Immigrants crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico (1985).
More than two decades ago, I stood on a bridge overlooking the Rio Grande River in Laredo, Texas. The bridge separated not only two countries, but two worlds. It was a constant reminder of the disparites between nations. As a photographer telling such stories was an attempt to put a "face" on a complex issue.
As daylight approached, the amber vapor glow of U.S. Border Patrol security lights began to give way to what promised to be another sweltering summer day in South Texas. On the bridge traffic had all but stopped -- the scene was eerie and somber. All was quiet, except for a few hushed words in spanish coming from below the span. Two men, most likely day laborers, were crossing the river illegally into the United States. This was a time, when the pejorative term "wetback" was still widely used by many in the U.S. to alienate and often persecute our neighbors to the south.
This scene and others like it have been repeated millions of times since the U.S. began securing its borders in the late 1880s. More than one hundred years later demand for cheap labor in the U.S. and poverty in Mexico and Central America continues to create even more tension along the border.
Story after story, picture after picture, continues to tell us about the lives of people struggling to better their lives at all costs.
At about the same time I made this image, I met a reporter from Sweden who was on assignment to write about America's immigration "problem." I was surprised that the rest of world was beginning to take notice. Why Sweden, I thought?
Pictures are historically contingent and function to construct a context in our collective consciousness -- one that is linked to culture, politics, history, economics, and religious values.
What I witnessed in the 1980s, however, is not what journalists are seeing today. Although people attempt to cross the border daily, the risks from drug traffickers, smugglers, and bandits has become endemic. What we see in the mainstream media today is but a fragment of the real story happening along the border -- a story so frequently told that most of the nation has lost interest. Nevertheless, the story never ends as history repeats itself as long as photographers and journalists are around to notice it.