Brazil upheel, river pirates in the amazon rain forest and antarctica and the New York Times bureau chief until 2011 based in venezuela where he covered issues including president hugo chavezs political movement, columbias long internal war and indigenous politics in bolivia. Please give a warm welcome to mr. Simone romero. Sara, thank you so much for the very kind introduction, and im just going to move on right now and introduce this wonderful panel that i have the pleasure of moderating. We have cecilia balli, who is a journalist and cultural anthropologist and a writer at large at texas monthly. Her work focuses on the u. S. mexico border and the history and culture of south texas. And her writing has also appeared in har bers magazine, and the New York Times. Angela cocherga is a multimedia journalist who has covered the u. S. mexico border and mexicos interior for television newspapers and radio and was mexico border chief for a major broadcasting group. She is currently the Southern New Mexico border reporter for the Albuquerque Journal and a special contributor for public radio and television. [ applause ] and Alfredo Corchado is the mexico border correspondent for the Dallas Morning News where he has covered u. S. mexico issues since 1993. He has also reported for the el paso harold post, and the wall street journal, and is the author of homelands and midnight in mexico. [ applause ] so just diving right in, i want to ask you a question, cecilia, about the place that you come from, and the connection that it has for you, because i think that we, you and i share something in that were both descendents of people who arrived a long time ago, in now, what is now texas, and the u. S. Southwest, and in fact, your family used to control what is now known as padre island, in south texas. Tell us a little bit about that, and how that influences your writing, your coverage of the u. S. mexico border. We dont have any of that land. I dont even own a condominium on padre island, unfortunately. There is a long history of dispensation of lands held by mexican, who became Mexican American citizen, after the mexican war. But on my mother and fathers side, our families, that came to the area, in the 1700s, in the middle of the 18th century, and were a part of these initial settlements that emerged along the rio grande, the river was a source of water, of sustenance, of life, and these communities emerged that eventually were on either side of the river. Eventually, when the river became our border, after the u. S. mexican war, the families ended up on either side, and so i only have one grandmother who is from halixo, mexico from the interior but my other three grand parents are all from this region. I dont have a lot of family in the interior of mexico or the u. S. People dont know my last name in either country. So really, im from the border. Its a place that feels like home. And it doesnt feel like the edge of anything. It feels like the center of this long story, this long history, of us being there, we will be discussing today how thats changed but for me, i grew up with a strong sense of rootedness in this place that is under so much dispute. And angela, you grew up on both sides of the border, and so you have that ability to move between both worlds, in a way. How did that influence you into moving into journalism and eventually working on the border itself . Well, im grateful to my mother because she did raise me on both sides of the border. I was born in mexico city, raised in guadalajara, and at ten years old, moved back to the u. S. My mother is from the United States. And actually moved to the same place where cecilia grew up, the Rio Grande Valley, and as a tenyearold, it was kind of a confusing place, youre on the border, and i see a lot of people look mexican to me but dont speak spanish and then i had to understand this very unique language of spang lish, and kind of try to understand that, but over time, it really, the border is the only place i feel truly at home. Its a place where i, and many people, move back and forth, seamlessly, and im not talking about the infrastructure, but the by lingual, bicultural, binational nature of the border, i feel im very fortunate to have that experience, and it has shaped who i am and has helped inform all of my reporting. I have tried to serve as a bridge of understanding, and its a place that i like to say is, you know, we dont have to think of ourselves as either or but more. And so love the border. Alfredo, tell us a little about about el pasos history and especially its history of welcoming immigrants from all over the place, and really kind of functioning as the kind of ellis island for that part of the United States. How did that come about . How did that emerge . I was actually born in mexico, and my father was a rosaro, and as a kid, i mean thats all my father talked about, was some day moving us to the United States, which was in many ways the saddest conversations we would have because none of us, my brothers, my mother, none of us wanted to come north. And we, we came because of a law in america immigration, the law signed by president lyndon b. Johnson in 65, so i remember coming to suarez, waiting for our legal permanent green cards, and just staring at the mountains, the franklin mountains, and seeing the big star, and we came, it was the christmas season, and so it was this string of, you know, thats where we want to go, thats where theyre forcing us to go, and it felt very much like, i mean in retrospect, now looking back, i mean we are came to el paso, we came through a neighborhood called queta, which i would say through millions of immigrants, especially Mexican Americans, that was our ellis island in the southwest. And we came through there, on the way to california, central valley, but i remember, my mother as a kid, would never really buy like sheets of the bed, or towels or anything, she would put all her money and sort of look forward to moving back to the border. I mean to us, the border at that time was like, lake a holyland, in a way. It was the annual pilgrimage, where we go back to el paso, and juarez, and you know, it was always counting the days that some day we would make