I'm Adely Meltz and this is The Slow Them.

When I was a kid growing up in California, we often drew monarch butterflies in class

or cut them out of crepe paper or made small sculptures of them.

The monarch is the state butterfly of California and is known for its mass migration.

The eastern populations of monarchs fly to Mexico for the winter while the western

populations over winter in California.

We learned a great deal about California history in my elementary school, but it was the

flora and fauna that interested me more than the 21 Spanish missions which always seemed

to me to be dangerous and terrifying, even before I knew about their legacy of genocide.

Even more than the gold rush or Jack London, I wanted to know about poppies, lupins and

quail and butterflies.

When we studied the establishment of the U.S. Mexico border, I remember feeling uncomfortable.

My grandfather had crossed that border and it seemed to me like nothing good happened

there.

Still, the thing that I began to grasp was how the border was just something man made

and agreement and idea, a line in the sand.

The first fences that went up along the border were mostly to keep cattle from wandering

back and forth.

Those didn't know if they were in California or Mexico.

They were just seeking more grass, more water.

Borders don't mean anything to animals.

As a kid that only wanted to draw pictures of butterflies and look at the oak trees

...