Some final thoughts

This semester has definitely been a challenge for me to work on myself and work with others. I am glad I stuck with Borderbeat and I'm glad I got to meet some new people and challenge myself a little more by taking on more editing responsibilities. I thought we put out some really interesting stories and I hope Borderbeat wins the award next year because we all worked hard enough to earn it.

I enjoyed seeing our stories online looking professional, it's pretty cool to see your hard work polished and published for the world to see. Even though most of my own stories came out sub par, they were small accomplishments in the big picture. The blog could've worked out better if I managed to put more time and effort into it and had a better grasp of relating things to the border. If I stick around Tucson after I graduate, I'll try to get more involved with border issues.

Thanks to Jamie, Katie and the rest of the section editors in helping with the editing process. I think we worked well as a team to get things online as quick as possible while still doing a good job at editing. And thanks to Professor Rochlin for pushing me to contribute more and find ways to succeed in this class. I appreciate your efforts despite the way I went about posting my thoughts about it before. You helped me speak out and be more assertive in addressing issues. I think it's a big step in working on myself for the future work environment.

Best of luck to everyone in class with whatever you do after graduation. After a semester like this, I'm sure we'll all go on to be superstars in journalism, or whatever field we choose. It was nice working with everyone as a team, and even though I didn't get a chance to get to know everyone better, I'm still glad I stuck around to help with Borderbeat the rest of this semester. And like I said before, I will try to work on improving myself so I can be a better person than I have been and I know I want to be. Cheers.

Feel free to check out a few of the stories I've done this past semester.
Crossing the Border
El Ojito Springs
Taqueria Review

El día de las gracias

Mexico in Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for family, food, and good fortune just as it is in the United States. What differs between Mexico's celebrations and the U.S. celebrations are the traditions, the foods eaten, and the time it is celebrated, which is the third Sunday of November rather than the third Thursday like in the U.S.

"When I lived in Mexico, we didn't eat turkey and stuffing like Americans do," said Lupita Peréz. "We had things like tamales and Spanish rice."

Peréz' family here never followed U.S. traditions when it came to holidays. They wanted to hold onto traditions they left behind in Mexico.

"This year we will probably keep the same traditions. We just like hanging onto our lifestyles from Mexico," Peréz said. "We still give thanks for the family we have, the food we're provided, and our good health, there just won't be turkey and stuffing, and we'll eat on the 25th instead of the 22nd," Peréz laughs.

For a different perspective on Thanksgiving in Mexico, check out another family's story here

Dia De Los Muertos documentary

An interesting look at the history of Dia de los Muertos

Vida Music Festival

The Vida Music Festival took place yesterday at the Pima County Fairgrounds as part of the Always Thinking Community in order to raise funds and awareness of the community.


"The festival is a way for us to help the cause of other community organizations while giving back to the community with good music," said community relations director Ric Carrillo.

About 40 different musical acts played across 7 different venues on the campgrounds ranging from Mexican rock to mariachi to the Maguire School of Irish Dance. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and tickets were $15.

"We also help individuals find their way and have an impact in the community by developing life plans to carry out. We like to help out both individuals and organizations of Tucson to help as many as possible at one time," Carrillo said.

DDLM events in Phoenix

If anyone is going to be in the Phoenix area over the next couple weekends, there are plenty of Dia de Los Muertos events occurring. There is an altar viewing, a Dia de Los Muertos exhibit, even a Mariachi groupin Mesa.

You say pinyada, I say piñata

The piñata is a brightly-colored paper container shaped as an animal/any figurine, and filled with candy and toys, popular within the Mexican culture during birthdays, Christmas and Easter. The Spanish word, piñata, comes from the Italian word pignatta, meaning a pinecone-shaped clay pot or, pigna meaning pinecone.

The piñata probably originates from the Aztecs. They made decorated clay pots representing a thunderstorm for the rain god, Tlaloc. When the pot was struck, it represented thunder and the flow of water represented a downpour of rain.

This is just researched origins as they are assumed to originate from the Aztecs as there are other various assumptions regarding its origins.

Next time you throw a birthday party, try and spice things up with your very own piñata.

The month of the Rosary

Photo by Alex Jeffries
October marks the month of the Rosary in the Catholic Church. To find out more about the rosary, I visited Father Jerome Cudden at the Newman Center on campus.

Q: What is the significance of the rosary?

A: It is a way to meditate on faith. There are three mysteries the rosary is dedicated to: joyful, such as praying for humility, obedience, and good will; sorrowful, where one prays for their sins, purity, perseverance; and glorious, praying for faith and hope.

Q: Where is it predominantly used? Throughout holidays? In church?

