Film Depicts College Life on the Border

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EL PASO — Having to wake up every morning to get ready for school and get to class is something most American college students do not think twice about. But for Mexican students who live across the U.S./Mexico border, this simple task can become a challenging chore, which transports them into a more complex Americanized version of their own culture. Award winning director Maru Buendía-Senties wrote and directed a 29-minute short film based on how students tend to compare their situations and cultures to one another when they come from opposites sides of the border and attend the same university. “Entre Líneas” was filmed on the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) campus and on the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez border. Buendía-Senties is also a UTEP alumnus.

Expertos colombianos comparan experiencias en Colombia y México con el narcotráfico

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EL PASO — Dos politólogos que estudian el fenómeno del narcotráfico en Colombia exploraron posibles nexos entre las experiencias colombiana y mexicana con el narcotráfico durante dos conferencias que ocurrieron en octubre en la Universidad de Texas en El Paso (UTEP). Manuel Ernesto Salamanca y Edgar Mauricio Solano Calderón, académicos provenientes de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, participaron en las conferencias tituladas, “Drug Trade Issues: The Colombian Experience” y “Colombian Experiences With el narcotráfico,” auspiciadas por el Centro de Estudios Interamericanos y Fronterizos de UTEP. Los investigadores examinaron las particularidades que entraña el narcotráfico colombiano y brindaron completa y compleja información sobre la historia y estado actual del narcotráfico en Colombia. En respuesta a las inquietudes del público local sobre la creciente violencia que acecha a Ciudad Juárez por disputas entre narcotraficantes, ellos trazaron algunas similitudes entre los dos fenómenos, como la inicial permisividad estatal y la escalada de violencia indiscriminada y por otra, la preocupación de la población en general por encontrar soluciones a este fenómeno. En ambos casos, ni las autoridades mexicanas ni las colombianas combatieron el narcotráfico desde sus inicios, según los investigadores.

Sam Donaldson to Young Journalists: The future is Multimedia

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UTEP launches new Multimedia Journalism Degree

EL PASO—At the start of cybertime, back when 56K Internet speed was the norm, Sam Donaldson was at the forefront of multimedia journalism. Now, 10 years later, when high speed Internet is transforming journalism, Donaldson is encouraging prospective journalists to join the revolution. The legendary ABC newsman visited the University of Texas at El Paso Nov. 2, to announce the addition of the Multimedia Journalism Degree, which will enable students to gain multifaceted experience in the field. “This degree will enable you, and this university, to be in the forefront of looking at all these different platforms. At this university you will look at radio television, the Internet, print and look at all the ways you can communicate,” Donaldson said.

An Average Super-hero Who Knows Much About Borders

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — I met Marvin Berry during my first week at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn. Like everyone who meets Marvin, I liked him from the start. We were roommates for two years. Watching him receive his bachelor’s degree was one of the most extraordinary days of my life.

Lessons From the Border for our Corner of the Nation

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — When I went to college we rarely discussed immigration. Border politics didn’t enter my thoughts as I headed to Big Bend National Park on a student-run rafting trip, a last escape before graduation from Texas A&M in 1978. As we crawled into sleeping bags on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, I thought the water looked low for rafting. Later that night, Spanish voices broke the silence.

Negative Aspects of Text Messaging

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EL PASO — Frances Thrush sends 100 text messages a day and a total of about 4,000 a month. “When my phone service is cut off, I feel completely lost and anxious because I am not able to text,” Thrush said. She is a 16-year-old junior in high school admitting to being addicted to text messaging and could not picture her social life without it. “It’s a very quick and simple way to keep in touch with all my friends at once, I love it,” Thrush said. The consumer research company Nielsen Mobile, which kept track of 50,000 individual customer accounts in the second quarter of this year, found that Americans each sent or received 357 text messages a month, compared with just 204 phone calls.

“Obscured Eye” Art Show Opening

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The opening featured four artists —Alexandra Balestrieri, Jennifer Cuellar, Elizabeth Lopez, and curator Kyle Herrera— in an exhibit that comprehensively explores, “perception, cognition, and the obstacles imposed on them,” through the mediums of photography, painting, drawing, and interactive mixed media.

Warning – be aware of dangers when visiting Juárez

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EL PASO — With an increasing number of drug-war killings in Ciudad Juárez, shootouts in broad daylight and random acts of violence such as the burning down of a nightclub, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) administration has warned students and faculty to be extra careful when travelling in Mexico.