the permanent move, but i think as a journalist, i was very much influenced by, inspired by the person who later became a correspondent at the l. A. Times by this notion that you could actually understand both sides and somehow bring both sides to the reader, through journalism. And i mean even today, i dont think i feel complete as a person, or the journalist, if im not reporting from both sides of the border. Thats, you know, thats the ultimate, i think, feeling, when you know that you can crisscross, and hopefully try to, try to make americans understand and mexicans understand, you know, what it is to be binational, bilingual, bicultural. I think as all of us here in this room know, its been a very eventful year on the u. S. mexico border. Weve all been covering issues like family separation, the imprisonment of Migrant Children on their own, in certain facilities, and of course, the rather shocking shattering massacre in el paso that took place in august, when a gunman went into the walmart there, and targeted people because of their ethnicity. How did that reflect, angela, when it compares with the other coverage youve done of difficult events on the border . What made, whats made this year stand out in a different way for you . These have been some dark days on the border, especially in el paso for all of the reasons you said. The shooting really stujnned people and it was very clear very quickly once the alleged gunman was taken into custody, that el paso, we were chosen because of the attack because of who we are and where we live. And so that, every mass shooting is horrible in its own way but that one in particular hit so close to home. I covered so much violence in juarez, drug violence, which unfortunately is spiking again, and thats been heart breaking but i think the thing that was stunning to so many people is that it did happen, in this every day place, where so many people from both sides of border were doing their normal back to school shopping. And so i think that that, combined with all of the other heart breaking story, its been tough. But ive also been inspired by the resilience of border residents on both sides, especially el paso, setting real example, and also this idea that, of tolerance, of people really, thats a place of tolerance, and so there are things we can learn from the el paso experience. Cecilia, the border plays such a huge kind of, it occupies such a big place in the public imagination, and especially in policy making right now. Theres so much antiimmigration rhetoric, the border is portrayed as this incredibly dangerous place, and of course, there is, there have been calls to build more of a wall and barriers along the border. What does that feel like in south texas these days . Whats the reaction to the wall or possibly the portion of a private wall coming to south texas . Well, we already have a good bit of border fencing that was built in 2008 to 2010 and back then the kmuchbcommunities alonh texas were highly opposed to the wall. We were calling it a fence back then. And now we are openly admitting that the function of it is more of a wall. Theres a researcher in texas who said he has done data crunching that shows that there is a perfect relationship between how close you are to the border and whether you support the wall. So we know that the wall is symbolic, that people wanted, the further they are away from the border, the more they want it. Thats not to say the border residents dont want different kinds of enforcement. But the wall itself is sort of the epitome, the climax of all of the political theater. And i think people in south texas are tired of that. And they know that its a place where people come, politicians come for photo ops and then they leave, and folks are not investing in the region. And the communities are having to step in and provide in these difficult moments, provide for migrant families because the governments are not doing that. But i would say that theres been a buildup of this, in the past 20, 30 years, and really throughout history, this is an explosion of a number of trends that weve been living through, on the border, and the border, the thickening of the border, as i call it, the buildup of border enforcement began a long time ago, but in the 1990s, we started having they dont ternity strate, deterrent strategy that focused Border Agents in certain cities and then under president bush, the wall was approve and built under president obama, i dont spend a lot of time there, but we used to be part of more stops and searches on the u. S. Side, even if you didnt cross to the mexican side. And after 9 11, the stakes were raised when people started talking about the border differently and using the term Border Security, which correlated with national security, and so the implication was that the threat to the country was at the border. And so i see a lot of change even during that time. And i think we have to be very attentive to the language that we use, because it was changing into that language of Border Security, that now just, you know, both Political Parties kind of take for granted, that theres some kind of persistent threat that needs to be addressed on the border. I want to ask a question of alfredo, about juarez, and el paso, and i was recently in juarez, in downtown, in the downtown part of the city, and there was a band there that was playing, of all things, credence clear water revival cover song, in english. And doing it fantastically well. And i was like whoa. Where else but in a border city are you going to find that . Mexico city. In mexico city. Okay. Credence fans . Yes. So tell us a little bit about sort of the cultural life between these two cities. Where is sort of like the center of vibrancy . Is it more in wjuarez . More in el paso . Is there some type of crosspollination going between artist, between singers, between people on both sides . Well, i think it is really along the u. S. mexico border but specifically in juarez, el paso, obviously there is a history there, that binationality, juan gabriel plays a huge role, and the last hit was a credence song. In spanish. I forget the name. La luvia. It will come to me. But that kind of explains the biculture