Border Stories
About this original series
Border Stories documents life on the U.S.-Mexico border. Stories of immigration, international trade, cultural change, terrorism and security, environmental quality, and the drug trade converge on this international boundary. Each video features a voice that lives, works, crosses, or defends the longest land boundary between the developed and the developing world.
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# Episodes
13 episodes -
Rating
TV-UN
Episodes of Border Stories
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Los Dos Laredos
It might be difficult to imagine what $347 billion in combined, annual U.S.-Mexico trade looks like, but taking a glance at the World Trade bridge that connects Laredo, Texas to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas is a good place to start. Approximately, four out of every ten dollars of Mexican goods exported to the United States pass through the Nuevo Laredo-Laredo metropolitan area, which gives both cities the distinction of being the largest inland ports in their respective countries.Click here to vis...
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Release date
Jan 10, 2009
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Runtime
04:31
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The Old Crossing
On the western outskirts of Big Bend National Park, Lajitas, Texas and its Mexican counterpart, Paso Lajitas, Chihuahua perch on hills above the Rio Grande, marking the route of a former Comanche thoroughfare, as well as an important battle site for the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and a cast of bandit followers.With the discovery of mercury or "quicksilver" in the nearby Chisos mountains in the 1890's and the rise of Mexican cattle ranching and subsequent cross-border commerce, Lajitas ...
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Release date
Jan 10, 2009
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Runtime
05:44
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Where Tires Go to Die
So how does a pile of 3 million tires outside of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico have 85% of it's content originating from the United States? Desponchadoras. Desponchadoras are small Mexican shops that buy used tires from all over the U.S. in bulk. They recondition the treads (in some cases) then re-sell them on both sides of the border at a price far lower than a set of new tires. Juarez alone has 350 desponchadoras. In recent years the city has gone to great lengths to regulate these buisnesses. Prior...
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Release date
Jan 10, 2009
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Runtime
03:24
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Mexico's Border Patrol
A man from Guatemala is robbed along Mexico's southern border; a Mexican boy is forced into voluntary leave by U.S. immigration authorities and lands penniless in Nogales; a Honduran woman is beaten, raped and abandoned by the guide she paid to help her reach Phoenix. Injured, marginalized, scared, humiliated and exhausted, these are some of the human beings you will meet at a Grupo Beta field office.
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Release date
Jan 10, 2009
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Runtime
03:22
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Border Stories
Border Stories documents life along the 2000 mile border between the United States and Mexico.
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Release date
Jan 10, 2009
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Runtime
01:46
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Drug Ballads
Recently, the musical stature of narcocorridos ("drug ballads") has gained international interest for having landed at the center of several high-profile murder cases, including the December 2007 assassination of the leader of the popular band K-Paz de la Sierra. In the past two years, more than a dozen other well-known singers have been killed, one of whom, Valentin Elizalde, wrote the ballad, "Regalo Caro," which is performed by the musicians profiled in the above video.Click here to visit b...
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Release date
Jan 10, 2009
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Runtime
03:29
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TJ Remixed
San Diego radio stations, fleeing the oversight and fees from the FCC, sometimes put their radio towers along the Tijuana hillsides. This is how Pepe Mogt discovered his love of electronic music coming from Europe and the U.S. He learned to DJ himself, and eventually blended the accordion, bass and snare of Norteño music with techno, creating a genre that could only exist in Tijuana, Nortec.Click here to go to borderstories.org
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Release date
Jul 25, 2008
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Runtime
03:56
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Broken Fences
If you're considering going into the cattle business in Arizona and you see a great deal on an 8000 acre ranch right on the Mexico border, you might want to ask Dena and Tom Kay about what you're getting yourself into. Although Arizona's 370 miles of border with Mexico is a small share of the total (1,969), around 50% of illegal crossings take place here. The Kay's contend with what they say are 1000 people crossing their property daily. They've seen gunfights between drug smugglers and passed...
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Release date
Jul 18, 2008
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Runtime
03:36
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Born and Raised
Jose Ramirez considered himself a regular American teenager, until he learned that, unlike his four sisters, he is not American. His mother brought him to Tempe, Arizona from Guadelajara when he was two. When he grew old enough to get a job, employers kept turning him down. His mother explained he did not have a social security number, so he could not work legally. She got him a fake number so he could get a job in a pizza kitchen. Three days after being arrested for having a fight with a frie...
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Release date
Jul 18, 2008
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Runtime
02:32
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High Pointer
Three or four days a week, underneath the ominous hum of high-voltage power lines, you might find Britt Craig keeping a watch over the southern border of the United States. He's the founder of the Campo Minutemen, but he prefers to be called a "civilian volunteer". His strategy is to "high point", to spot activity from high ground and call in anything suspicious. He claims that just being seen makes a difference, so there's no effort to be stealthy. His large blue box truck placed atop the hil...
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Release date
Jul 18, 2008
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Runtime
05:18
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