Rudy Camacho demonstrating how to use Grindr, a dating app for homosexual men. (Cristina Quinones/Borderzine.com)

Mobile dating works for landing significant others or just fun fishing, but caveats abound

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EL PASO – Everything that was creepy and horrific about online dating is now implanted into your phone, where you can get updates on people possibly stalking you based on your location. For some, that may still be the case, yet, with phone dating apps becoming more popular, especially within the university setting, mobile dating is slowly becoming a “normal” tool for casual dates and even for finding someone to marry. “I actually met my fiancé on OKCupid, although that’s really embarrassing, so I tell people he rescued me from a bear in the woods,” said Rebecca Gomez, a student at El Paso Community College. OKcupid has over 4 million users in the U.S. alone, and utilizes personality tests, personal preferences, sexual orientation, and location to create “matches.” Users can also select what they are expecting to find/like – “find someone to marry, nothing serious, someone to date, or just hook-up.”

Homeless veterans in El Paso are estimated to be around 200 according to Casa Vida de Salud.

Unable to adjust to civilian life, some Army veterans end up living on the street

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EL PASO – Nicolas Charles Damico, a veteran of both of America’s longest wars, shuffles through papers on the kitchen table of the homeless shelter where he lives until he finds the Army patch he promises to live by – “This we’ll defend.”

He does this at the Veterans Transitional Living Center, a shelter for homeless veterans who have the potential to return to normal life soon. “I am now homeless for many reasons. The one benefit I got, I messed up. I used up my G.I. Bill very quickly. I only had 36 months to complete my education.

Johne at the gym on "leg day". (Cristina Quinones/Borderzine.com)

Lifting weights is the easy part of a body builder’s training

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EL PASO – A young man in his early 20’s, wearing a tank top, earphones, and shorts puts down a pair of weights and sweating, calmly looks up at his own reflection in the gym mirror. He’s been lifting weights since he was 18 and today Johne Green is a competitive body builder.  On August 31st, he was awarded 1st Place in Novice Middleweight and 5th place in Light heavy weight open division at his first competition in the Sun City Regional Qualification trials. Green admits that when he was first introduced to lifting, he was not interested; “My father always worked out, so he tried to get me to work out too. I wasn’t really into it until I was about 17, and then I began really getting into lifting and keeping in shape.” Now just a few years later, Green is a fitness enthusiast and an amateur body builder.  After years of lifting, his colleagues and friends began asking him for advice to help them reach their fitness goals.  He offered his advice, and training free of cost to help out, and because he loved staying in shape.

Border Patrol agents observed the event at Anapra. (Cristina Quinones/Borderzine.com)

Prayers at the Anapra border fence made immigrant hardship personal for me

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SUNLAND PARK, NM – Growing up in El Paso allowed me to journey through many different walks of life. If you live here long enough, you get to experience different cultures. If you stay long enough, you will begin to understand them as well. I attended a gathering at the Anapra fence right on the borderline Sunday, organized by Catholic bishops from border dioceses in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico to pray for immigration reform. People of the Catholic faith gathered on both sides of the border to pray for those who have experienced oppression and hardship while immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Screen time is one of the major factors contributing to the rise in childhood obesity rates. (Diana Arrieta/Borderzine.com)

Childhood obesity is of particular concern in the Borderland

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EL PASO — Fresh fruits and vegetables are two food types children should be eating every day, but, not very many kids eat what they should and that is provoking a dangerous rise in child obesity. “Things would go bad pretty quickly, and on top of that not very many people bought a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables,” says Cynthia Martinez, who worked for her parent’s grocery store in high school. “People, especially parents shopping for their kids, purchased Mexican candy, and chips and sodas for their kids,” Martinez said. “We should be the healthiest at this age, yet I don’t think any of my friends can run a mile without stopping,” says Delyn Berry, 17, a student at Andress High School. “I think if kids knew that they needed to do it to be healthy from a young age, and that message was being brought to them, they’d be more interested in sports and stuff.