12 Journalism professors selected for Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy 2018

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Twelve journalism instructors from U.S. Hispanic Serving Institutions will travel to the U.S., Mexico border region to participate in the ninth annual Dow Jones News Fund Multimedia Training Academy in June at the University of Texas in El Paso. Thanks to a grant provided by the Dow Jones News Fund, Borderzine organizes this annual workshop training geared to multimedia journalism instructors who teach in institutions with a large minority population. Here is a list of the 12 instructors who were chosen and their institutions:

Daniel Evans, Florida International University
Mary Jo Shafer, Northern Essex Community College
Lillian Agosto-Maldonado, Universidad del Sagrado Corazon
Julie Patel Liss, Fullerton College
Nicole Perez Morris, Texas A&M-Kingsville
Kelly Kauffhold, Texas State University
Sara V. Platt, University of Puerto Rico
Geoffrey Campbell, UT Arlington
Jesus Ayala, Cal State Fullerton
Lorena Figueroa, El Paso Community College
Darren Phillips, New Mexico State University
Dino Chiecchi, UT El Paso

The week-long multimedia-journalism academy has a proven track record of eight successful years helping journalism educators acquire a new skills in digital storytelling that they can use to help prepare prepare the next generation of Latino college journalists. “The trainers at the academy understand what educators need to learn about new and emerging technologies to better prepare their students for the fast-changing future” said Linda Shockley, Deputy Director of Dow Jones News Fund. “This quality of instruction at absolutely no cost to participants and their universities is priceless.”
The goal of this experience is to learn and practice news reporting using a variety of digital equipment, software programs and platforms. Participating instructors are expected to translate this learning into training for their students, making them more competitive in the media industry.

El Paso family lives binational life thanks to SENTRI program

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Luis is among the thousands of people who cross the Juarez-El Paso border each day. His wife, Gabriela, often greets him at the door of their West Side El Paso home when he returns in the evening to ask “How was your day?” The Rio Grande river and border checkpoints separating Mexico and the United States are not considered obstacles for many locals who have business on both sides, and Luis and Gabriela’s family is no exception. Luis – who asked that only first names be used in this story – lives in El Paso, but works in sales in Juarez. His family is among the nearly 50,000 people enrolled in the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) program that allows them to bypass long lines and cross the international checkpoint more quickly.

Books and backpacks less easy to carry across the border now than before:  Mexican students who attend U.S. schools face a new reality in the anti-immigrant age of Trump

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EL PASO – Hundreds of students cross the border from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso daily,  carrying heavy backpacks and books and dreams of a better life.  Heightened  anti immigrant  rhetoric across the country and various immigration enforcement executive orders from President Donald Trump have added more stress and uncertainty to their daily lives. Over 1,000 Mexican students attend the the University of Texas at El Paso and about  half commute to campus from their homes in Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, according to a previously published story. The commute is a hardship for many because of the long and complicated commute from their home in Juarez,  a walk  or a car ride across an international border bridge to have their documents checked, followed by a bus ride  to the UTEP campus some five to 10 minutes from downtown El Paso,

Related: In 2016, commuting daily from Mexico to attend school in the U.S. was no big deal for students who budgeted their time well

Most must wake up before dawn to make it to an early morning class, and often don’t return home to Juarez until well past the dinner hour.  Depending on the amount of foot or car traffic on the international bridge, the crossing time can vary from 20 minutes to two hours.

Riding through change

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By Laura Montelongo

Throughout the past few years downtown El Paso has experienced many transformations as a community. Many people overlook the fact that even though construction is taking over the area, there is a popular biking movement. Taking a turn down the road of Downtown El Paso, we notice the many beneficial things our city has to offer the community is palpable. In September of 2015, Bcycle started their company with a total of 80 bikes and eight stations to place all 80 bikes. The development of bike usage has increased drastically from June 2015 to June of 2016 receiving one thousand participants, and is constantly increasing today.

Reviving spirit and reviving pride in downtown El Paso

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By Danielle Kaiser

The revitalization of downtown El Paso is not confined to just the expansion of businesses and new housing complexes; the unique people who inhabit the area are aiding in the effort as well. The LGBT community in particular is breathing new life into the area and changing the culture just by being who they are. This an impact long in the making. Long before the recent wave of downtown revitalization efforts, El Paso’s LGBT community forged from shuttered commercial space Pride Square, a cluster of bars at Stanton Street and Franklin Avenue that is now a staple Downtown experience for area residents. Spearheaded by LGBT advocates and the people of Sun City Pride and fueled by everyday customers, this area represents a lively and unique part of El Paso’s culture.

