ImpreMedia CEO — Latino journalism is now less about language and culture and more about competing as major media

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EL PASO — The Chief Executive Officer of ImpreMedia, the nation’s leading Hispanic Media Company, told students at the University of Texas at El Paso that media today must inform, educate and empower communities. Born into mainstream media — Monica Lozano’s father owned the powerful La Opinion, a Spanish language newspaper in Los Angeles — she quickly realized that she would find her destiny in the field of journalism. Lozano said she trained teams of Spanish language journalists to do groundbreaking reporting, which had a lasting effect on the profession and the community. “The evolution of the Latino community and media, that is my greatest achievement,” she told a group of students and faculty at UTEP. Her professional life took a new turn in 1990 when she moved from the journalistic side of media to the business side.

Undergraduates learn to explain each others’ research to a lay audience

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EL PASO – Computer science and special education majors do not normally meet to discuss each other’s research, but Amanda Sepulveda and Garrett Shaw met throughout the spring 2014 semester to share research in preparation for a competition funded by the Campus Office of Undergraduate Research Initiatives (COURI). Sepulveda is a special education major researching autism spectrum disorder, and Shaw is a computer science major researching optimization of high performance computing. They made up the winning team among the 50 that competed in COURI’s, “Explaining Research to a Non-Expert Audience” competition April 16-17. The competition was a prelude to a two-day undergraduate research symposium hosted by COURI that gave undergraduates the chance to present and discuss their research with faculty, peers, and the El Paso community. COURI was founded to help engage undergraduates in scholarly research.

Ruben Salazar questioned his own ethnic identity and the role of journalism in American society

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EL PASO — Writing in his personal journal shortly before newsman Ruben Salazar was killed by cops during a 1970 Chicano Anti War march in Los Angeles, the now legendary Mexican-American journalists asks:  “Why do I always have to apologize to Americans for Mexicans and to Mexicans for Americans?”   

His question sounds almost innocent against the turbulent anti-establishment tone of the times. Yet it still resonates for most U.S. journalists with hyphenated identities, myself included. As I watched the PBS documentary, “Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle,” a few weeks ago at a packed auditorium on the University of Texas El Paso campus, it felt like I was looking into a mirror and witnessing my own ambiguity about my Cuban and U.S. identities. It seems to me that ambiguity about identity frames the existential experience of most immigrants to this country. Where do we belong?

Juárez es una ciudad hostil para los discapacitados, con calles que son trampas mortales para los ciegos

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Sabina Olivas también contribuyó en este reportaje.  

CIUDAD JUÁREZ — Con ropas sucias, peinado descuidado y lentes oscuros  Armando Martínez, 62, deambula y encuentra cobijo entre las calles del Centro Histórico de la ciudad. Dice que es ciego, pero asegura que la diabetes que padece desde que tenía treinta años de edad no fue la causa. Junto a las escaleras de la céntrica sucursal Bancomer de la  Avenida Juárez, Martínez sostiene en su mano derecha la mitad de una botella de plástico en la que los transeúntes colocan las pocas monedas que le dan. Con un audífono en el oído derecho y un cable que le recorre el pecho, canta con tono desafinado una melodía que no se llega a comprender.

El Paso reacts with skepticism to Chapo Guzman’s capture

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EL PASO — On February 14, 2014, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was captured in a small, rather dull condominium. Guzman ran a drug business worth approximately $3 billion, and he has been on the run from Mexican officials since his first escape from prison in 2001. According to Mexican officials, he escaped jail the first time by simply bribing prison guards and walking out the front gate. However, this escape was highly romanticized and eventually grew into a daring urban legend. Guzman’s most recent capture has left borderland residents with mixed emotions ranging from elation to apathy.

La captura de El Chapo suscita ola de escepticismo

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CIUDAD JUAREZ — La captura de Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán el 22 de febrero en Mazatlán, Sinaloa suscitó diferentes opiniones en Ciudad Juárez, una comunidad que vivió en los últimos años la más cruenta guerra de su historia por ser un punto estratégico para la exportación de narcóticos a los Estados Unidos. Para la población fronteriza que vivió prácticamente a fuego cruzado, el nombre del “Chapo” Guzmán ha sido sinónimo de muerte y destrucción. Su detención produjo especulación por las posibles razones y consecuencias de su captura. “Se pensó que el narcotráfico controlaba al gobierno”, dijo el sacerdote católico Freud Cuéllar, “pero su detención nos dice que el gobierno ya no lo necesitaba”. Además, Cuéllar considera vergonzoso que durante 13 años nunca pudo ser localizado un hombre que fue catalogado por la revista Forbes como uno de los más ricos y poderosos del mundo.

