Boy On The Hill, Juarez – March 2002

Someone observed, generally, that in so-called third world countries, poor people have to live on top of hills and mountains (where it is more difficult to get water and where roads are rough and barely existent), but in first world countries the rich like to live on top of hills and mountains, for the “views.”

And the status.

Locked out at the Human Rights Forum, Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico

October 20, 2007

A group of 150 people from different grass roots and human rights organizations from Juarez, El Paso, Guanajuato and Mexico City, arrived in a school bus and private cars at noon, October 20, to discuss globalization, displacement, human rights violations and femecide.

Homeless Happy Birthday, El Paso, October 19, 2007

Regino Olivas-Mendoza, 47, hangs around a car wash in central El Paso. He wears a sign that says, “Homeless today, Is my birthday, can you help me?”

Veteranos de Juarez, December 2006

 Ramon Covarrubias Quintana(l) and Francisco Barraza(r) are waiters at the old Martino’s Restaurant on Juarez Avenue in Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The restaurant is located two blocks from the Paso del Norte Bridge that connects downtown Juarez with downtown El Paso.

Martino’s – and these waiters- harken back to the “Golden Era,” of Juarez,

28-October 5, 2007

El Panteon nuevo, Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico – 1988

The cemetery came before the barrio. An ultimate act of realism.

Cristo Rapper and his wife, Armijo Park, El Segundo Barrio, El Paso / 16 de Septiembre 2007

This was a 16 de Septiembre event in Armijo Park in El Paso. Armijo is in the heart of the historic Segundo Barrio. Armijo is a people’s park. This neighborhood is in, actually, the only”urban,” neighborhood in El Paso (hard to define but you know it when you see it: Life exists on the streets)

Chihuahua de Juarez-Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico / March 2007

Two girls on a field trip, Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico / June 2007

Two Juarez girls hamming it up at the NASA traveling exhibition that was shown at the Centro Municipal de las Artes in downtown Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico in May through June.

The First Street of America #7, El Paso, Texas / August 2007

Sixth and El Paso Street is the first street in “America,” after crossing over the Paso del Norte Bridge from Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico into El Paso, Texas. This is the crossroads.

Dignified Man #12

Cool Norteno, Plaza de Juarez – Juarez, Mexico / June 2007

The Plaza de Juarez in Juarez, Mexico is an ancient crossroads. The plaza stands in front of the Mision de Guadalupe, a church established in 1659 along the El Camino Real. The plaza today is still a crossroads and a transportation hub and, on Sundays, is vibrant, eclectic and fully the heart of the old Centro Juarez. Much of the area north of the Centro, the Plaza, and the Mision, the area between the old Juarez commercial district stretching north all the way to the U.S. border and El Paso, is currently, being demolished. The demolition is clearing the way for a commercial development that is projected to link up with El Paso’s south side and Downtown, also scheduled for demolition, just across the river to the north.

The transportation hub that has made the Plaza de Juarez the intense and interesting center of Juarez that it is, is scheduled to be relocated away from its current location.

The “Cool Norteno,” garbed in standard norteno clothes, and others, may or may not survive the “development.”

Snatched Mexican day laborer sits in the back of a Border Patrol van, El Paso 1999

Most “illegal immigrants,” incarcerated in El Paso are laborers who’s immigration activity is, merely, a two way commute, finding them returning to Juarez, Mexico, at the end of a work day. Being incarcerated by the Border Patrol inconveniences the worker but does not deter the activity. Wages in Juarez average around $5 to 6 day. In El Paso a Day Laborer makes an average of $ 25 to 40 a day. The difference in wages makes the bureaucratic discussion of deterrence moot.

Defiant, wary and proud, Carmen the maquila woman, Juarez/2002

Carmen Sotelo Rodriquez is the face of the Post Global economy. She worked at a Phillips plant in Juarez,Chihuahua, Mexico. The plant had moved from three shifts to one shift and by 2002 the company had migrated most of its assembly operations to China. She is shown standing in front of the plant on the city’s south east side. This photo was shot on assignment for Bloomberg magazine.