Image on left: Elaine Gordon Wilson and her husband, Kevin. Image at right: Angel Iturbe and his wife, Lauren.

Borderland life amid the pandemic 2020-2022

The view from Mexico heading into downtown El Paso. Photo by Alma Rodriguez, Borderzine.com.

The borderland of El Paso-Juárez was forever altered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of people in these sister border cities lost their lives to the disease; hundreds of thousands had their lives massively disrupted. The cross-border flow of people that is the lifeblood of the community was largely shut off for 18 months, keeping family members from loved ones on the other side of the Rio Grande. El Paso has had the highest per capita deaths to COVID-19 among any urban U.S. county outside of the New York metro area. And death rates were even higher in Juárez.

With support from a grant from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Borderzine chronicled and curated the stories and genuine experiences of people in the Borderland during this unprecedented time as part of the Border Narrative project. Here are those stories.