The film Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle draws a sympathetic hometown audience in El Paso

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EL PASO — Exiting the cinema, a teary-eyed and choked-up man in his sixties wearing a white guayabera shirt and a Panama fedorasaid the film he had just finished watching was tragic and reminded him of his days as a Chicano activist in California alongside César Chávez. The film was Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle directed by Phillip Rodriguez, which explores the life and tragic death of the legendary Mexican-American journalist. Salazar was born in the Mexican border town of Cuidad Juárez, but was raised here just across the river. He graduated from El Paso High School and Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso) before he started working at the El Paso Herald Post as a reporter and eventually at the Los Angeles Times. After leaving the Times, he went into broadcasting at the Spanish language station KMEX.

Sticks and stones can break your bones but cyberbullying can kill you

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EL PASO — Rudy Sanchez’ sad eyes peered through tears below the beanie that nearly covered them as he stood in the empty living room of his Lower Valley home where his 14-year-old daughter, Viviana Aguirre, had committed suicide after being bullied online by a friend. Sanchez, 43, described how Viviana went to bed the night of January 2and left one final message on her Facebook account. “Before I do this, thank you to all who tried to keep me up. But hey, it didn’t work. Bye.”

Although most cases of bullying don’t usually end in death, it is a growing and serious problem among students, experts say.

Immigration judges in Minnesota face a 3,000 case backlog

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By Mark Brunswick and Alejandra Matos

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The realities of an immigration system under siege came walking one by one, in handcuffs and prison flip-flops, into the Bloomington courtroom of Judge William J. Nickerson. In a windowless chamber with mismatched chairs and worn wood paneling, Nickerson, one of three U.S. Immigration Court judges in Minnesota, heard case after case of people from Mexico to Micronesia detained for violating U.S. immigration laws. Their appearances put faces to lives caught up in one of the country’s 59 overwhelmed immigration courts. Intensifying enforcement has built such a backlog that an immigration case first heard in Minnesota today likely would take until next year or longer — an average of 400 days — to settle. Even with regulations intended to speed justice, undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers wait in the community or languish in jail to find out if they will be deported.

Documental vuelve a encender debate sobre la muerte de Rubén Salazar

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By Kay Bárbaro

Read this story in English

WASHINGTON — A pesar de la convicción declarada del productor de Hollywood, Phillip Rodríguez, con respecto a que el homicidio de Rubén Salazar, director de noticias de KMEX TV (Los Ángeles), cometido hace 44 años, fue un accidente, dos públicos independientes —uno en Washington, D.C., y otro en Long Beach, California— que vieron el preestreno del documental de 54 minutos, no concuerdan con él. Algunos dijeron, además, que aunque trató de hacer un caldo de cultivo para exponer un mal, solamente logró un refrito para la televisión. El programa, Rubén Salazar: Man in the Middle, saldrá a nivel nacional el 29 de abril por la red pública de televisión, PBS. Respondiendo a la invitación de PBS, 125 personas valientes —incluyendo las del equipo del Hispanic Link, el reportero Aaron Montes y el editor Charlie Ericksen, acompañados por Peter Copeland, quien formó parte de la fundación de periodismo de Scripps-Howard—, se aventuraron la noche del 27 de febrero, con temperaturas bajo cero, a ver el documental en el auditorio del Museo de Arte Americano, del Instituto Smithsoniano, en el noroeste de Washington, D.C.

En la otra costa, con temperaturas más cálidas, el profesor y activista Armando Vásquez Ramos invitó a un grupo de 350 jóvenes universitarios al teatro de la California State University, Long Beach, el 10 de marzo, y poco después 100 invitados asistieron a la recepción y discusión que siguió. Al productor del documental, Rodríguez, se le unió Phil Móntez, gran amigo de Salazar, jubilado recientemente de su cargo de director regional de la costa oeste para la U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Candidate Wendy Davis talks equal pay at Café Mayapan

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EL PASO — Gubernatorial candidate Texas Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, spent Wednesday morning speaking to media and volunteers at Café Mayapan, in El Paso, Texas. She focused her discussion on gender and economic equality. El Paso Sen. Jose Rodriguez and Rep. Marisa Marquez, both Democrats, introduced Davis. Davis spoke about Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, and wage disparities within his office. “When he was first asked about it two weeks ago, he dodged the question,” Davis said in her speech.

