Michael Romero, Cheryl Howard, Ernesto Alarcón. (Cheryl Howard/Borderzine.com)

Semper Fi

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EL PASO – In 1918, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour, fighting ceased in World War I.  This particular war was designated “the war to end all wars.”  That particular November day has eventually become what we know as Veteran’s Day; it is not the day that all war ended. We may no longer be able to remember Washington or Lincoln’s birthday, but this date is unmistakable; today is this day. My personal belief is that we have had thousands of years of “civilization,” enough to teach us ways to solve our differences in more “civilized” ways. Perhaps we have not learned so much from our past as we think we have. Nevertheless, we keep sending young men and now women to represent our government’s official positions at home and abroad.  Those official positions are clothed in patriotic rhetoric, but sometimes we can see the slip of opportunism or greed showing.

José Luis González, a photojournalist for El Norte newspaper, risks his life every to cover murder scenes at Ciudad Juárez as do most of journalists in one of the most dangerous cities of the world. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre/Borderzine.com)

Chasing Death

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CIUDAD JUÁREZ – Everyday journalists from all over the world make a pilgrimage to one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Ciudad Juárez, to try to document the city’s daily terror on its people. I have gone into Juárez before to try to document that for myself, but this time I wanted to tell the stories of the journalists. Journalists who risk their lives to cover the thousands of murders that happen every year. This was my attempt to try to get a small glimpse into what it takes to cover Juárez in a day’s shift. For one day this past summer, I rode along with two fixers, and met a news crew from Sydney, Australia, a couple of photographers from El Norte newspaper, and visited the local state bureau of investigation.