“Nuestra Casa” inaugural exhibit recreates living conditions of tubercular poor on the border

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Moya said Schumann visited El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and other parts of Chihuahua this summer to collect ideas for the project, a 23 by 33-foot house made of plywood panels and a roof made of tires. The structure is meant to capture the sense of isolation and desperation poor people face, especially when they also must contend with being sick from tuberculosis.

The Failure of The War on Drugs

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EL PASO — President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs in 1969 with a stepped up campaign targeting the production, distribution and consumption of illegal drugs. Forty years later many consider that war a complete failure.

War On Drugs: Exporting the Drug War

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According to Anthony Placido, leader of the Drug Enforcement Administrator’s Intelligence Program, the solution to the drug problem is not going to be possible if authorities and the government pretend or believe that the consumption and trafficking of these substances will be solved with only one policy, instead, institutions need to face the idea that the problem will continue to grow.

Mexicanos, Viva Mexico

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El PASO — The aroma of churros filled the air at San Jacinto Plaza along with the mariachis blasting away at their tunes and then el grito, “Mexicanos, viva Mexico!” rang out. Hundreds of El Paso citizens gathered at the downtown plaza, September 15, for “Viva Mexico!” the 199th Anniversary to celebrate the anniversary of independence of Mexico from Spain in 1810. “Just being here reminds me of how far we’ve come since that day and the struggle they must’ve gone through for us, it makes me extremely humble yet full of pride,” said Alejandra Acosta, an El Paso resident who attended the celebration. Mexican Independence Day celebrates the events leading up to the day in which after centuries of oppression, Mexico or New Spain as it was then called, won its freedom from Spain.

Corren mil por la amistad en el verdadero Juárez

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Año tras año, desde 1968 se lleva a cabo la Carrera Pedestre Internacional de la Amistad “Lic. Francisco J. Cuéllar” que reune a miles de personas para participar en las carreras de 3 km (categoría recreativa) y 10 km (categoría mayor). Esta carrera en sus inicios estaba enfocada a resaltar la amistad que hay entre las ciudades vecinas de Juárez y El Paso, por lo que el recorrido se dividía entre las dos ciudades, pero esto terminó después del atentado en contra de los Estados Unidos el 11 de septiembre de 2001.

A New Life, an Uneasy Choice Pt. 2

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EL PASO — With a raging drug war that has left many in fear and confusion, the choice to move to the United States isn’t as black and white as some would hope. But for the individuals and families with money, moving to the United States isn’t just a choice, but a luxury they can afford.

La narcoguerra desmiente la “Guerra Contra las Drogas”

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Tras 40 años de que el presidente Nixon proclamara que Estados Unidos se encontraba en una guerra contra las drogas, actualmente la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México vive en un grito desesperado por el descontrol del uso de drogas y la ineficacia de la política actual.

War on Drugs Conference at UTEP

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With violence at an all time high, a two-day conference that starts at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) will reevaluate this “war” the nation has been fighting.

A new life, an uneasy choice

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For those living in a country where drug war violence is an everyday occurrence, looking at the bigger picture isn’t always easy. Signs of the drug war can be seen everywhere in border communities like El Paso and Juárez. As the violence escalates, its political, social and economic effects continue to weigh heavily on the sister cities and their residents.

Argentina’s ambassador speaks for the ‘Disappeared’

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He told students and faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso recently that he was only allowed near his father, newspaper editor Jacobo Timerman, for three minutes and in that short time he found, “…a man destroyed, both physically and mentally…” who pleaded with his family to continue with their lives as if he would never be freed.

Confessions of a first-time journalism professor

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The things that made me drunk with disappointment, challenge and joy are countless—and they all occurred in a period of just 16 weeks last spring after I agreed to teach just one three-credit introductory journalism class.

Typical Parisian Women

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In fact, it only takes a simple metro ride to get a sense that the idea of “a typical” Parisian woman—or man, for that matter—seems more of a fiction than a reality. If, for instance, you ride the metro from Odeon to Chatelet—two central and important metro exchanges—you will probably see a number of Parisian women who would not match the “typical” description: from college students wearing chador to women wearing Benetton garb, from girls in military fatigues to women in Senegalese kaftans.

On the track to tier one

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The race to become the next tier one university in Texas has begun for seven emerging research universities now that Governor Rick Perry has signed Texas House Bill 51.