El Paso County building, one of the emblematic buildings in the commercial area of downtown El Paso. (Cheryl Howard/Borderzine.com)

Barbies and Barrios

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Teaching and Learning and Caring Blog

EL PASO – Years ago, even in small towns across America, there were “good” neighborhoods and “bad” neighborhoods. Living “across the tracks” always meant you lived on the poor side of town. In reality, everyone lives across the tracks; it just depends on your reference point, and people in power seem to be able to make the rules and the reference points. Sociologists know this as residential segregation. Banks knew it (and may still) as “redlining.” Cops know it as where trouble is likely to happen.

Making ends meet in Nogales on $1 an hour

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RIO RICO, Ariz. — When I returned to my Rio Rico, Arizona home from a second visit to my dentist who works twenty minutes away in Nogales, Sonora, I reflected on what a fine dentist Dr. Emilia Sáenz is. But her assistant, José, a gracious young man, is even finer. My spoken Spanish is decent, but my level of understanding sometimes lags – especially with Dr. Sáenz, an immigrant from Colombia, whose rapid Spanish confused me, which made José even more crucial as I endured another root canal. I marveled at José’s skill at anticipating Dr. Sáenz’s demanding needs and at anticipating any discomfort I might feel.

Poverty in Juarez: An Extinguished Light

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EL PASO — Juarez: a place of abundant people, a city that shares its border with El Paso, a mother of a diverse culture and tradition, and yet, a site of desperation and rampant poverty. Poverty is one of Juarez’s greatest problems, a reality that sweeps across the town like a sandstorm, seizing on its way the tender smiles and the vivid aspirations from many thousands of people. Poverty is in the fainting child who dreams of a mouthful of beans or in the search for warmth and shelter during cold winter nights. Poverty is like the subtle wind that blows outside your window; silent, constant. It is the indivisible shadow that penetrates life.

“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.