Jose Romero

Jose Romero's life changed dramatically when after 11 years, he left his job as a sports reporter for the Seattle Times in his native Pacic Northwest for the desert heat of Phoenix, Arizona in February 2010. Since then, he's been trying to re-invent himself as a freelance journalist for such news organizations and websites as Fox Deportes, the Associated Press, SB Nation Arizona and several others. He also joined Arizona State University's Cronkite Journalism School as an adjunct faculty member teaching intermediate news writing in the fall of 2011, and went on to advise video and print journalism students covering MLB spring training for the Seattle Times and San Diego Union Tribune this past spring semester. Jose's career in sports journalism has taken him all around the country, but never to El Paso, although his beloved Oregon Ducks have played in the Sun Bowl a couple of times in recent years. Jose nds himself hustling every day -- the life of a freelancer -- and most recently covered his rst Las Vegas superght -- the Mayweather-Cotto card at the MGM. He blogs about a lot of dierent sports, his passion, for Fox Deportes at http://foxdeportes.tumblr.com/ and on his own site, http://mividadeportiva.wordpress.com/. When not writing or working with students, he's attempting to take care of his newly-completed back yard, traveling and spending time with his wife and family.

Remembering the Indios de Juárez

By Jose Romero | June 8, 2012

EL PASO, Texas – Sergio Villasenor often worries for his relatives across the border in his home city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Members of his family have dealt with four assaults at their place of business in a city still wracked with drug cartel-related violence. It isn’t as bad as it was even a couple of years ago, when the city of more than a million people recorded 3,103 murders. But Juarez is still unsafe territory for the El Paso Patriots midfielder who works across the international border from where he lives. “The truth is that it’s really hard to live in Ciudad Juarez, so I’m trying to find ways to bring them here (to Texas),” Villasenor said, “for a better state of being.”

One must pay the cartels for the right to operate a business in town, or perhaps be forced to close, or have their establishment burned down, Villasenor explained.