A: There's public and private devotion. While some people prefer to pray in their homes in private, others meet in public to pray the rosary. In a way, it is a public meeting but in private.

Q: What do most people rely on the rosary for?

A: It offers help to most. Such as praying to the different saints, such as Saint Anthony for finding lost things.

Q: Do other sects of the Catholic faith (Spanish/Irish) refer to the rosary more often?

A: It depends on the time period. I grew up Irish catholic and we used the rosary everyday. A lot of the newer generations, like today's John Paul II's generation is bigger on the rosary.

Q: What is the rosary made out of?

A: Most are made of wood. Others are plastic, some people string pieces of rope together, and there some very fancy ones created with jewels.

Q: When using the rosary, is one praying to God, Mary, the Saints?

A: It is a prayer to an intersession of Saints in the Catholic faith.

Q: Is it sacrilegious to wear rosaries or hang them on rear-view mirrors?

A: No, in the old days, priests would actually carry swords with them. Today, I carry the rosary by my left side as a symbolic way of carrying a sword--without using violence.

Locusts a reason to celebrate?

Tomorrow marks the Festival of Our Lady of Mercy (La festa de merced). In 1687, a plague of locusts were driven out of Barcelona, Spain by the Virgin of Mercy. To this day, the Festival of Our Lady of Mercy stands as one of the biggest and loudest festivals in Spain where hundreds of artists and performers play at venues around the city. The museums in Barcelona are also free on this day. Tucson has no planned events as it is recovering from Mexican Independence Day celebrations and is planning ahead for October, the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary.

Mexico's Independence Day

Rather than give the history of Mexico's Independence Day, I re-discovered one of my favorite Mexican dishes at the Independence Day festival at Kennedy Park in Tucson. This would probably go better on a food blog, but this stuff was pretty good so I figured I'd share.

What that is is posole, a dish popularized by Native Americans, Mexicans, and Europeans. It is especially popular around Christmas in New Mexico, typically eaten on Christmas Eve to celebrate life's blessings. But they served it here at the festival and it was a surprising treat. Posole is a stew made with hominy, a type of puffed corn, pork, chicken, or vegetarian subsitute, garlic, and depending on the region, red or green chiles. Red chiles are popular in Southern New Mexico while Northern New Mexico favors green chiles.

The rest of the festival included live music and dancing and an appreciation for Mexico's independence from Spain for the past 197 years.

From politics to holidays

Clarification: I decided to change my blog topic to holidays celebrated in Mexico so that way I will be able to have a bit more to report on with ongoing celebrations in Mexico rather than the elections held at one time.

This Thursday, Mexico commemorates the Young Heroes of Chapultepec. En español, Aniversario de la muerte de los Niños Heroes. Stemming from the Mexican-American War that began in 1846, Mexico remembers five students of the military school in Chapultepec who gave their lives to defend their country. They included Juan de la Barrera, Juan Escutia, Agustín Melgar, Fernando Montes de Oca, Francisco Márquez y Vicente Suárez.

To honor these students who gave their lives, a monument was placed in the forests of Chapultepec in Mexico City and each year, the president holds a civic ceremony and passes a list of honor to the cadets.

Atop is a photo of the monument in Chapultepec. Each statue representing the individuals commemorated in the battle.


The story can be found in Spanish here.

The resurrection of McCain?

Despite a lack of efforts to raise funds for his campaign, (supporting the war in Iraq being a major factor), Senator McCain spoke at Stanford recently stating that securing the border will be his No. 1 priority once elected president.

Just an introduction...

Since my blog will relate to the U.S./Mexican border with respect to immigration, security, and the local/presidential elections, you might want to be familiar with the likes of this person, this person, this person, this person, and why not, this guy too, just to name a few. As the primaries approach in the next few months, I'm sure there will be plenty more to discuss and link when candidates step up to the podiums. For now, just giving an introduction that my blog will relate to the border and its issues with respect to upcoming elections.

So this is the new year.

So, my blog is set up. And let me just say my summer has been pretty productive and I could use another week of vacation to ease back into classes, I don't know about the rest of you. Nevertheless, I'm pretty excited to start my senior year and this class as well. I'll save the rest of my discussion for class, see you all on Monday.

Monday edit: I thought the first day of class helped persuade me to stick with Borderbeat. There is a lot of potential in this class where everyone will be able to work together smoothly and put out a solid online publication. I even took it upon myself to be a copy editor so hopefully I manage to do a decent job there. And hopefully I'll be able to get some direction from this class as to where I want to go after I graduate, whether it be working at the Star, in Philly, in New York, or writing funny commercials for the rest of my life.