeremy Klaszus, Megan Williams, Lynn Cunningham, and Ruth Lopez.

I completed much of this book during my residency with the Calgary Distinguished Writer Program at the University of Calgary. Thank you to the Steering Committee and, especially, Janice Lee and Jackie Flanagan.

Special thanks to Chris Koentges, Richard Harrison, and Peter Oliva, who offered feedback on messy fragments of early drafts.

I could not have survived this project without funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Thanks, too, to Shirley Dunn and the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Prize.

Special thanks to the editors of Geist Magazine , who published two excerpts from the work-in-progress. Wall of Shame appeared in Geist s Fall 2009 issue, and The Great Wall of Montreal appeared in the Fall of 2011.

I owe a fantastic debt to my friend and editor, John Vigna, whose hard work helped transform a collection of travel journals into something that resembles a book. Thanks, too, to my agent Jackie Kaiser and to Susanne Alexander at Goose Lane both of whom believed in this project long before they had any reason to do so.

Finally, thanks to Moonira Rampuri and Amedeo Ihsan Di Cintio. I cannot think of two people Id rather share four walls with.

The Author gratefully acknowledges the permission to reproduce the following material. Every effort has been made to secure permission for excerpts reproduced in this book on the following pages:

Excerpt from Maginot Line by Geoff Berner from We Shall Not Flag or Fail, We Shall Go On to the End , copyright 2002 by Black Hen. Reprinted by permission.

Excerpt from The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, copyright 1984 by Random House. Reprinted by permission of the Dr. Seuss Estate.

Excerpt from unpublished poem by Malainin Lakhal. Reaprinted by permission.

Excerpt from Living Next Door to Alice by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, from Smokie, copyright 1978 by Universal Music Publishing Group. Reprinted by permission.

Excerpt from Partition by W.H. Auden from Atlantic , copyright 1966 by W.H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

La Ruta de las Mujeres (The Womens Route), written and translated by Reverend Delle McCormick. Reprinted by permission.

Excerpt from Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson from The Irish for No , copyright 1987 by Gallery Press/Wake Forest University Press. Reprinted by permission.

Excerpt from This Way Out by Carmine Starnino from This Way Out, copyright 2009 by Gaspereau Press. Reprinted by permission.

ENDNOTES

. Hans-Joachim Maaz, Der Gefhlsstarr: Psychogramm einer Gesellschaft (Berlin: Argon Verlag, 1990), p. 152.

. Geoff Berner, Maginot Line, lyrics, We Shall Not Flag or Fail, We Shall Go On to the End (Vancouver: Black Hen Music, 2002).

. Dr. Seuss, The Butter Battle Book (New York: Random House, 1984), pp. 4-6.

. Malainin Lakhal, unpublished poem.

. Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, Living Next Door to Alice, lyrics, Smokie (London: Universal Music Publishing Group, 1978).

. Michel Vieuchange, Smara: The Forbidden City , trans. Edgar Fletcher Allen (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1932. Reprinted New York: Ecco Press, 1997).

. R.K. Prabhu, Preface, in M.K. Gandhi, India of My Dreams , compiled by R.K. Prabhu (Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publishing House, 1947), p. 4.

. W.H. Auden, Partition, Atlantic Monthly , August 1966.

. Sunil Khilnani, The Idea of India (London: Penguin, 1998), p. 80.

. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, US Immigration Policy: What Next? Essays on Legal and Illegal Immigration , ed. Susan Pozo (Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 1986), p. 124.

. Nee Yan, Filiz Naldven, Lily Michailidou, Fikret Demira, Elli Peonidou, Zeki Ali, Takis Hadjigeorgiou,Tamer ncl, Feriha Altok, Neriman Cahit, M. Kansu, Stephanos Stephanides, Gr Gen, Jenan Seluk, Michalis Papadopoulos, and Aydn Mehmet Ali, Yes, What a Joyful Word, Bianet News , April 5, 2004.

. G.S. Geoghallides, Cyprus and Winston Churchills 1907 Visit, Thetis 3 (1995), p. 184.

. Gloria Anzalda, Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 2007), p. 25.

. Reverend Delle McCormick, La Ruta de las Mujeres (The Womens Route), Conspirando , October 2008.

. Alberto Alvero Rios, Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999), p. 12.

. Barack Obama, A World That Stands as One (Speech delivered in Berlin, July 24, 2008).

. Thomas Harding, The Security Wall on Our Doorstep, Daily Telegraph , February 25, 2004.

. Ciaran Carson, Belfast Confetti, The Irish for No (Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 1987), p. 31.

. Montreal Mirror , November 8, 2001.

. Mike Boone, Time to Rethink Symbolic Fence, Montreal Gazette , May 17, 2005.

. Le Devoir , November 1, 2001.

. Claude Bachand from 37th Parliament, 1st Session, Hansard , Number 106, Wednesday October 31, 2001.

. Montreal Gazette , November 1, 2001.

. Mike Boone, Halloween Gesture Another Class Act, Montreal Gazette , October 11, 2002.

. Carmine Starnino, This Way Out, This Way Out (Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2009), p. 19.

Author photo by James May