The art of recycling

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Art created from recycled items is now a fast growing and popular niche, but Carlos Egan (“The Country Gentleman”) has been incorporating recycled items into his art for years. Egan’s Rustic Art was most recently featured at the 39th Annual Renaissance Arts Faire in Las Cruces. But, for 27 years Egan has been traveling and selling his work at fairs all over Texas and New Mexico. “I go out into the desert with my daughter and look for wood pieces that have been weathered by the sun and rain. I mostly go where people throw stuff away.

Facebook, Facebook, where’s your face?

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EL PASO, Texas — Facebook is the fastest and easiest way to keep in touch with friends and family but it could also potentially affect social skills development in the younger generations. “Young adults can have a thousand friends on Facebook and yet they have trouble holding a face-to-face conversation,” said Carolyn Mitchell a Communication professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. Users have become so accustomed to this type of communication that they’ve forgotten what is like to talk face to face over a cup of coffee. Even during important events such as graduations or funerals, they would rather send their regards through Facebook. “There’s a disconnect.

Women Still Forced to Juggle Career and Motherhood

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EL PASO, Texas — Faculty and staff at any university in the University of Texas system planning to have children face the especially difficult challenge of juggling motherhood and career with only a 12-week unpaid maternity leave. Like many pregnant women teaching in the UT system professor Anne Giangiulio had to make arrangements other than just buying diapers and a crib before the baby’s arrival. “I was due to have my baby in December. Knowing this, I made arrangements with my then-Chair of Department of Art to teach classes I normally teach in the spring, in the summer. I don’t normally teach in the summer,” she said.

Acknowledging Child Abuse is First Step to Defeat it

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EL PASO, Texas — The two-year-old girl was found beaten to death in an apartment on the East side of El Paso, along with her badly beaten four-year-old brother. “The four-year-old brother survived,” said Al Velarde executive director of the Child Crisis Center of El Paso. The Center is trying to get the community involved during Child Abuse Prevention month to help spread the message that “spanking and hitting a child is never the right response,” Velarde said. All through April everyone in the El Paso area can show their support to abused children by tying a blue ribbon to their car antennas or by wearing blue on Fridays. “Like these children many others are still suffering the hardships of living in homes with domestic violence and poverty,” said Laura Morales, an employee at the center.

Out of My El Paso Comfort Zone, Hitting the Big Apple Big-time

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EL PASO, Texas — Armed with my new suit, my resume and portfolio I stepped up to the plate to interview with Digitas, Team Detroit and Leo Burnett, three of the top general market advertising agencies in the country. When I received the news that I had been selected American Advertising Federation’s to be one of the 50 Most Promising Minority Students in 2010 I could not believe my luck. I thought wow free trip to New York, but it wasn’t until I got there that I really understood the magnitude of my luck. I was given an opportunity of a lifetime to join an exclusive circle of elite students. My hard work was starting to pay off, big time.

Ambassador Rozental: NAFTA Needs an Update to Fit Twenty First Century Demands

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EL PASO — Mexico and the U.S. are cooperating more than ever before on trade and immigration issues, but the North America Free Trade Agreement needs to be spruced up to deal with 21st Century problems.

Both countries and Canada have changed since 1994 when NAFTA was signed but the policies they agreed to have remained virtually static according to Andrés Rozental, former Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Today there is an unprecedented degree of cooperation between Mexico and the U.S.,” Rozental said, “They have a greater degree of trust, but people change and federal policies stay them same. “

The relationship is slowly evolving and filtering into three very important areas, trade, immigration and security, he said. Rozental, a career diplomat for Mexico, told faculty and students at the University of Texas at El Paso recently that even with the improved degree of collaboration between the U.S. and Mexico “there’s always more that can be done, especially on the trading issue.”

The “mutual finger pointing” of the past is the cause of today’s bilateral political problems, he said. Both countries are at fault, he said.  “Mexico’s take has always been what I call the ostrich policy.  They hid and it was the U.S.’s problem to solve,” Rozental said.