Death on the Border

In the coming weeks a new in-depth story will be posted on Borderbeat about counting and miscounting of migrant deaths in the Tucson sector. After over a month of tackling the most difficult and complex story I've ever worked on, it is time for me to reflect.

The controversy is mainly between the criteria used to count migrant bodies by The U.S. Border Patrol and medical examiners offices. The Border Patrol, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, undercounts migrant bodies and did so by 35% in 2004. And Pima County Medical Examiner office's data is the only count that is as accurate as possible according to a report by the Binational Migration Institute of the University of Arizona's Mexican American Studies & Research Center.



On the other side of the issue is the humanitarian side. Regardless of the policies the fact is that there are hundreds of people dying in the desert of this state every year and that number increases when including the rest of the border states. From 1990 to 2005 the Pima County Medical Examiner's office has processed 927 migrant deaths.

The fact is that no matter how the public policy changes, individuals from Mexico are still going to attempt to cross into this country and due to a change in policy in Texas and California, the majority of migrant crossers enter in the Tucson sector and are therefore dying in the Tucson sector.

Increasingly migrants are coming from farther south in Mexico where the climate is tropical and they have no concept of the harshness of the desert.

Some humanitarian aid groups like Humane Borders have taken steps to help the migrants by placing water stations throughout the Southern Arizona desert.


Photo courtesy of Humane Borders

At this point policy is cultivating a situation that contributes to injury and death. I understand our government has a responsibility to implement and enforce rules and regulations, but at the same time doesn't our government also have a responsibility to form policy that doesn't directly contribute to harm of other individuals?

I'm no politician so I would not dare propose a solution. I think it's safe to say there is no perfect solution. But there has to be a solution that lies in the middle. Perhaps the focus need not stay on our own country, but rather shift to the policy and state of Mexico itself, so migrants have less of a reason to "need" to cross.

The law and government need to be objective, I get that. But on a very basic level we are all humans and we all have emotions, desires and needs. Compassion for our fellow men, at some point takes control. So until there is policy in place that takes these issues into consideration, I don't see the problem as solved.

Mexican Mask Mayhem

While, this is not the technical title of the event, it would have been all to appropriate. With the wind and the cold subdued for a short period of time, Saturday afternoon was the perfect setting for the Arizona State Museum's "Culture Craft Saturday: Puppet Play."

Tables and booths scattered the lawn in front of UA's museum set up for puppet creation, mask making and a live tortilla cooking demonstration (my personal favorite).

The event was obviously geared toward a younger generation as children from a local elementary school flooded the craft tables. Puppet heads decorated with funky, fuzzy hair, painted faces and jazzy jeweled fabric were paraded around as masterpieces. School children set their creative talents to the test making Mexican inspired masks, while learning about the history and origin.



But the real "hot spot" of the event was Matilda Santa Cruz's tortilla tent. Originally from Sonora, Mexico, Matilda demonstrated what the art form her mother taught her. Made with flour, shortening salt and water Matilda expertly formed and cooked the delicious tortillas. This was as authentic as it gets.



Step One:
Pat down hands with flour

Step Two:
Flatten ball of dough into hands and start to slowly widdle the ball down.

Step Three:
Begin to flatten and stretch dough in your hands.

Step Four:
Fan out dough into wide circle about 14" across and lay on griddle surface.



The tortilla cooking device, called a Patsari, was made by Matilda's cousin out of an industrial metal trash can with door opening for firewood to heat the griddle above. A chimney like tube is fastened in the back and extends above the griddle about three or four feet to distribute the excess smoke. The entire top of the can is covered by a flat metal plate, that serves as the griddle. This is how Matilda and her family have always cooked homemade tortillas. The result was a thin, warm, fresh tortilla like I've never had before.



However, the focal point of the event was a puppet performance by
Tucson Puppetworks which was asked by the Arizona State Museum to perform a folklore piece. The detailed yet massive puppets stood almost 15 high and were fashioned to sit atop the shoulders of puppeteer, while the body of the puppet covered a puppeteer up to his or her knees.

With movable and semi-functional limbs, the uniqueness of the puppets itself was much more impressive than the quasi-impromptu performance. They were a sight to be seen when performing alongside the human narrator as they rose another five to six feet above the top of his head.

The puppets are called monigotes and are traditionally used in Mexican culture for story telling. The large heads and small bodies of Tucson Puppetworks' creations and are built onto backpack like devices that the puppeteers wear, so they are literally in the body of the puppet where they control the limbs.

"A New Spoon for Every Bite" is a common Mexican tale about a poor couple and their child and their wealthy neighbor who learns a lesson about material possessions and what's important in life.

Ride Along With Me

Altar Valley near the Mexico border has the highest number of
recorded found migrant bodies.

