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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,

Women and the Red Bus -Oct. 1975

October 5, 2007

A funny thing about photography and time: it can capture milliseconds and it can capture decades, and all in the same photograph.

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)

Soy Un Oso, Hugo in El Segundo / Feb. 2007

Hugo(last name not given) shows his high school “colors,” on Father Rahm Street on El Paso’s south side. It is twilight and he has been working on a mural at the Sagrado Corazon church’s gym.

Black Cross on the FBA, August 2007

Summer on the FBA. Hot. 100.

This is Father Rahm Street, which is, actually, Fifth Street. Around the corner is El Paso Street which is the first block of America (or the last, depending on where you’re coming from).

Around the corner, to the south is where the Paso del Norte bridge from Juarez empties out. There are stories on this street, big life-journeys begin here. This is where dreams begin. Some people have called this the “Ellis Island of South America.” Maybe that’s the draw for me (my Father was born on that other immigration island in 1907). That was another dream. These are places where dreams can start.

The Black Cross mural for the violence against women in Juarez appeared a couple of years ago. Then they put a bus stop in front of it (dumb). Then they took the bus stop out but painted over the text (also dumb) about the violence to the women.

Whatever. Life passes and passes strongly. This is where I have spent a lot of my life.

Nothing stops the energy on the FBA. People are looking for their place, their direction, their dream. I’m looking. I’m there almost every afternoon.

Remnant #19, Tom Wicker’s Tire-El Paso, Texas / July 2007

This giant tire is in front of Wicker Tire Company at 701 San Antonio St. in El Paso, Texas. It has been there since the late 1960’s and has become an El Paso landmark. The tire was originally on an earth moving vehicle that worked on the Panama Canal. It was brought to El Paso in the late 1960’s, where it has rested at the corner of Paisano Drive and San Antonio Street. Before Interstate 10 came to El Paso, Paisano Drive was U.S. Alt Route 80, the truck diversion route around El Paso, part of U.S. Route 80 that was the main southern route starting in Savannah, Georgia, and ending in San Diego, California. When Interstate 10, was completed, most cross country traffic was diverted from Paisano Drive, but, the Wicker tire has endured and enriched the landscape for several generations of El Pasoans and other passerby. Highway Art, a commercial mainstay of travel in the United States in the 1930’s through the 60’s, has become true art and and this one endures as a true El Paso landmark. Tom Wicker, son of the founder of Wicker Tire Company, maintains the Giant Tire, repainting it approximately every three years, “Or sooner if it’s graffiti-ed,” says Mr. Wicker .

Additional Notes on US Highway 80

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.