The choice to consume healthier organic dairy products comes down to price

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EL PASO — As the sun rises over the desert landscape, the rushing hooves of a herd of 80 calves creates a dust storm as they rush to their morning feast of gourmet quality hay bales. The calves and cows at Licon Dairy are the VIPs of the dairy industry in the greater El Paso area. Licon Dairy does things differently than other local factory farm competitors such as Price’s Creameries. Licon raises organic livestock — no hormones, no antibiotics, no mysterious injections for these happy and healthy bovines. “You have to give them the best quality of hay to keep them healthy,” said Angel Licon of the Licon Dairy family, “We start them off healthy by leaving the calves with their mothers to feed and get all of the nutrients from their milk.

El bar más antiguo de Ciudad Juárez inventó la margarita y la sigue sirviendo

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CD. JUAREZ — En el puente Paso del Norte, cruce internacional entre El Paso y Ciudad Juárez, una marea de personas, vendedores ambulantes y autos se alinean para cruzar al país vecino, mientras los famosos lavadores de carros que no dejan ni un carro limpio siguen frenéticos en su tarea. En el centro de la ciudad queda poco de lo que fue una maravillosa vida nocturna en Ciudad Juárez. Ahora algunos edificios en ruinas son recuerdos de lo que antes eran bares transitados. “La Juárez,” calle conocida por muchos por su gran vida nocturna, ya sea por ir por una copa o una prostituta, esta reviviendo.

Honoring our past to inspire our future: Rubén Salazar

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EL PASO — UTEP’s Centennial is an important time to look back at the past, reflect how we got to where we are today, and honor those who carried the torch but could not be here to celebrate with us. 

If he were still alive, Rubén Salazar would be one of the alumni for whom the Miners would roll out the red carpet.  The man after whom the Rubén Salazar Spanish-Language Media Program in UTEP’s Department of Communication is named and the only UTEP alumnus to be featured on a US postal stamp, Salazar was a pioneering journalist whose shocking and mysterious death at an anti-Vietnam War march in August 1970 drew attention to the civil rights struggles of people of Mexican heritage in the US. On April 29th, PBS will air filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez’s new documentary “Ruben Salazar:  Man in the Middle,” but the UTEP, El Paso and Ciudad Juárez communities will have an opportunity to see the film even earlier, at an April 9 screening at the UTEP Union Cinema.  Rodriguez will join El Paso icon Rosa Ramírez Guerrero, Texas State Senator Jose Rodríguez, KHOU 11 News Border Bureau Chief Angela Kocherga, and Borderzine’s Zita Arocha for a discussion after the 6 pm screening, which will be moderated by Bob Moore, editor at The El Paso Times. The film uses never-before-seen footage, interviews, and excerpts from Salazar’s private writings to tell the story of how a socially-aware journalist went from bylines to headlines. Many students will find echoes of their own lives in Salazar’s story.

Phony lawyers calling themselves notarios continue to scam unsuspecting immigrants

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EL PASO — A “Now Renting” sign and an empty office is all Irma Castañeda found when she went to ask her immigration attorney how her deferred action petition was proceeding. She had paid the man who turned out not to be a lawyer at all $2000 to solve her immigration problem. Had the scam never happened, Castañeda would be done with her deferred action process. In the meantime, she is not allowed to work and she is desperate because her husband was deported recently, the house he started to build for them at Horizon City is unfinished, and she cannot feed or provide any comfort to her two daughters — Rosalva, 12, and Jackeline, 9, who was born with a developmental disability. According to immigrant advocates, individuals setting up phony legal offices on the bilingual U.S.-Mexico border are taking advantage of the frequent confusion between the term notario público understood to usually denote a lawyer in Mexico and notary public, which in the U.S. is a person with no legal training, with the very limited legal authority of a licensed notary public to basically attest to the validity of a signature on a document for a $6 fee.

