Local Blogs
Why Cutting Aid to Central America Is Right and Good
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The real purpose of most foreign aid is and always has been to pay off mostly corrupt...
Ninth Circuit Temporarily Allows DHS's 'Remain in Mexico' Plan to Proceed
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The Ninth Circuit's decision to temporarily allow the Remain in ...
The race for mayor is far away and far from over
Contradictory goals
Our state senator recently wrote a guest column for the El Paso Times.
In it he stated that the new UTEP president “is not representative of this community”.
What is he saying?
Is it because she is from out of town? Is it because of her political party affiliations? I hope that he does not mean that her ethnicity should disqualify her.
He further stated that he looks forward to working to see “that the campus remains free, open and embracing of El Paso’s diversity.”
It seems to be that these two points contradict each other. Doesn’t diversity require variety in who works there?
It is troubling to me that the senator chose to vent publicly instead of through channels. What do we gain when our state senator openly attacks our university president simply because he thinks she is not representative of our community?
We deserve better
Brutus
I Left El Salvador to Protect My Family. It Didn?t Work.
The gangs wanted me to join them, and I refused. I fled to the U.S. but I still lost my dearest family member.
Source: [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/opinion/i-left-e...
It's Tax Day ? And Another Year Without Migration-Related Tax Reform
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It's tax filing day and it marks yet another year in which changes in...
I Paid My Taxes
Our Disgrace at the Border
The agony of the refugee and the posturing of showbiz politicians.
Source: Our Disgrace at the Border
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The New York ...
A Chance to Amend the Violence Against Women Act
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Getting Even Tougher on Recalcitrant Countries
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China balks at taking back its own citizens who have committed crimes in the U.S., forcing ...
The Border Disaster Goes from Bad to Worse
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If historical trends hold, the problem is just going to get worse.
We Get Some Rich Immigrants, but Not from Rich Countries
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If you are prosperous in a peaceful, prosperous place, you're likely to stay ther...
EPISD–election concerns
Unfortunately it does not look like the situation with the EPISD board of trustees is getting any better.
In the election for the district 7 representative we are now hearing that she may have been misstating her credentials.
Proving what she claims (10 years of teaching experience at EPISD and a degree from UTEP) should not be difficult but at the time this post was written she has failed to do so.
Particularly troubling is that she was not elected to her current position on the board but instead was chosen by the current board to fill a vacancy. We would have thought that the board would conduct a background check before they chose her.
In the district 6 race we have a candidate that might in fact reside in district 7. Once again the issue should be pretty easy to resolve but we have heard nothing.
We deserve better
Brutus
Steve McCraw: Sleeper Candidate for DHS Secretary?
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With the resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the biggest question in Washing...
Quick Takes – Mueller Report, Veronica Escobar, Asylum Seekers and Border Mic Podcast
Feral government
There was a little bit of back chatter this week about our use of the words “feral government”.
Some even inquired as to what feral means.
From merriam-webster.com:
1: of, relating to, or suggestive of a wild beast 2a: not domesticated or cultivated 2b: having escaped from domestication and become wild We deserve better Brutus‘Uncaged Art’ exhibit gives voice to migrant children detained in Tornillo tent city
The experiences of migrant children detained in a Texas tent city are on display at a rare exhibit of their art at UT El Paso’s Centennial Museum.
Among the pieces the students created was a white Catholic church made of construction paper, popsicle sticks and yarn. Other students created dresses made of cloth with depictions of their homeland.
Art pieces created by Tornillo tent city detainees will be on display at the UTEP Centennial Museum. Photo credit: Ana Herrera
Tornillo’s detention center, also known as the Tornillo tent city, opened June 14, 2018, and it came to symbolize the mass detention of migrant children under the Trump administration. Over the eight months of its operation. 6,200 children were held in tents in the small border town on the eastern edge of El Paso County. By the time the temporary facility closed in January 2019, it held at its peak 2,800 Latin-American children, mostly boys, between the ages of 13 to 17 years old.
Photo gallery: Migrant children in charity shelter draw their gratitude for El Paso’s kindness
Before the closing of the Tornillo facility, a group of teachers visited the youngsters as part of a social studies class. The kids were asked to represent pride in their homeland through art. This project resulted in the production of 200 pieces of art that were created over a period of four days.
Yolanda Leyva, associate professor of history at the University of Texas as El Paso shows some the art created by migrant children detained in Tornillo. Photo credit: Ana Herrera
“You can see a lot of talent in the kids,” said Yolanda Leyva, associate professor of history at The University of Texas at El Paso. “They didn’t have that many supplies. It’s all made out of construction paper, pipe cleaners and paint.”
Most of the youth detained at the tent city came from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. For this reason, there are a lot of national symbols from those countries represented in their art. The Quetzal bird is the Guatemalan national bird and can be found in several of the art pieces. There are also flags and churches represented in most of the projects.
Artwork made by students detained at a tent city in Tornillo in 2018 is being displayed at UTEP’s Centennial Museum behind a chain-link fence to mimic the children’s living conditions. Photo credit: Ana Herrera
When the Tornillo detention center closed, officials planned to throw the art away. But Father Rafael Garcia from Sacred Heart was able to recover 29 out of the 200 pieces of art and donate them to the UTEP Centennial Museum.
“When I received the call, I said ‘yes’ because to me it is a way to hear the voice of the kids through their art. We are the only ones that have anything like this and I don’t know if that would happen again, the possibility to get access to this type of art,” Leyva said.
The exhibition, Uncaged Art at the Centennial Museum, will feature art created by youngsters who were being held at the Tent City in Tornillo.. Photo credit: Ana Herrera
The youngsters’ art is the focus of the exhibition “Uncaged Art” that opened at the museum April 13. The museum divided Uncaged Art into two exhibits. The first one will present the story of the detention camps in the United States. The second, will showcase the art created by the youth.
“People will walk into a plastic tent, similar to the one that that was out in Tornillo, we are also going to have fencing in front of the art. We want to create this feeling of being caged and being imprisoned in this system,” said Daniel Carey-Whalen Centennial Museum director.
For this project, the museum worked with UTEP’s theater and the dance department to creating the tent scene. They are also partnering with local art group Los Dos, who created Quetzal birds that will be flying across the room.
“To create a complete experience, we want people to be able to feel what is like to go out of the tent, so they can see the art as being uplifting. That freedom is represented through the Quetzal birds that will be flying in the room, because like the birds the kids were able to free out of their cage,” Leyva said.
Click hear to read ‘Uncaged Art’ exhibit gives voice to migrant children detained in Tornillo tent city
Saturday
Saturday is the day where the readers tell us what they are thinking.
Please do so.
Brutus
The U.S. Is Not 'Too Empty' or 'In Dire Need of New Faces', as the N.Y. Times Puts It
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Slightly increasing the average person's work life w...