Fresco brings new juicing option to downtown

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By Charlene Martinez

Several health conscious restaurants are sprouting throughout Downtown El Paso. Located less than a block from San Jacinto Plaza, Fresco offers downtown an all natural and fresh menu. “Our smoothies are 100% natural, a lot of other places do have sugars and they are not natural. Our store is 100% natural and fresh and that’s why most of our customers are interested in it,” owner Rebeca Talamantes said. “It’s a cool place to come to, you can sit and work and spend a couple of hours here.”

Talamantes began juicing at home which lead her to open Fresco in November of last year.

Activist group fights to preserve Barrio Duranguito

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By Brittany Medellin

EL PASO – As residents of Barrio Duranguito face losing their homes, some of who have lived there for over 40 years, members of Paso del Sur defense group have taken it upon themselves to fight tooth and nail to give a voice to the elderly who live in this community. Paso del Sur activists say that since the passing of the city’s Quality of Life Bond in 2012, the proposed arena has threatened the Duranguito residents’ way of life, and most recently it has engulfed them in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation by the hands of shady landlords and constant eviction notices. Paso del Sur, a prominent activist group who strive for the preservation of Duranguito, battle to defend its residents and their history from being displaced and their memory demolished. “Before everybody got pushed out (of Duranguito), it was an amazing thing to see,” said Yolanda Leyva, senior member of Paso del Sur group. Situated in the city-ordained arena footprint, Duranguito is riddled with recently abandoned properties and buildings that used to be someone’s home.

Duranguito no se vende, se defiende

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Por Brandon Rojas

Una zona que alguna vez fue un lugar próspero, en el que los niños podían jugar de forma libre y segura, ahora se encuentra en peligro de ser demolida. Una residente local, conocida como Antonia “Toñita” Morales, afirma que el municipio planea destruir la comunidad que ella ha visto desarrollarse la mayor parte de su vida.  

Toñita afirma que por años trabajó y luchó por limpiar su comunidad. “Limpiamos todo esto, quitamos la prostitución, quitamos los rateros. Limpiamos porque queríamos que los niños crecieran en un área limpia y segura y que estuvieran a gusto.

History of the First Ward

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By: Valerie Alva

EL PASO — El Paso’s first barrio may soon be wiped out by its own city officials. Duranguito, or Union Plaza to its residents, has been selected by city council to be the new home for the proposed multipurpose arena. The history of Duranguito is constantly ignored, according to Paso del Sur activist Cynthia Renteria. “The area has a lot of historical significance and it’s part of a past that isn’t often recognized in the narrative of El Paso,” she also reflects and explains that the story of the city is only vaguely explained up until 1881. “So it’s like the Spanish arrived here.

Modernization making its way to Downtown

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By Edith Martinez

Buildings that were once home to broken windows and moldy ceilings now house a culture of free spirits with modern options. The Martin Building is just one of the new choices for downtown living. 

With its iconic “ElectriCity” rooftop sign, tenants enjoy both a mixture of classic and modern urban design. The building is now a part of downtown’s growing living spaces where rents start at $695, and are stylish as described by tenant Luis Piña. 

 “The building was completely vacant before,” Piña said. “It was not as appealing and now simply the location is everything. They are more modern and chic and I feel they are targeted toward young professionals who have careers and enjoy modern downtown living.”

 Buildings are not the only thing undergoing change in downtown.

How Downtown El Pasoans are changing their outlook with every step

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By Caitlin Cook

Living near construction can take a toll on one’s quality of life. Residents of downtown El Paso have experienced this first hand- from the laying down of StreetCar Project tracks to the Bassett Tower renovation, getting outdoors in the few quiet places they can has been a refuge from the stress of the city. Elisa Dobler, a Therapist and Outreach Coordinator at the El Paso Child Guidance Center, knows this well. “Anytime there is an increase in loud, disruptive noise, it may cause stress in those who experience it daily,” Dobler said.  “The [World Health Organization] has written on the ‘Burden of Disease from Environmental Noise’ and the detrimental health effects.”

One escape residents have found has been through Downtown El Paso Fitness, also known as DTEPFIT.

Sunset Heights

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By Pamela Ortiz

Residents in Sunset Heights take pride of their neighborhood. They work together, live together and even fight together. Every so often, the Sunset Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association meets underneath the Hal Marcus Art Gallery to discuss vital issues that will affect their area.  

