People yearn to connect across borders amid pandemic holiday

A young boy, part of several asylum seeking families participating in a Las Posadas event at the U.S.-Mexico border wall, peers into the U.S. from Agua Prieta, Mexico Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, seen from Douglas, Ariz. People on each side of the border celebrate Las Posadas as they have done for decades, a centuries-old tradition practiced in Mexico re-enacts Mary and Joseph's search for refuge in Bethlehem through songs, with several of the families attending stuck south of the border, their lives in limbo with U.S. proceedings suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) A young boy, part of several asylum seeking families participating in a Las Posadas event at the U.S.-Mexico border wall, peers into the U.S. from Agua Prieta, Mexico Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020, seen from Douglas, Ariz. People on each side of the border celebrate Las Posadas as they have done for decades, a centuries-old tradition practiced in Mexico re-enacts Mary and Joseph's search for refuge in Bethlehem through songs, with several of the families attending stuck south of the border, their lives in limbo with U.S. proceedings suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

By Associated Press December 25, 2020 4 min read

To slow the spread of COVID-19, the United States, Canada and Mexico agreed in March to close their shared borders to nonessential travel.

Nine months later, it’s Christmas. Families across the world are disconnected, but perhaps none more than those trapped on opposite sides of an international border. Some legally can’t cross, and others can’t afford to endure quarantines if they do.

Yet, the holiday spirit survives. Along both borders, AP photographers found families connecting in smaller, more intimate ways, overcoming unusual obstacles for shared celebrations.

At the U.S.-Mexico border, most years bring festive Las Posadas celebrations; the centuries-old tradition practiced in Mexico reenacts through song Mary and Joseph’s search for refuge in Bethlehem.

Not this year. In addition to virus-related restrictions, people face another barrier: President Donald Trump’s border wall that stretches hundreds of miles and is still under construction.