Everyone said it would give me the first hand experience I needed to write my story, and boy did it ever.

On Friday April, 6th for the second day in a row, I traveled near the Mexican border in Tucson, but this time the ride was in a government Border Patrol vehicle.

The agent was polite and considerate to me and my fellow borderbeat reporter, but his comments were not so neutral, which I guess is to be expected. A few guffaws at the mention of a certain Arizona Daily Star reporter's name, for example.

I've never been fond of the Arizona desert, but it is quite another thing to experience it when thinking about trying to survive in it. It was only April and already the hot wind was stinging and the sun was relentless.

I learned the most about the process of searching for, finding and arresting undocumented migrant border crossers. And though I try to remain as neutral as possible, it was refreshing to humanize a border patrol agent.

This is a fence made from railroad tracks
engineered by the Border Patrol to deter
smugglers from driving through the desert.

In general, it was an uncomfortable situation. Consider the attempt to remain an ominiscent observer, while sharing the experience of the border situation with an extremely opinionated individual and witnessing the apprehension of eight migrants all within five years of my age.

Forget the politics, the policies, and the major players, the day boiled down to a comparison of lives and birth given rights. The fact that I was born in a hospital merely 200 or so miles away from another girl, has made all the difference in the reason why on that day I was in the Altar Valley as a student reporter and she as a gutsy border crosser.


Two of the eight young migrant border
crossers apprehended by ATV Border Patrol agents.

There is no simple way to look at the border situation. But what Friday made me realize is we are all human; me, that hopeful young girl and border patrol agent. And as humans we all live according to what we think is right, whether that be simply trying to do their job, make a living or find a new life.

An answer is out there somewhere that maybe isn't the best for all sides, but at least is a way to find a compromise.

'Babelon Don't Make the Rules'

Photo courtesy of Paramount

***BLOGGERS NOTE***

The following blog contains plot spoiling information. If you have not yet seen it might be wise to pry yourself away from this blog.
Alexañdro Gonàlez Iñàrritu's Academy Award winning film "Babel" explores the nuances of boundaries; personal, political, physical, emotional and psychological. As the third film of his trilogy, including "Amores Perros" (2000) and "21 Grams" (2003) Iñàrritu's story interrelates four groups of people who are connected by one incident in three different places across the globe.

The film is intended to be thought provoking as it tests the human spirit and the power of authority. Juxtaposition elements though they are, these two themes are exploited most thoroughly in Iñàrritu's Mexican/American subplot.
Photo courtesy of Paramount

A day trip for a family wedding across the Tijuana border turns into a nightmare after the Mexican family caretaker of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett’s children, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), is stopped while trying to re-enter the United States. In frustration and desperation Amelia’s nephew Santiago (Gael Garcìa Bernal) drives their car off into the desert.

It goes without saying that the border is a complex issue. The personal stories of migrants are always underplayed, but even less than that are the stories of those who are affected by a migrant’s failure to cross or failure to remain in the United States, as seen in the film. I kept asking myself, what happens to those left without any explanation or answers as to what happens to these individuals?

Photo courtesy of Paramount

In the case of a caretaker, I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of them taking care of our children in this country everyday. Imagine a huge map of the United States, with a graphic of a child holding an adult’s hand to represent every single one of these situations. Now imagine those adults slowly disappearing one by one and the image of thousands of abandoned children across the United States.

There’s no telling what this country would be like if something like that happened, but I guarantee it would not be pretty. This is what the film "A Day Without a Mexican” shows.

At the core, the border issue is not a political issue, it is a practicality issue. Our economy was in demand in the early part of this decade and that demand was met by willing workers, who happened to come from a little farther south than us.

At this point, there is nothing that is going to drastically change the current situation in this country and there is no use in trying to upset that balance. So why not focus the effort on trying to find a solution that works for both sides? Yes, take measures to monitor the border so as not to exacerbate the situation, but that is not the only issue that deserves attending to.

I would be out of line to propose my own solution, but I think I would not be remiss to say that thinking egocentrically never gets anyone anywhere.

Mexico: A Real Big Mess

I've been going to Puerto Penasco, Sonora since I was ten years old. My family yearly May/June vacations have been the only family vacations my family has taken my entire life. They have become our solace. For my 12 year-old-sister "Mexico," as we call it, is like a second home to her. So, in all those years we have witnessed quite a lot of change in the town, in the economy, in the other visitors and in the attitudes of the locals.

Most recently, The Arizona Daily Star published an article on Feb 11, 2007 titled "'Tucson's Beach' is booming." And boy is it ever. Las Conchas, the private home community which once a single row of homes on the beach, is now two rows deep with high-rise condos under construction on the third row.

