What symbol does Mora introduce in this passage? What does this symbol represent?
My third gift was a photograph of the El Paso/Juárez
border: the Chihuahua Desert, the Rio Grande, a stern
mountain, two sprawling border cities. Like our families,
our geography is part of who we are.
When I was growing up on the U. S. side of that border,
the society around me tried in subtle and not-so-subtle
ways to convince me that my Mexican heritage was
inferior to that of Anglo-Americans. I hope that today's
educators on the border and throughout this nation are
now committed to multiculturalism, to motivating the
next generation to draw on their heritage as a resource
for learning. The U. S. has been described as the first
international country: Our varied cultures are our
common wealth.