Documenting Border Life

Photos • El Paso, Texas

May 7 - 11, 2015

My trip began in El Paso, Texas where I grew up and where my parents still live.

Much of my time there was spent walking the streets of my old neighborhood: visiting the house where I grew up and schools I attended.

Childhood memories flooded back to me as I stood in the alley behind my childhood home, looking out over Ciudad Juárez. My neighborhood seemed worn, but the view into Juárez had not changed one bit.

Staring across the border, I could see people running through adobe homes, like small ants.

The border fence, known as “The Torilla Curtain” blocked people from crossing as they did when I was a child, but the it does not block the view.

Walking along the border highway, I spotted the Border Patrol sitting in their SUVs next to the Tortilla Curtain, waiting and watching.

In downtown El Paso, a mariachi festival took over the Plaza de Lagartos, a small Zócalo, or plaza, in the center of town where El Pasoans gathered to enjoy drink Agua Fresca and snack on elóte, while mariachi music filled the air.

The Southwest

El Paso, TX • Phoenix, AZ • Tucson, AZ