On the other side of town, Sandy Beach, five-star resorts are popping up like wild flowers and grandiose condos are decorated like a Paradise Valley estates. Not your typical picture of Mexico, but with its four hour convenient drive from both Phoenix and Tucson, lack of rules and significantly lower prices, Rocky Point is becoming a vacation haven for both college age students and families alike.

Anyway, the whole point is, Rocky Point has changed, big time and for long time vacationers, and I’m sure the locals, it hasn’t changed for the best.

But for all it’s worth if you take comfort in the less crowded areas and only venture into the town when you need to buy fresh fish or that must have token hand painted shot glass, a Rocky Point vacation can still be a perfect weekend getaway. Because it’s on the Gulf of California the water is much warmer than the Pacific, dolphins and breathtaking sunsets make regular appearances, it’s always a few degrees cooler than the desert mother land of Arizona. Not to mention the local food is cheap and fantastic as well as the alcohol.

I wish Rocky Point had stayed my secret hideaway, low-budget, relaxing vacation spot forever, but I guess it’s inevitable that the big wig developers would capitalize on it and so would everyone else. Hence the four hour traffic back up I encountered on Sunday throughout Sonoyta, the border town you cross through in Mexico. Granted the majority of the traffic at 11:30 a.m. on was due Spring Breakers trying to get back to campus before their Monday morning classes, but another part of the traffic back up had to do with the Mexicans stopping every car trying to collect money for their poor and disabled.

What is normally a four-hour trip, became an eight-hour trip and it leaves me wondering what the policies are for the Mexican police when enforcing traffic issues. Obviously policies are either undefined or not followed, but either way something is going to have to change if the increasing flow to and from Rocky Point is going to continue.

To see more of my vacation, check this out:

Sierra Vista Artist in Spotlight

Photo courtesy of www.restevensart.com

Roderick E. Stevens has lived for 30 years in Sierra Vista, Arizona. His realistic acrylic paintings stood out to me among the hundreds of booths at the Scottsdale Arts Festival after I read the sign "These are not PHOTOGRAPHS they are paintings." But it wasn't just me who was intrigued, I ran into Alice Cooper getting information from Roderick on one of his paintings.

The brilliantly colored paintings are, to put it simply, amazingly realistic. Reflections and lighting are the highlights of the paintings, the parts that make the viewer confuse photograph with painting. But perhaps the most impressive aspect of Roderick's work is that he has only been at it with intention for the past two years.

By trade Roderick is cinematographer for Indie films and music videos, but when he found himself in need of more of a spiritual connection he found his way back to painting, which he dabbled in as a child. Surprisingly, he considers his work his own private art school. Each painting is a challenge, each new technique is almost like a game to him. As with his paintings of fruit, where he nails the glare and listening liquid texture to perfection, they were proposed to him by a fellow artist and he greeted the challenge with complete enthusiasm.

Photo courtesy of restevensart.com

He has been touring for the past year and a half across the southwest, but has made his way to Texas and Florida where he said his paintings sell the best.

Although he was born and raised in Illinois he moved to Sierra Vista as a child and chose to stay there once he began raising his family, even though most of his cinematography work is in Los Angeles. Surprisingly, living so close the border he said neither his work nor his life are much influenced by his surroundings although he has experienced a few migrant border crosser incidences.

As a child his house was broken into twice by migrants. Once while filming a sunrise for one of his films, and group of heads began bobbing into his frame. Other than that, he lives and paints in Sierra Vista relatively unaffected by his surroundings as his subjects are varied but reflect nothing of the southwest.

Glass bottles so realistic you feel as if you can virtually see through them to the background, a shiny black Harley-Davidson motorcycle covered in chrome you can almost see your reflection in and a row of polished yellow, brown and baby blue guitars are just a few of Roderick's remarkable pieces.

Photo courtesy of restevensart.com

He calls it Contemporary Fine Art Photorealism, I call it genius.

For more of Roderick's work go to www.restevensart.com or find him at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair March 23-25.

Check out my footage from other events at the Scottsdale Arts Festival.

Ballet Hispanico

Photo courtesy of Ayano Hisa

To listen to an audio version of my blog click here:

In Ballet Hispanico's third trip to Tucson, they opened the evening's two hour, three act performance at The University of Arizona's Centennial Hall with an ensemble Latin infused modern dance piece. Surprising as it was for me, I enjoyed the modern dance twist, complete with innovative formations and interpretations. A very close friend of mine is a modern dance choreography major at Arizona State University, so I have been attending modern dance performances for four years now. But sitting through a professional dance performance by myself, when I'm not what you would call a dance enthusiast, was an entirely new venture for me.
Judging from the lack of intermission babel about the performance, I gathered that my fellow dance patrons shared my feelings that I was less than blown away by the show. That is of course except for the lady behind me who proceeded to