On their recent July 12th meeting discussing the new district eight city council representative, resident and blogger, Sito Negron, said that he wanted someone who would preserve Sunset Heights with its historic charm. “The neighborhood has a certain feel and look to it, if they want to remodel they have to go thru a process because of the historical look and character it has to it,” he said.

Roderick Artspace

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By Lizbeth Carmona

Walking the halls of the Roderick Artspace lofts, bright colors, quotes from famous authors on seizing the day, and indie music leaking through closed doors can all be experienced before even entering the resident’s lofts. An eclectic variety of people fill the 51 lofts in the new Roderick Artspace apartments in

downtown El Paso, especially people who make around 30% to 60% of the area median income and would like to dedicate themselves fully to their craft. Found on 601 N Oregon Street, Artspace is a location for both artists and local businesses looking to attract artistic commerce and improve the city’s cultural representation. Though not having long since the first residents began to move in, the Artspace is charged with creative energy. The first floor provides space for businesses that are attracted by the area such as the Kalavera Culture shop and El Paso Opera.

Downtown commerce under construction

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By Weber Santiago

While road closure signs and bright orange cones have been a headache for downtown El Paso commuters, some business owners see them as a sign of improvement. Despite slow business due to construction, the downtown revitalization effort has maintained its popularity among proprietors. “Everything they’re building, the stadium, the San Jacinto Plaza, the lofts, it all makes downtown more safe,” Healthy Bite owner, Patricia Terrazas De Herrera said. The recent series of constructions in the area has provided hope for Healthy Bite, a self described “colorful daytime cafe with … health-conscious eats & smoothies.” Ft

Healthy Bite hopes that all the change will provide an incentive for more people to visit the area. Currently their customer base are mostly employees who work in the area.

A new era for older businesses

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By Jacob Reyes

Downtown El Paso is an area filled with people and businesses that flourish with unique culture and history. One of those businesses is Star Western Wear with its shelves stacked with blue jeans and rows of cowboy hats that line the wall of the massive Downtown store. A store rooted in West-loving customers knows a successful future is embedded in change. Edie Zuvanich, marketing director at Star Western Wear’s downtown location, has seen this shift occur firsthand. “A lot of El Pasoans really didn’t know very much about Downtown and they had a specific mindset about Downtown.

Walls divide, murals unite

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By Melanie Martinez

Many murals in El Paso reflect what it’s like to live in a border city and the struggles and pride that come from it. Pops of color have slowly been introduced into Downtown El Paso as artists have made this concrete jungle their canvas. “Art to me is an expression of who you are in the inside. To me, art started as a way to express myself and to build upon the experiences I’ve had through my life,” Leslie Grey said. Grey is an artist known for makeup and her contributions to local street art.

San Jacinto beauty reaches its fame to Instagram

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By Aliana Contreras

The newly renovated San Jacinto Plaza has not only received attention from El Pasoans, but also from many talented photographers – both local and worldwide. “I’m a hobbyist. I’ve dropped a lot of money on photography, so I’m pretty obsessed with the whole hobby,” Jay said. Jay, also known as “that1duder” on Instagram, is a photographer from Seattle who traveled to El Paso three years ago to pursue his hobby of photography. “Coming down here, I didn’t know what to expect.

A home for aspiring artists: Downtown El Paso

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By Sarah Olberman   

Galleries and museums are embracing local artists like never before, giving them more exposure as the El Paso creative community begins to prosper, artists say. “Before I moved to Los Angeles, the only places I would see local art was like at bars,” said Matthew Martinez, better known by his alias JAM! “That was my first experience with seeing really talented artists in a bar setting. Seeing that, I really wanted to give people an opportunity to have something in a traditional, real, contemporary gallery because I feel like there’s a lacking for that,” Martinez said. Martinez opened his gallery and store, Dream Chasers Club, 200 S. Santa Fe St., in 2015 after living in California and on the East Coast.

Streetcar Project: una molestia ahora, pero un gran beneficio en el futuro

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By Alexia Nava

Debido al Proyecto Tranvía – Streetcar Project – varios negocios han sido afectados de diferentes formas. Sin embargo, las expectativas con respecto al futuro del proyecto se siguen manteniendo positivas. Uno de los negocios afectados fue “Briar Patch”, un bar localizado sobre N. Stanton St. “La clientela no llega, no tienen lugar para estacionarse, y pues el dinero y las propinas han bajado,” dijo Francisco Ahumada, mesero en el bar. “Cuando está cerrada la calle, pues, la gente piensa que también estamos cerrados nosotros,” explicó Ahumada.

