Welcome to BorderStories
We’re an ongoing multimedia project dedicated to documenting life along the US-Mexico border. Over the next few months, we’ll endeavor to present stories that connect people to their common humanity and supersede statistics.
The crew has just left Brownsville/Matamoros and is currently in McAllen/Reynosa. We will be launching the first series of stories soon. Check back here for updates.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
…I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys are seeing. Its a harsh yet compelling landscape you are traveling. I read the Devil’s Highway a few months ago, if you haven’t read it yet do so before you get to Yuma. Also be careful around Nogales. Ten years ago I drove thru to Mexico there, it was really creepy. South of Nogales the towns on the northern rim of the sea of Cortez were some of the most desolate places I’ve ever seen. Anyway Its nice to know the Westfalia is in good health. Much love- andrew
March 17th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Excited to see the stories! You’re on my RSS.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:55 am
John, I’m glad we met you at the Los Ebanos Ferry and found out about this web site. We are looking forward to following your stories.
Herb.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I’m excited for the site launch.
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Most of us do not know nearly enough about life on both sides of the border and the decisions being made on behalf of “security” that negatively impact on so many. The human stories you are witnessing and documenting will add clarity to a situation that begs understanding. I so look foreword to learning from you. Thank you for embarking on this journey of discovery.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Vaya con Dios.
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Hi, John I’m glad you guys and girls came to Granjeno Tx. You finally spotted our small community all the way from New York. I’m looking forward to read the stories you all have to say of our beloved town Granjeno.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Clara, Ben, John & Sofia
We are delighted to have had the opportunity to experience a little of BorderStories first hand during your brief time here in Laredo. As you are beginning to discover, anyone who lives along the border lives not in one nation or the other but a little in both. On the US side of the river our hearts are in Mexico and the Mexicans vice versa. That said your writings convey a clear understanding that we really are all one- we share a common humanity and much that is said and done in both countries discloses for the most part only a misunderstanding of that truth. Here on the border we may have problems that are unique to the frontera, those of places where cultures or nations converge, but certainly the individual stories you are gathering to tell are common to humanity. Poverty, opportunism, and crime, financial inequality and latent hypocrisy are not ours alone, certainly. I regret, although I almost understand, the current US fanaticism over immigration, but at the same time am certain- and from our conversations believe the BorderStories crew understands this – that few Americans really appreciate that good international relations and in particular border relations are part of the lifeblood of our nation and need to be cultivated not aggravated.
I was pleased that you journalists were as interested in the collective reality- and interesting characters – you have witnessed along the way as in the more sensational aspects of border life, which may make compelling news and sensational journalism, but which do not tell the whole story. May your mission help in a small way to do that- tell the whole story. In the words of Graham Greene, “It is before you cross a frontier that you experience fear”- once you have crossed it, as has BorderStories, fear becomes that dangerous opportunity that can work to everyone’s benefit.
May you on your journey find a way:
To scorn all strife, and to view all life
With the curious eyes of a child;
From the plangent sea to the prairie,
From the slum to the heart of the Wild.
From the red-rimmed star to the speck of sand,
From the vast to the greatly small;
For I know that the whole for good is planned,
And I want to see it all.
Robert Service