observing san diego-tijuana urban life 
“What would happen if we tore down this wall at the border? Look at the world we live in.” Hector Barajas understands the need for the United States to guard its borders, he tells me, as we sit next to the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico. “Look at where we’re […]
David Maung, a photojournalist who has lived nearly 20 years in Tijuana, has spent the past 12 years documenting the processes of migration in the region. On Friday, March 28, 2014, he presented his work at the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT), photos with intimacy and tenderness, capturing everyday moments in […]
Robert Vivar, a father and grandfather, made a good living working construction in Corona, California. That is, until he was tracked down by ICE and deported in 2011. Now, along with thousands of others recently deported from the U.S., Vivar works at Telvista, a call center and one of the […]
Jose Luis Cisneros’s face still bears the marks of the violence he suffered more than 10 years ago. Cisneros, now in his mid-50s, spent 20 years working as a migrant farm worker in Washington, Oregon and California, crossing back and forth following the harvests. But Cisneros’s life changed dramatically in […]
El 13 de septiembre inauguró la exposición Rastros: fotografías del muro fronterizo por Jill Marie Holslin en el Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, Tecate. Las expo dura un mes, hasta 13 de octubre. Quiero agradecer a Pilar Silva, directora de la galería, por invitarme a exponer mis fotos allá. […]
In 2012, the Obama administration deported 409,849 people living in the United States without proper immigration status. By 2014, estimates suggest that Obama will have deported 2 million. The American people cheer this effort and offer simple moral platitudes: “They knew the risks, they were here illegally. Let’s round up their […]
In Tijuana, urban art is everywhere, and artists find their most important contributions lie in the way their work can reactivate spaces that lie far beyond the official “front stage” of tidy commerce in the city. As the urban theorist Michel de Certeau argued in The Practice of Everyday Life, […]
I first saw Victor’s home last week when I was down in Tijuana’s Zona Norte. I was shooting photos of a mural my friends are working on at the corner of Niños Heroes and Avenida Internacional. And there it was, a mattress and a pile of personal belongings covered with […]
