Mexodus, Borderzine's especial project.

Projects on U.S.-Mexico border, development in Brazil win Online Journalism Awards

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By Alejandro Martínez

A student project that explored the migratory effects caused by drug violence along the U.S.-Mexico border and a comprehensive reporting package on the ongoing development of Paraná state in Brazil won the Online News Association’s 2012 awards for non-English projects during the ONA’s latest conference in San Francisco. “Mexodus,” published by Borderzine, a bilingual student publication of the University of Texas in El Paso, aimed to document the flight of families and businesses from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico to its sister city of El Paso, Texas. The mass migration followed a surge in drug violence and petty crime in the Mexican border city. Students from four universities in Mexico and the U.S. contributed to the nine-month project and published around 20 stories in both Spanish and English. “Retratos Paraná,” published by the Curitiba-based daily Gazeta de Povo was a four-month project in which a team of journalists traveled across more than 6,200 miles in the Brazilian southern state of Paraná to paint a detailed picture of the developing region.

Brazilian studies add a dash of samba to the salsa

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EL PASO — With the sexy swaying of samba rhythms and outrageously mechanical capoeira moves, Brazilians and El Pasoans took over the dance floor while others enjoyed the taste of typical Brazilian meals. Green, blue, and yellow Brazilian colors were displayed in flags, T-shirts, and balloons, splashing the spirit of Brazil onto the Mexican-American border city. The University of Texas at El Paso is known as a very cultural university that celebrates different ethnicities. With Ciudad Juarez as a neighbor, most of the students at UTEP have Mexican backgrounds. But UTEP has a wide variety of international student organizations and study programs like the Brazilian studies program that was implemented three years ago.

Brazil — A New Superpower in the Americas

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EL PASO, Texas — Beyond colorful bikinis and carnivals, Brazil increasingly draws more attention to its emergence as a rising world superpower. “Brazil must have done something right,” said Heitor Santos, specialist in Brazilian politics, in a discussion panel held recently during the second annual Brazilian Festival at The University of Texas at El Paso. Besides publicizing Brazil’s international economic and social influence, its samba steps and Capoeira moves, the annual festival aims to create a greater understanding of the growth and cultural richness of this nation also known as the verde amarela. As part of Brazil’s economic success, Santos pointed to the country’s production and sales of flex-fuel vehicles, which burn either ethanol, gasoline or a mixture of both, and the semi- public oil company Petrobras, which recently discovered a new oil reserve off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil used to export to the U.S. 22 percent [of all exports] and they brought that down to 14 percent, becoming a good model to Mexico and other countries that are totally dependent on the U.S. economy,” said Cesar Rossatto, a UTEP professor of US-Latin American studies.