Here is the opening spread of a feature story I have in todays Sunday Times Magazine about migrants illegally crossing from Mexico into the USA. I was recently down on the border with the writer Alex Hannaford. It was very moving for us to be with the so called ‘migrants’, to talk with the people actually making these dangerous journeys. We talked about the hopes and the fears that drove them to attempt the seriously frightening desert crossings into Arizona. Primarily it was always the fear of the violence and poverty back home and the sincere hopes and dreams of a better life in America that drove them, We were constantly hearing about the desperate combination of both fear and hope that leads individuals from many Central and South American countries to risk everything, to give up their family, their friends and homeland then travel all the way up the continent and attempt to make the dreaded border crossing to “The North”.
Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXX
www.jezblog.com
[ 19 ] comments
- This is a great spread Jez, nice one, tragic story well told;(
Kathy K @ August 11, 2014, 9:27 pm
- Thanks like I say spending time with folks desperate enough to risk everything to get over the fence is so sad ……. makes u fully aware of the privilege of being able to travel……. having the money and the right passports identity bla bla…….. when u do not have this stuff life is so much harder and more desperate ………Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXX
Jezblog London :-)))))))) XXXX @ August 12, 2014, 5:45 am
- I saw these pictures in the magazine the whole thing makes me sick to think of people so poor they will take any chance to try and get out of those circumstance.
Cat PH @ August 12, 2014, 7:44 am
- Yes the whole issue of the border…… its exclusivity and division…… the poverty, desperation and the violence ……. its heavy………. :-((((((
Jezblog London :-)))))))) XXXX @ August 12, 2014, 1:14 pm
- Roughly 70% of Mexico’s population is either Metzito (mixed Indigenous people and European) or Indigenous American. Can’t help seeing a bit of a comparison with Apartheid era South Africa or Israel with its walls here. The settlers putting up all kinds of barriers and restrictions to prevent the essentially aboriginal people ie those who were there first from free movement in what is essentially their native land. In fact weren’t large swathes of the USA actually once part of Mexico? And if that was any other country (apart from of course Israel) wouldn’t the USA be making a great song and dance about giving it back to its original owners…colonialist hypocrites!
Juan Manuel Spartacus xx @ August 13, 2014, 12:02 am
- Yes there is something inately wrong with the fences…….. as an individual dealing with other individuals with them being outside the system of privadidge that is inate to US Citizenship ……… (or kinda in my case) ……… you can’t help feel it ……. the wrongness just strikes you ……. Logically I guess the US is only the US because of the things it does inside its borders …… the stuff other places don’t do …… therefore by having the borders up it remains different and protected from the outside always the place people want to come to because it is different ……… and yet…… at the border it feels so wrong ……….. XXXXX
Jezblog London :-)))))))) XXXX @ August 13, 2014, 4:03 am
- At least the guy in the green top got to take a leak in the “home of the free” :-)))
Juan Erkoff xx @ August 13, 2014, 1:06 pm
- One can only share your queasiness Mr C… And yes there can be no doubt of the truly exceptional quality of the USA – with its even-handed treatment of ethnic minorities and the obvious privileges of freedom and equality graciously granted to those within it’s boarders (where they are not subsequently used as cheap labour or gunned down with depressing regularity by members of the law enforcement community of course) yes that attraction will certainly be the logic that draws immigrants down the path to that greatest of christian nations. A braver man than me might also dare to venture that this immigration may also not be entirely unconnected to the NAFTA/CAFTA created economic crisis of billionaires and paupers south of the boarder, the associated dumping of production by huge US corporations on markets against which locals cannot compete, the switch from Mexico to China for even cheaper manufactured US imports, the implacable historic hostility of policy to any form of progressive social change at all – one that has quite recently bestowed on the people of Honduras a military coup which removed President Zelaya after he raised the minimum wage, gave subsidies to small farmers, cut interest rates and instituted free education. Not to mention the children coming over that border line as they flee danger and despair or try to find family already displaced by war, economic crisis and violence.. No doubt they will be detained and deported as fast as humanly possible by the authorities – just as soon as those liberal laws protecting unaccompanied minors can be suspended by The President! I apologise if I’m a upsettin’ decent right minded folks deeply held beliefs…
John Harris @ August 13, 2014, 1:29 pm
- :-)))))))))))))))))))) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Jezblog London :-)))))))) XXXX @ August 13, 2014, 4:24 pm
- PS Always makes a great picture that beach! Good one.
John Harris @ August 13, 2014, 1:29 pm
- hehehehe………. cheers bro Jez XXXXXXXXX
Jezblog London :-)))))))) XXXX @ August 13, 2014, 4:25 pm
- Be careful in that military zone they call America, they’re firing tear gas and rubber bullets to cover up the truth now…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcCc9YRNhUU&list=UUvsye7V9psc-APX6wV1twLg
Harv.! @ August 15, 2014, 12:14 pm
- Harv ……. I have something u might like to do for your project….. in London …… send me a mobile number for u I’ll give u a buz talk it through with u ….. if want to come down to London and add to your collection of performers ….. I have a venue that has a relationship with a pile of acts they want them photographed to be in a mag article …. they don’t want to comission it themselves or pay any money themselves of course……. but it would add to your collection?? I’m in London now but I am flying back to NYC tmrw …… so I will watch out for military style armoured cops :-))))))))I’m on my first name….. ***@j**blog.com
Cheers bro Jez XXXXXXXXXXX
Jezblog @ August 16, 2014, 4:18 pm
- Cool…I sent you an email.
Or if you don’t get it for whatever reason you can reach my through info@harvindersunila.com
Harv.! @ August 16, 2014, 6:28 pm
- Wheels up London Heathrow :-)) X
Jezblog @ August 17, 2014, 7:25 am
- Wheels down Paris
Jezblog @ August 17, 2014, 9:58 am
- Wheels up Paris XXX
Jezblog @ August 17, 2014, 11:25 am
- cool pix…
photography classes phoenix @ August 18, 2014, 5:57 am
- Really. Amazing picture.
Photography classes Philadelph @ September 4, 2014, 7:08 am
