Welcome to the Living on the Border Blog

How it began…

I originally just came to photograph and of the 1,940 miles of the America/Mexico border I chose this few hundred mile stretch and the small town of Arivaca, Arizona to center my attention on because it is so typical of the small isolated south western border towns yet so vulnerable to change.

One day the solders started to arrive, slowly appearing as if a new season was upon us. More and more kept coming over the next few months, from different parts of the county. I thought back to my youth and marching out on the parade ground at Valley Forge Military Academy, I can still hum a few notes of John Philip Souza, but it wouldn’t be fitting because this was not a grand liberation performance of our military but an invasion of a small American town, as confusing for the locals as it was for our soldiers.

I knew I would have to stay here to record what was happening on the border first hand, not to sensationalize it with bias segments for salable stories, but to record the events that where about to unfold for future generations. The last American frontier was going to vanish before us and the event would sadly be inconsequential to the turmoil that our country was about to be cast into. My wife and I sold our ranch in Northwest Colorado and moved here.

I couldn’t help feeling that after 9-11 this country changed.

Once the shock of the world trade center attacks transformed into anger and paranoia the demand for action became our governments answer to reelection. Then the witch-hunt would begin. Airport Security and black lists, Cell phone tracking devices, new personal identity requirements, the lists of liberties and freedoms being compromised grew longer and harsher as the constitution eroded way in the name of freedom.

It was only a mater of time be for the newly formed Home Land Security would be getting around to immigration and the need for reform. Actually this in itself was about due, except from the start, goals and results became clouded and a situation developed by tightening of border security as a reaction not a plan, becoming a runway train involving millions of families and two countries. A playground developed for politicians, government contracts, human rights organizations, hate groups and organized crime, putting innocent people in danger and disrupting an entire ethic culture affixed to the economic balance, within the United States and in Mexico while creating such catastrophic collateral damage, that the effects will be felt throughout this century.

America couldn’t see that the border was not just a place, but the very thinnest line between the lives of human beings, subject to different laws, cultures and heritage, all intertwining for generations.

From the beginning of humanity, borders have been the frontier of its societies, the no mans land where normal life is a rarity and parallel sub cultures, and diverse border activities have to coexisted for centuries, subject only to a distant government and its political whims, changing ever so slowly. This is a place where day and night is worlds apart with totally different rules, but each with a certain respect for the other.

The border between America and Mexico is largely a low income area where its inhabitants live by their own convictions. There are those that grow up on the border, with no other place to go or that would seem real, and others that are drawn to it for its freedom or opportunity to be creative. Adding to this mix, many elderly, disabled, or ill move here, attracted by not just the climate but also the very low cost of medical services and prescription drugs available just across the border in Mexico.

I have found here, people that are compassionate with a deep respect for privacy yet ready to help one another while keeping an open mind to cultural and social differences. They were fearful that their world was about to change.

The majority of the Mexicans that come here are a caring and considerate people who just want to work and return to their home in Mexico and their families, where the cost of living is lower and medical and dental care is affordable. Closing the border creates many problems and hardships for both sides as well as escalating opportunities for people smugglers. The illegal drug trade is a totally different problem relating to social and economic values which is an American problem because we have created a consumer market for these products.

The issues involving the border between the United States and Mexico have rapidly taken one the forefronts of public concern. There are many facets to this line between countries and cultures and the whole story needed to be told.

It is not just illegal immigration and drug smuggling any more but moral questions about the foundation of our country and how to deal with the millions illegals already here and what to do about the thousands of illegals that cross the border daily. The income from the illegal drug trade so severely affects the economy of a country that politicians and police are frequently murdered.

Parts of the US Border are some of the roughest terrain in North America and other parts are just fields to walk across. Many of these people are searching for a better life or just coming to work. Others are the drug runners and criminals trying to escape the law in their own country. Has the US/Mexico border has become the main rout for illegal entry for many other countries throughout the world and is a foreign terrorist really going to dress as a migrant worker and cross the Sonoran Desert.

Border crime on both sides is on the incline. With the flow of money to Mexican families drastically cut from migrant workers in the US and the suffering economy of border towns due to tougher security at the borders the drug trade is increasingly attractive, causing drug smugglers and illegal crossers to compete, not only for the market but for key trails and pathways through the border areas. Roving gangs are now praying on illegal border crossers and drug smugglers, robbing them at gun point. Small towns along the border in Mexico are becoming boomtowns for drug and people smuggling. Because there is no law in these towns they are ideal locations for illegal operations to set up close to their market. Shootouts between rivals have become more frequent.

I would like to say that my work is not just a collection of photographs documenting the plight of the illegal immigrant, the fight against drug smuggling, or the job of the Border Patrol, but an intermingling of this phenomenon with everyday life on the border.

My images of Arivaca need no more explanation than the quiet contemplation into the moods, feelings and emotions resulting from the transformation of a quiet border town into a proverbial war zone. They exemplify different lives and situations that parallel each other, interacting on a daily basis.

As you view the photographs of the physical walls, the steel barriers, immoveable strong and self-righteous, the highly technical surveillance systems, the gates and fences, what you don’t see are the echoes heard through out the world of the walls we have put up in our minds and in our hearts. These walls are the strongest of all, but each one of us has the power to either tear down or fortify them.

Not so far from the border, feelings about the issues seem to take a turn from what you see here, to a desensitized form of bickering about checkpoints, tax dollars, and votes, forgetting or ignoring the hardships of human beings at the very edge of our society. Facing our turmoil and elevating our compassion for people who want so desperately to catch up with the world and realizing the confusion of those people having to find expectance for them in order to truly find peace through sharing will hopefully lead to discovering solutions to border issues relating to humanity instead of governments.

Special thanks to my wife Audrey for her continued support and understanding the importance of this work

Thank you to Arivaca, it is an honor to be able to document what happened here at the turn of this century for future generations, thank you to all the people along both sides of the American/Mexican border and the cooperation of the many government agencies, and thank you to my horse Clay, a close friend, who has been very helpful and patient on many long photographic expeditions into the Sonoran Desert.

I would now like to share the firsthand knowledge I have experienced from working in the field and offer this web site, its research base and this website as a base to educate our selves through constructive communication. Thank you in advance for those of you, who will take the time to contribute to this website, we welcome all views, and encourage debate over argument.

Go to the Living on the Border blog.