As a child, Michelle Serrano would take trips to Boca Chica with her grandmother. From her home in Brownsville, the drive ran east through Texas wetlands and countryside before landing on miles of beach, stretching far down the Gulf Coast just above the U.S.-Mexico border. They’d spend the day there, swimming, laying out — which didn’t cost anything, unlike at South Padre Island to the north. For them, it was the peoples’ beach.
Today, decades later, it’s hard for Serrano to believe those memories. It’s early December at Boca Chica Beach. A thick fog has settled over the sand dunes as Serrano pulls up the hood of her jacket to block the coastal wind. Already, she had seen four U.S. Border Patrol trucks driving along the sand — trucks she knows will slow down as the drivers stare at her with suspicion.
