The border is not just a place, it’s an idea– so begins my piece in the The Texas Observer’s 60th Anniversary Issue. The thought flashed across my mind as I traveled from ciudad Juárez into el Paso, and then through Del Rio and down into the Rio Grande Valley. The editors asked me to try and […]
Category Archives: U.S./Mexico Border
Over the summer I covered the Texas press for the Columbia Journalism Review’s U.S. Project. In early June the increasing number of unaccompanied children arriving on the border from Central America captured the nation’s attention and became one of the most important stories of the summer. Here is a recap. On June 5, the conservative news […]
In the early part of last year I read Alfredo Corchado’s new memoir “Midnight in Mexico” and it soon became a topic of conversation while I traveled through Tijuana, in Texas and in New York City. The book’s storyline is built on Corchado’s investigation into a very possible hit on his life. In a review and q/a […]
In early 2014, the Mexican government–state and federal– launched an operation to search for human remains in the northern state of Coahuila. The search was meant to investigate a massacre, perhaps the largest in recent years, that involved some 300 victims. The operation quickly became a big media story in Mexico. But the operation, as it turns […]
Of all the stories I have ever worked on, Mexican Jihad has had the wildest ride. Originally commissioned for a publication that was suddenly eliminated, as tends to happen in our “media environment,” the piece sat on the shelf destined to be forgotten. And then, last Fall, Elaine Rivera, a very dear friend and mentor, passed […]
Border security or border enforcement often brings to mind images of green and white-painted Border Patrol SUVs roaming across that contentious line between the United States and Mexico. But across South Texas, which I am defining as everything below San Antonio, border security is a vast apparatus involving multiple agencies across a wide swath of […]
The dogs of Ciudad Juarez as a metaphor for the ambitions, corruption and failure of people. Published September 4 by Al Jazeera America. Excerpt: Imagine, then, the upheaval that upended this imperfect but functioning system when a manageable 20,000 street dogs morphed into a teeming population of 200,000 mutts, German Shepherds, Labs, and the favored […]
The Business of Border Security. I take a look at who stands to gain from tightening the border. Excerpt Another potential winner are organized crime groups such as the Los Zetas. From Mexicali to Brownsville, Texas smuggling costs have increased exponentially as border security has tightened becoming a revenue source for violent groups. “Organized crime […]
Myths of Mexico/Columbia Journalism Review/Nov.-Dec. 2009 In 1891, my great-great-uncle, Catarino Garza, attempted to overthrow the Mexican dictator, Porfirio Díaz, by launching an armed revolution from my family’s south Texas ranch. One year into his campaign, Garza agreed to an interview with The New York Times to explain the reasons behind his insurrection. “The impression […]
‘Against Mexico’ Documentary Explores Texas Secession Battle | PBS NewsHour Posted on Newshour May 2012 At first blush, a group reenactment of Texas’ 1836 battle to secede from Mexico has little to do with today’s political environment. But the notion of what it means to be an American is an issue that continues to stir […]
Michelle García 