El Pasoans impacted by Street Car Project construction

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By Zenia Lopez

Business owners and shoppers to Downtown for more than a year have had to maneuver through inconveniences regarding construction, road blockage, and reroutes because of the Street Car Project. “This street car project is very irritating,” said William Foxworth, an employee at Hagan Imaging. “It has interfered getting to work by having to adjust my schedule around.”

This street car project began in late-2015 won’t be finished until late 2018, said Carl Jackson, a Sun Metro spokesman. “I used to take the route from my house in Socorro to UTEP in almost 30 minutes by going through the Border Highway and going through Santa Fe,” said UTEP student Aaron Aceves. “Now that same trip takes me nearly 50 minutes on a good day.”

The street car routes consist of two loops.

Downtown hopes riding on streetcar project

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By Jazmine Zamora

Streetcar project supporters are expecting a new wave of tourists, shoppers, and reduction in traffic as construction approaches completion. “The benefits excel beyond just downtown,” said Martin Bartlett, a spokesman for the El Paso Streetcar Project. “It really is about picking those destinations and giving residents and visitors another choice to travel between those amenities.”

Back in the 1900’s, El Paso and many other cities used streetcars as a way of transportation to get to where they needed to go. However, in 1974 they stopped running. “The very last line that stopped running was actually an international line and it was – I believe it was – a complaint by Juarez business owners [whom] felt that it was making it too easy for patrons to do business in El Paso,” Bartlett said.

Violence, beauty of Mexico influencing emerging border artists

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EL PASO – As a child at the beginning of the new millennium, Ana Carolina’s city was notorious as a place where hundreds of women went missing. Now a student at UT El Paso, the theme of empowering women is at the core of many of Carolina’s works. For Carolina and other young artists from Ciudad Juarez, art has become a way to process and escape from the ugly reality of the drug wars and other violence that surrounded them growing up. “The disappearance of so many young women is something that really characterized Ciudad Juarez, so I think that really influenced my art a lot,” Carolina said. “I draw women and something that represents them is that they are all facing forward and looking straight at you. My women are strong; we are not just a symbol of sexuality or sensuality in the arts.” 

 Carolina also uses her art to express the cultural beauty that characterizes this region where Mexico and Texas connect.

Sanctuary is in the fabric of El Paso, not the label

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By John M. Gonzales and Alex Hinojosa
There are 118 so-called “sanctuary cities in the United States, but applying the term to El Paso is like calling Texas a little bit country. With one in four city residents living a bi-national life to manage and work in Mexican factories across the border, traffic snakes bumper-to-bumper every day through checkpoints from neighboring Ciudad Juarez. Twenty-five percent of residents are immigrants — with an estimated 3 percent of the state’s unauthorized immigrants Texas-wide residing in El Paso County. Yet, like other jurisdictions that inherited the sanctuary city tag originally used by immigration control groups to create an image of blanket refuge, El Paso is being told to uphold a law that strikes to the core of its identity. “We’re allowing D.C., and sometimes Austin, to dictate what border policy should be,” said David Saucedo, a mayoral candidate who is pitted against the more politically experienced Dee Margo in a June 10 runoff.

Border Patrol ride along gets real when migrant family appears

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by Jennifer Thomas

On paper it sounded like the perfect assignment:  spend a day along the U.S. Mexican border with members of the El Paso sector of the U.S. Border Patrol as part of the Dow Jones News Fund Multimedia Journalism Training Academy at UT El Paso.  Off we went – cameras, notepads and audio equipment in hand.  It was hot. 100 degrees. Most of us, have in the least read about, if not reported in some way, the border between the two countries, and the migrants who try to cross illegally into the U.S.  What we were not prepared for, was to see an apprehension first hand. 

U.S. Border Patrol agent Oscar Cervantes and Joe Reyes served as our guides. Cervantes has been a border agent for more than eight years.  Reyes – more than fourteen.  

We visited a portion of the 16-foot steel, eight-mile-long fencing that separates Colonia Anapra in Mexico and the village of Sunland Park, New Mexico.  The structure has been in place since 2007. “It only takes seconds or minutes to blend into the community,” Cervantes explained.   

The El Paso Sector encompasses all of the state of New Mexico and the western tip of Texas, and is one of nine sectors along the Southwest Border of the country.  There are 19,000 agents covering more than 250 miles of international border.  The section of the border is covered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but Cervantes insists the fence is not meant anyone out.