part of it. There is also, its an area for example in south texas, where recording music, mariachi, it is being taught in high schools, and cogs, and it just kind of makes people feel a sense of confidence, confident about belonging on both sides of the border. That kind of helps that side of you. I mean when we lived in california, my mother would say, we want to go to el paso because it was a place where people wore ties, and where we grew up in the san joaquin valley, people were usually working in the fields, but i think years later i really understood that to be people can be themselves, they can really claim both sides of the border and as angela said, due feel like you have to choose one side or the other, and that goes with music, or, and food, and, you know, drinks. Angela, you mentioned when you were growing up, that you had to decipher this new language called spanglish which i think, you know, its experienced a huge amount of growth and evolution, walk around the streets of l. A. , and its fantastic, this spanglish that you hear. All the time. What does that mean on a daytoday basis for you, workwise . Do you do, you know, interviews in english, in spanish, spanglish . Do you know when to mix . And when not to . Yes, really both. And of course, its flouned on if youre in mexico city. People dont want to hear spanglish necessarily. But the border is a state of mind and well beyond the border were seeing a blepding of language and cultures across the u. S. And i like to look at the borderer as kind of a bake into the future, its young. The majority lat know. Mexican american. American mexican. So these are communities that reflect the future. And i know that can be confusing. And even create fear for a lot of people away from the border. But i think weve learned something in this blending of cultures, and the economy, you know the economy we depend on each other, especially the u. S. Side, we depend heavily on mexico, we depend, were family ties, we have all sorts of ties that bind, and we dont, you know, we dont always get along, or even like each other, but we learned something a long time ago that is critical, we need each other, and so that is something that on the border, we need to learn, beyond the border, and just accept that fact, and stop fighting about it, and figure out a way to make this new reality work, because its here. You cant turn back time. Its like, i mean its like what san diego, and tijuana went threw, when at the height of the violence, san diego was going to turn its back on tijuana, and later realized that, you know, economically, the dependency is much, all along the u. S. mexico border, the mexican cities are larger, i mean economically, more vye brant, and so you now have tijuana, san diego, like a region, where it is a symbol of, we, i mean we need each other, we need to work this out together. And so its vibrant. But what happened in tijuana is interesting because tijuana said we have to kind of reinvent ourselves. We cant just depend on them coming down. So they got into the culture. They got into the wine industry. The food industry. And its become a much, much more vibrant region. I think a lot of other border communities have much to learn from that. You know, juarez, el paso, you think of the border, as truly one big community, where a borderline was imposed. But at the end of the day, you know, you talk about walls, you talk about fences, but were really the same people, were one community, you go back and forth, you know, all the time, and i mean you dont talk about we want to go to mexico, we want to go to the United States, its almost inter al. One fact of life related to that pour feem who lior people n the border or even as much as 100 miles from the border, are check points and it almost becomes something natural, you have to stop, and you know, declare your citizenship, and youre gazed at by a Border Patrol officer, and they determine whether you are a risk or not. What is that, you know, do you think that the rest of the country, cecilia, has a grasp on what that, you know, what that means on a daytoday basis, to be viewed by really your own government, as you know, someone who is not entirely trustworthy perhaps . Yes, no, i dont think the rest of the country can imagine what thats like on a daytoday basis, and i dont think the rest of the country would be okay with that happening in new york, or really, you know, almost any other part of the country. We do have these interior checkpoints that have been there, i think since the 1970s maybe, and if you grew up crossing the border, the border itself, like i did, to visit my grandmother on the mexican side, every time you come back in, youre questioned by the customs officer. We were kids, and they would try to check to see if you were lying, and so you would say, we dont have to show our passports back then, but you would pull up saying u. S. Citizen before being even asked and then they would say, where do you live, what street and what school do you go to. I have been doing a Research Study recently, on latino voters and nonvoters throughout texas, and i think that when youre subjected to that kind of constant questioning of whether, of who you are and whether you belong, it leads to a lot of disempowerment. It leads to people not participating in the political system. And having all kinds of fears about it. And yes, this interior kind of doubt or fear, any time youre around any kind of law enforcement, you know. But thats where we were talking about culture. The other thing we did have at the same time was a real deep sense of who we were, because of the deep cultural, and those are the traditions that we had, and yes, that problem continue, and i think we have to think about whether we would allow this to happen to all americans, to be constantly questioned about status. To be considered it is not innocent until Proven Guilty almost. Yes. And it is hard to know in those checkpoints, you dont have as many rights as you do in the interior of the u. S. But you never know exactly what rights you have. Until they take advantage of it, and yes, it is a lot of questioning. Especially when you talk about, you know, so much technology, nowadays, a