Juarez team riding water polo wave in Mexico

CD.JUAREZ — An unusually cold and rainy morning here welcomed the public to a training session at the diving pool of Centro Acuatico Universitario of the University of Juarez that is usually closed to outsiders. Yellow balls float in the water, and two goals are set up at the edges of the pool. What was once one of the best diving facilities in Mexico, the diving pool that is still equipped with trampolines and platforms and has a depth of more than 50 feet has been repurposed to fit teams of aquatic warriors that play a sport unknown to many: Water polo. A sport conceived in England and Scotland, water polo still enjoys wide popularity in Europe,the United Stated, Canada, China and Australia. Now Mexico joins the list as the popularity of this water sport grows here.

Borderzine and Univision 26 showcase the next generation of bilingual journalists

EL PASO – A special collaboration between Borderzine and Noticias Univision 26, one of the biggest media outlets in the borderland, gave the opportunity to four bilingual students majoring in multimedia journalism at UT El Paso to showcase their journalistic abilities. Journalism students Mabel Gutierrez, Sara Villegas, Esther Jurado and Daniel Alvarez worked with Channel 26-KINT TV on a special assignment focusing on the university and student life. All four of them shot, edited and wrote their own stories which aired on the Spanish-language TV station. The constantly shifting media landscape in the contemporary world has created a new type of journalist. Multimedia journalists, or MMJ’s, are able to produce a stories on their own that used to be done with a crew of two or more people.

A year in Juarez gives foreign exchange students a different view on Mexico

CIUDAD JUAREZ – As this Mexican border city emerges from the five-year drug war that made it famous as the most violent city in the world, four high school students from Europe and South-America have called it home for a full year. Daniel Fantyš, Arthur Felipe Acker-Gregory, Victor Rodriguez and Juan Martinez have become adopted Juarenses. They have experienced life in this city, which has embraced them, and it has become their new Mexican home. “After two or three days, I saw it was really not that bad. But I thought I had gone back 20 years in time because of the way the buildings and streets look,” said Daniel Fantyš.

Mexican filmmakers erasing borders with their talent

“Who gave this son of a bitch his green card?” said Sean Penn handing an Oscar for best picture to Mexican-born Film Director Alejandro González Iñárritu at the recent film Academy Awards. Talent. His talent gave him a green card. What was meant as an inside joke sparked outrage in immigrants all over the country.

Joven terapeuta apoya a víctimas de crímenes violentos en Ciudad Juárez

CIUDAD JUÁREZ – Día tras día Omar Morales es testigo del trauma que ha vivido esta ciudad y que aunque según estadísticas la violencia ha disminuido un 84 por ciento desde el año 2010, sigue causando estragos en la población más vulnerable, las víctimas de crímenes violentos. Morales, de 24 años, es un joven estudiante de psicología originario de Ciudad Juárez que trabaja como terapeuta en el área de atención a víctimas para la Fiscalía del Estado de Chihuahua. Su oficina está localizada sobre el Eje Vial Juan Gabriel y la calle Aserraderos, en una de las zonas más transitadas de la ciudad. “Tuve una gran oportunidad de tener este trabajo,” menciona Morales, quien lleva poco más de un año con el equipo de aproximadamente 75 personas que atienden a víctimas de violencia.Como psicólogo de atención a víctimas, Morales trabaja con personas que tienen que vivir con las secuelas físicas y emocionales que son causadas por el crimen organizado en la ciudad. Uno de los casos que más recuerda es el de un niño de solamente cinco años que perdió a su padre.