College grad in limbo after ICE roundup reveals secret, splits family

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By Sylvia Ulloa

Jeff Taborda lives in a faded green trailer in an old but neatly kept motor home community in north Las Cruces. Taborda,23, graduated in December from New Mexico State University with a degree in criminal justice, with ambitions to go into law enforcement and eventually join the FBI. He is lean and muscular, working out regularly with his younger brother, Steven. The home Taborda shares with his girlfriend is sparsely furnished, clean dishes in a rack in the sink. “As soon as I eat, I do the dishes,” he told visitors on a recent hot afternoon.

Security, trade, family bind both sides of border

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By Pam Frederick

From the roof of the commercial customs lanes at the US-Mexico border in El Paso, TX, a line of trucks four lanes wide stretches beyond sight into the Mexican city of Juárez. A similar line of cars inch along, idling for hours, towards the Bridge of the Americas, one of 10 border crossings in the region. The view makes one point perfectly clear: free trade between the US and Mexico is not ending anytime soon. And no one around these parts knows that better than local business owners. “We build everything together,” says Miriam Kotkowski, the owner of Omega Trucking located just three miles from the border crossing at Santa Teresa, N.M. Her father started his business in New Mexico 50 years ago, crossing cattle.

Movimiento Social Digital invita a los Mexicanos a #ConsumirLocal

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Ante el anunció del presidente de Estados Unidos Donald Trump, de construir un muro en la frontera con México y deportar a miles de inmigrantes sin documentos, usuarios de redes sociales en México generaron varios hashtags defendiendo a México rechazando las medidas del gobierno estadounidense. Hashtags tales como #AdiosStarbucks #ConsumeLocal #MexicoUnidoyFuerte, #MexicoPrimero y #To2Unidos tenían por propósito de invitar a los mexicanos a unirse a un movimiento social digital para ayudar a la economía mexicana comprando productos producidos en la nación. Después de los hashtags, no podían faltar los memes que hicieron su aparición apoyando el movimiento digital que utilizaba a empresas y artistas mexicanos para realizar su sarcasmo humorístico. Muchos de estos memes se podrían considerar graciosos y divertidos. Gracias a la popularidad de los hashtags y memes muchos usuarios de redes sociales publicaban la bandera mexicana como un símbolo de solidaridad, patriotismo y apoyo a este movimiento social entre redes sociales.

Public TV plays important role for children living, learning on the border

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As a child of the border, I grew up surrounded by two cultures, two languages, and two cities that brought opportunities and experiences not many students in the U.S. kids get. I had the advantage of completing first and second grade in Ciudad Juarez and later coming to the United States to complete elementary, middle school, high school, and college. I remember having to wake up three hours before my classmates in order to be at the international bridge by 6:30 a.m. and make it to school by 7:50 a.m. While this became a normal daily routine for me, I often felt it was unfair that I had to get up so early when other kids slept in because the lived just around the corner from school. Now that I am finishing college, I feel blessed that my have parents gave me a taste of the education in Mexico as well as in the United States. Thanks thanks to the early years in Mexican schools, I have strong skills in writing and speaking Spanish and my Mexican history skills are solid.

Juarez has become a limbo for Central American migrants who decided to delay plans to cross into U.S

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By Veronica Martinez

For years Casa del Migrante, a shelter in Ciudad Juarez, has been a haven and a crossing point for immigrants coming from the south, but the uncertainty of new immigration policies under the Trump presidency is convincing some of them to remain at the border indefinitely. In 2015  the shelter received 5,600 immigrants. Last year the number increased to more than 9,000, officials said. Ana Lizeth Bonilla, 28, sways back a stroller back and forth watching her two year-old son, Jose Luis, as he sleeps. “Now, we’re just waiting for her,” the pregnant woman says as her arm rests on her baby bump.

Rumores acerca de la forma de inmigración I-407 asustan a los inmigrantes legales

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Un rumor en las redes sociales que algunos agentes de inmigración están exigiendo que residentes con estatus legal estadounidense firmen una forma abandonando sus derechos de vivir en Estados Unidos ha causado miedo en la comunidad inmigrante, según abogados y oficiales de organizaciones de trabajan con inmigrantes. “Están saliendo comentarios de que los oficiales de inmigración estan forzando a los residentes que firmen este formulario y que abandonen su residencia”, explicó la abogada de inmigración Iliana Holguin. Holguin dijo que los rumores no tienen veracidad. Melanie Luna, quien nació en Mexico y reside legalmente en Estados Unidos por muchos años, también está consiente de los rumores. “Sí he escuchado sobre esa forma, este es un rumor que se ha escuchado solamente por medio del internet”.