Ismael and Charisma

Happiness

Today in Los Angeles

Richard Avedon

"I've worked out a series of no's. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no's force me to the 'yes'. I have a white background. I have the person that I'm interested in and the thing that happens between us."
-Richard Avedon

Today in Los Angeles

Ciudad Juarez

At this point it is a well known fact that the border town of Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua is one of the most dangerous places on earth. It is a place so violent and lawless that it is hard to believe some of things that happen there. Murder, rape, torture are commonplace. The violence in Juarez initially attracted attention because of the thousands of women have been murdered or are missing. At this point though men, women and children of all ages die there every day. The reasons that this is happening are complex but generally revolve around the drug trade. I was in Texas a couple of weeks ago and I had a some conversations with people there regarding this subject. I learned a couple of things that I'd like to share.

One of my biggest questions regarding the situation was that if it is a well known fact that Juarez is such a dangerous place and that the violence is related to trafficking drugs into the United States wouldn't it be possible for the U.S. to do more towards stopping the violence and helping out the population of Juarez? The answer, both somehow obvious and unbelievable, is that Ciudad Juarez has been designated as the place where the violence and crime will be allowed to happen. It seems there is a tacit agreement between parties on both sides of the border to allow and contain the situation to this place. The U.S. does not do more to stop it because many people in the U.S. government, local, state and national, have an interest in things remaining as they are. They are making money from it, they are corrupt.

The other big question I had was what is going to happen in Juarez. It would seem that the level of violence and crime can not be sustained forever. Even without the intervention of outside agencies some sort of order would have to eventually emerge from the chaos. Some people I spoke to think that this is actually happening now. It has become such a dangerous place to be that business and citizens are leaving. All resources, including human capital, have almost been depleted. A lot of what is now happening seems to be extortion of very poor people by slightly less poor people. There are other border cities like Laredo which seem to be emerging as the new very violent places.

Unfortunately I can't end this blog entry with a hopeful statement.