US/Mexican Border in Texas, 2018
In August, Janet spent 10 days on the US/Mexican Border. The trip follows her 2014 research trip to Arizona that resulted in my installation Fences & Neighbors. Janet participated in a 5 day Border Awareness Experience in El Paso with Annunciation House, a nonprofit, volunteer organization that has been working with migrants and refugees since the 1970’s. The group lived in a house that also welcomes migrants. Annunciation House showed us sites key to the migrant experience in El Paso. Then she spent 5 days driving from El Paso to Brownsville, looking at the border, the fences, the Rio Grande. Crossing back and forth into Mexico thru the US Points of Entry.
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The border fence making an almost beautiful line as it flows down the hill and across the landscape dividing and separating with such cruelty.
Looking into Mexico thru The Fence
Looking from El Paso into Mexico. The border is somewhere about midway to the far mountains but you can't see it.
This mural is in El Paso near the border Port of Entry. It shows the twins EL Paso and Cuidad Juarez now seperated.
Pedro and Amelia were at the house where we are staying when we got here on Saturday. They had just been reunited after 3 months. Amelia, a sweet girl and a ruthless tic tac toe player, had been in New York. Soon father and daughter will travel on to join their family in the South. The image is a drawing. Photographs of Annunciation guests are not permitted.
The Port of Entry from Mexico into the US at El Paso.
The Port of Entry from Mexico into the US at El Paso.
The Pedestrian bridge at the Port of Entry from Mexico into the US at El Paso.
The pedestrian bridge between Mexico and the US at El Paso/Juarez.
Grafitti seen from the El Paso/Juarez bridge.
This prison is called Otero Processing Center. It detains adult males awaiting deportation.
This is the entry to Otero. Not my photo because we were not permitted to photograph here.
This is a cell in Otero. Not my photo because we were not permitted to photograph here.
Mural welcoming people to the offices of Los Americas, a legal aid organization in El Paso.
Walking back into Presidio, TX.
We spent the day following the Rio Grande as it wends it’s way from Presidio, TX, thru Great Bend Ranch State Park into Great Bend National Park. The US is on one side of the river and Mexico on the other. A spectacular and often desolate landscape. We thought about migrants fleeing for their lives across mountain ranges in extreme temperatures.
Rio Grande
Border complex of bridges and walkways.
The border wall near Brownsville literally in residential backyards.
Store in Mexican border town
Came across this sign very close to the Rio Grande which is the border. I saw a few campaign signs along the way today. Then this.
Seen from a pedestrian bridge at a Port of Entry.
