Arizonans share tales of U.S.-Mexico border

CANDACE MCPHILLIPS

It’s all over the news. We see and hear stories about the border almost everyday. But what is it like to have ties “on the other side”?

An extension of The Storytellers Project, the “Here and There” storytelling event will give us an insight to that relationship as we hear personal stories from Arizonans.

On Tuesday, Sep. 12 at 7 p.m. at First Studio in Phoenix, five community members will share live first-personal narratives giving us a taste of what’s really happening at the border.

Arizona Republic reporter Laura Gómez will talk about how covering immigration in Phoenix for the newspaper deepened her consciousness about the immigration system.

“I too am an immigrant but my experiences and results are very different from many,” she said. She’ll talk in particular about a trip she took to visit border communities for the Republic’s Border Wall project.

That project is part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

We traveled the entire length of the border for an unprecedented video and mapping project. We also reported on untold stories and unintended consequences all along the way.

Fellow reporter Rafael Carranza will share a story that is “more personal than (he) had anticipated” about how his “unique” experience growing up a Mexican immigrant in Phoenix led him to pursue a career reporting on the border.

“When I first encountered ‘mainstream’ society it was quite a culture shock. But, removing myself from the environment where I grew up also gave me an interesting perspective about the uniqueness of it,” he said.

Robin Reineke’s interest in the border began more recently when she started graduate school in 2006. There, her studies of anthropology and volunteer work with forensic scientists who worked with remains of migrants led her to found her own human rights non-profit organization in 2013.

Her commitment to human rights took off when she started the Colibiri Center, which is “dedicated to helping families of missing migrants find information, healing, and justice.”

Finally, James Garcia will share with us how he uses art to understand and reflect on the border, and retired Army Colonel Robert Wright — who helped construct part of the fence near Yuma — will talk about how that experience changed his understanding of the people and the politics involved.

We hope you’ll join us for a night of intimate storytelling that will dive into the conversation surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border.