May 6, 2015 — El Paso, Texas is where I grew up and it's where my family — my parents and three siblings — still live. El Paso is where I chose to begin my photo journey because this is the place I will think about every time I visit a border town; what I will use to compare the lives of immigrants who I meet in the next 18 months, to my own life on the Mexican-U.S. border.
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May 6, 2015 — The first place I walk to whenever I visit my family in El Paso, TX, is to the top of Rim Road. The two-minute walk leads to a panoramic view of the City of El Paso, with the mountainous view in the background of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
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Photo: Mt. Cristo Rey

May 6, 2015 — This is a view of Christo Rey. It can be seen from the large picture window in my parents' home. Because it faces Southeast of where they live, we often see these glorious sunsets highlighting the large cross on top of the mountain. On my first night home, I was thrilled to be welcomed by this view!
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May 7, 2015 — 908 West Missouri: This is my childhood home. It is located in Sunset Heights, two houses from our parish church (Holy Family). Behind us was an alley, which separated us from my elementary school and then from the border highway.
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May 7, 2015 — It was especially sad when I visited my old neighborhood, to see the condition of my old high school. Jesus & Mary Academy was an all-girl boarding school. In my memories, it was filled with laughter, learning and dreams. It was welcoming, bright and cheery and colorful posters were often taped on the windows during holidays or spirit week. This picture shows that it was taken over by a local Pentecostal. The sign in Spanish reads "Center of Life West."

I don't know why, but this iron fence makes me feel unwelcome.

When it was my high school, there was a residency program for girls from Juárez and local girls from the neighborhood attended as day students. It was two blocks from my home. It was at this school when I met four young men from Providence College who inspired me to take a leap of faith to explore the world.
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May 8, 2015 — I guess the government felt that the barbed wire fence tied to the top of the chain-linked fence dividing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso and what it does to your physical being, not to mention your psyche, is not enough to keep people from trying to climb it. The chain link fence above is said to have sharp razors.

The black fence in the background - known as the "Tortilla Curtain" - was built in 1979 in an effort to keep immigrants out of El Paso. It was met with great criticism not only because people feel it cost a lot of tax payer's money to build it, but also because it is dark, impersonal and looms over border life on both sides.

Lights and cameras rise high, looking for action.
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May 9, 2015 — Route 28 from El Paso to Mesilla is also known as El Camino Real. On my second day home, my sister Elisa and I drove on El Camino Real towards Mesilla, which is a historic neighborhood abutting Las Cruces, NM. I've traveled on this road along the border of Texas and New Mexico many times, but this time I was struck with this sign overlooking this mass patch of dirt that at one time was a raging river.
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May 10, 2015 — My travels take me from El Paso to Phoenix, by way of I-10

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May 11, 2015 — I arrived in Phoenix, AZ on May 11th and my son José took me to Roosevelt Row. This neighborhood borders Downtown Phoenix and is lined with funky artists studios, coffee shops and community gardens. I especially love all the colorful murals on many of the buildings. I spotted this school bus and dumpster out of the corner of my eye and walked down an alley to take this pic. Some people may call this graffiti, and others call it art.
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May 12, 2015 — These crosses were piled high in the front room of Derechos Humanos when I arrived at this South Tucson nonprofit organization. This scene immediately sent chills through my spine. The crosses bear the names of people who were found and identified in the Tucson desert, and a number at the tip of the cross signifies the number they were assigned as they are added to the list of deaths each year. I am told that between the year 2000 and 2014, 2,771 bodies were found in the Tucson desert.
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May 13, 2015 — On my second day in Tucson, Joel Smith, operations manager for Humane Borders, a non-profit humanitarian organization based in Tucson, took Mel and me out on a desert run. We met him at the organization's headquarters at 6:00 a.m. ready to roll on what turned out to be another long and emotional day for me.
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May 15, 2015 — At the end of my first trip visiting border towns, I sit in the plane looking out at this view as I cross many borders back to Rhode Island looking forward to exploring more about borders.

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