toxic avengence

radioactive rebar and toxic table legs, made in juárez. @ borderlandia

narcochateaus

ruined mexican narcomansions @ borderlandia

tijuana under siege

tijuana burning

borderlandia (again)

borderlandia is back.

resolution

the year is coming to an end. in catalunya, december is the headless chicken of the year, just wondering aimless waiting for everything to be over and done with. my own 2007 calvary is not-quite-finished. hopefully next month (year) you will find borderlandia up and running. all my border sh^t is deliciously piling up. i'm trying to whip up something for the next issue of monu. stay tuned. expect many-a-hideous thingys such as toxic cementeries, backdoor politics, bogus beautification, planned urban disaster and the wonderful world of narcotecture. meanwhile, i'm gonna download me some chalino sánchez to set the mood.

ándale

border horror picture show

throughout its history, the mexico-u.s. borderlands has been a grim scenario for unsightly horrors: vice barons, anarchists, fugitives, shakers, "apache" wars, conmen, bunkos, pochos, cabrito westerns, cartolandias, minutemen, narcosatanicos, polleros (people smugglers), womankillers...

and now blackwater mercenaries...

oy vey

spotted @ bldgblog

border nota roja: migra shot my daddy

a 23-year old alleged pollero (people smuggler) was shot four times in the chest (and killed, obviously) wednesday night around 9:45 p.m. by a border patrol agent at cypress and delta in el paso, right off of the fence with ciudad juárez. josé alejandro ortiz castillo attempted to cross with three other people, one of them a woman. apparently he was carrying a pair of tweezers, and the agent felt threatened (other versions state that he also carried a rock). his body was found on the mexican side of the rio bravo/grande. josé alejandro had been previously caught 28 times crossing illegaly into the u.s. since 1999. according to el diario, his family considerd that josé alejandro was a good person, even though he misbehaved ocasionally. nothing worth being killed for. neighboors described him as a person of mistakes and kindness, always buying goodies for his kids. he is survived by three little pollitos (chuy, joan and bryan; respectively five, four and two years old), a teary widow and a 20 year-old girlfriend he had been living in "free union" with for two years. his widow is an american citizen and lives with their children in el paso.


more
more (en español)
more (en español)

*border nota roja will be posted regularly @ borderlandia when i get it up and running properly (hopefully september).

borderlandia

i've decided to start a new blog (yet another). it's called borderlandia, bite-size bits of my ongoing “research” (it’s more of a pop fixation) on things past at the mexico-u.s.a. border; particularly architecture, border mystiques and failed urbanisms of the early 1900s up to the late sixties. avoid if you're spanglish intolerant.