Football coaches debate the possible benefits and dangers of marijuana use

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EL PASO — The week before the Super Bowl, Seattle Seahawks Head Coach, Pete Carroll was asked about his thoughts on the use in the NFL of medicinal marijuana, which is legal in the state of Washington. Carroll said that the NFL needs to continue to find ways to make football a better game by taking care of its players in the best way possible. “The fact that it’s [medicinal marijuana] in the world of medicine is obviously something [that Commissioner Roger Goodell] realizes.” Carroll said he supports the commissioner’s “expression that we need to follow the information and the research.”

Carroll said that regardless of the stigmas involved, he thinks “we have to do this because the world of medicine is trying to do the exact same thing and figure it out and they’re coming to some conclusions.” University of Texas at El Paso head football Coach Sean Kugler said he does not agree with Carroll. “I have my own opinions about drugs and college athletes, and that is handled within our program,” he said.

Autorama shows off the beauty and the beast in all types of custom cars

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EL PASO – The aroma of leather, roasted almonds, and Carnauba wax fills the Convention center bringing to mind a vintage vision of sea foam green tank-sized cars sporting white walled tires.Spectators are awed by these metallic Mona Lisa’s and massive crowds have gathered here today to get a glance at them just like fine art lovers gather at the Louvre in Paris. The Autorama show brings in all different types of individuals from the same car-loving community to demonstrate the power and beauty of their automobiles. A multitude of enthusiasts fill the room and every audible conversation revolved around hot rods or muscle cars. “I’ve been building street rods ever since I was 14 and I always had to do that after work,” said Jerry Haley, a contestant at the Autorama and the owner of a 1933 Chevrolet Standard Six, which won Goodguys/Timberland Pro award in 2006 earning the Chevy the title of Homebuilt Heaven National Champion. His 1933 Chevrolet Standard Six, is an original car with a six-cylinder motor that he took apart and rebuilt into a real street rod with a tune-port fuel injection fast-burn 385 engine with overdrive.

Pediatric depression is hard for parents to accept, but treatment is critical to a child’s development

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EL PASO — Aleseems like a typical five-year-old girl talking with her dolls, attending pre-k, and playing with all her classmates, calling each one of them her best friend. As typical as she may seem, there is something about her that no one would discern by looking or even by talking to her. Ale, who shall remain anonymous at the request of her guardian, suffers from pediatric depression. “It’s because sometimes I feel sad and mad. Sometimes I don’t feel happy,”said Ale, in a soft, hushed voice.

New technology bridges US-Mexico border at Columbus school

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By Lindsey Anderson

COLUMBUS, N.M. — The sun hasn’t yet risen when the first children arrive. Most are middle and high school students, beginning the bleary-eyed walk just after 6 a.m. Then come the youngsters, the elementary school children, accompanied by mothers and fathers and tías and tíos. The families walk through the opening in the wall, running indefinitely in either direction, and up to a small patio and the Columbus Port of Entry. The parents help their students slip on backpacks, zip up coats and plant kisses on little cheeks, then they send their children off to the United States of America. More than 300 young U.S. citizens living in and around Palomas, Mexico, cross into the United States each day to attend public school in southwestern New Mexico’s Luna County.

Religiosas católicas de Nuevo México crean un oasis en el desierto para los niños con discapacidades

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CIUDAD JUÁREZ — Las risas y llantos de los niños se mezclan con las voces de sus padres y voluntarias en Proyecto Santo Niño, una humilde construcción de concreto, conformada por tres habitaciones con piso de cemento donde las madres se preparan para dar terapia a sus hijos. Afuera, una hermosa Virgen de Guadalupe pintada del tamaño de la pared blanca adorna la fachada. En este humilde lugar hace 13 años las religiosas católicas Hermanas de la Caridad de Cincinnati prestan sus servicios gratuitamente a niños con alguna discapacidad física o mental, en la colonia Anapra, una de las áreas más pobres de Ciudad Juárez. El común denominador de los 52 niños que se benefician de los servicios gratuitos de la clínica es que viven en extrema pobreza. En un país con un sistema de salud pública percibido como deficiente y rebasado por la demanda de servicios médicos, los niños con incapacidades físicas y mentales son los más desprotegidos.

My inspiration for photography and for music were together in a long forgotten space in Washington, D.C.

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Before the concert: Photography

WASHINGTON D.C. — I was not expecting this. How could it be that my inspiration for photography and for music were there hand in hand in a room long forgotten? There he stood and their faces looked past him, as if time stood still for just them. Of course, a photograph captures the essence of a certain place in time, but it also resonates and almost comes back to life when the time-stamp machine prints its thumbnail. Mike Mitchell, a photographer who had captured the way the U.S. public saw The Beatles when they first arrived in Washington D.C., was 18 years old and effectively preserved the moment. On Feb.

The Mustard Seed Cafe feeds the hungry and demands little in return

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EL PASO—Since its grand opening in December of last year, the Mustard Seed Café near downtown has worked hard to keep its commitment to the El Paso community by assuring that “everyone eats.”

Founded by close friends Christi Brown, Patsy Burdick, and Shelley Speicher, the pay-what-you-can eatery is the only one of its kind in the Sun City. It allows patrons to enjoy nutritious entrées and side dishes for less than full price. Customers can also pay for meals by briefly volunteering their time in the kitchen or garden. “We want to make this quality of food available to everybody in the community regardless of their ability to pay for it,” said Brown. The café is non-profit, which allows guests to pay well below the suggested price of $3 for a side dish to $10 per entree.

Deadly flu season hits home hard and it’s not over yet

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EL PASO — Rene Delgado came home on a Saturday afternoon with a sore throat. The next day, his family noticed that he was becoming unresponsive so they took him to see a doctor in Juarez where he was diagnosed with the flu — the H1N1 strain. He was then taken by ambulance to Del Sol Hospital where he was admitted into the intensive care ward on January 11. He died there three days later. The civil engineering student at the University of Texas at El Paso was 22 years old.

Original Time magazine cover with Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto.

Mexican government payments to Time Warner Inc. stain the journalistic integrity of the legendary magazine

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EL PASO — As I woke up this past Tuesday I went through my regular routine of reading the news of the day on my smartphone. I skimmed over the spam known as CNN, and then checked NPR and Reuters’ headlines, but that particular day I came across a very interesting looking Al Jazeera English article titled “TIME magazine’s ‘Saving Mexico’ issue prompts backlash.”

The image of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN), who in my photographer’s opinion seemed photoshopped in order to look more presidential, filled the TIME’s cover page. But what struck me with an immediate sense of indignation was the cover article’s title: “Saving Mexico.”

There he was, a man whose political party was caught buying votes and still won the presidency, a man interconnected with ex-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who had one of Mexico’s most tarnished presidencies in history. This man Peña Nieto, the current president of my home country, is not someone I could ever trust. Setting aside the fact that his so called reforms jeopardize the entire country, disregarding the fact that after 75 years of sovereignty he is selling out our oil reserves to foreign investors, my immediate disgust shifted toward the TIME publication and the article written by one of their chief foreign correspondents, Michael Crowley.

Voices and Images of Migrant Women, exhibit opened at the end of January at Centro De Salud Familiar La Fe's Cultural Center in El Paso. (Christy Ruby/Borderzine.com)

Women’s photos shout a loud message against domestic violence

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EL PASO – Berenice, six months pregnant, remembers how she was trying to relax on her bed after a long day at work when she heard her husband enter the room. Rolling on her side as he began to hit her, she shielded her body so his blows would not hit her swollen stomach. Then he demanded that she get up and clean the house and “act as a maid” even though she already has a full time job. Soon after this incident several years ago, she became the sole provider for her family, which included her husband, his mother and other extended family. Today, looking smart in a green pea coat, it is hard to imagine that Berenice is a survivor of domestic abuse. She says her daughter gave her the impetus to step out of her dangerous domestic abuse cycle.

Lizdemar Najera, 40, mother of four was a victim of domestic abuse. (Marilyn Aleman/Borderzine.com)

Immigrant women survive domestic abuse thanks to protection from a federal law

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SOCORRO, TX — Nestled on a dusty road in a small town of roughly 33,000 residents, sits a brightly colored hair salon tucked to the right side of a 7-Eleven. Bright red and royal blue stripes decorate the hair salon building, conveying a sense of patriotic awareness. Inside the shop, 40-year-old Lizdemar Najera greets customers with a smile and a hug, offering a variety of hairstyles at low costs. Taped on one wall is a sign with her mantra:
“I am Lizdemar: I am brave, compassionate, humble, easy to teach, optimistic, conscious, I feel a genuine pride in my appearance and in my work.”

Najera’s sweet personality and attitude of tender loving care hide her once dark past. The mother of four was a victim of domestic abuse, not once but twice in both of her marriages.