Frontera NorteSur
March 2003

March 27, 2003
Ford Foundation Grant Leads to Border Journalism Conference in Tijuana

With funding from a Ford Foundation grant, US-based Homelands Productions has been working collaboratively with Mexican journalists to create radio documentaries that are airing in both Mexico and the US. Besides producing the "Border Stories" series on various aspects of the US-Mexico border, the project has been an exploration of the possibilities and difficulties of transborder journalism. This aspect of the grant--transborder journalism--will be examined at the Border Journalism Conference in Tijuana, on May 15, 2003. 

New opportunities for investigative reporters

While some panels at the conference will look at such topics as border reporting, differences between Mexican and US media, and cross-cultural perceptions, other sessions will inform journalists about new opportunities for obtaining information and data. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) will present a Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) workshop structured around a hypothetical border news story. One of the goals of the CAR program is to empower journalists to reduce dependence on press releases and be able to do original, investigative work from electronic information sources analyzed with databases and spreadsheets. People associated with the Mexico-based Centro de Periodistas de Investigación (CPI), an organization affiliated with the IRE, will help lead the workshop. For more information on CAR go to http://www.ire.org/ or for more on the CPI go to http://investigacion.org.mx/. 

A separate panel is devoted to issues surrounding access to government information and freedom of information laws in both the US and Mexico. Mexico's new freedom of information law, established by the Fox administration, will be one of the main topics of discussion. Issues pertaining to access to government information in binational reporting will also be examined. Panelists include Dan Barr, attorney and freedom of information specialist; Enrique Villanueva, Libertad de Información; and  Pedro Enrique Armendares of the CPI.

A plenary session will be devoted to the theme of "How They Got the Story" at which journalists will reveal the investigative techniques they used to get their border stories. In another panel, journalists and story subjects will discuss the realities and complexities of working together.

Discussions about US and Mexico media and border stories

One specific issue that the conference will address--one that has been written about for approximately a decade by journalists on both sides of the border--is the serial-killing of young women in Ciudad Juárez. Since 1993, approximately 93 young women have been brutally raped and murdered in Cd. Juárez. The stories of their deaths have been reported on continuously as the body count mounts. Confirmed participants for the panel include Julian Cardona, Al Margen (http://www.almargen.com.mx/); Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/borderdeath/); and Cecilia Balli, Texas Monthly (http://www.texasmonthly.com/). 

Another session will have Washington D.C. and Mexico City correspondents comparing and contrasting their views of US-Mexico relations. 

Border literature 

The Border Journalism Conference will also look at border non-fiction literature. Bobby and Lee Byrd, of El Paso's Cinco Puntos Press, will be on a panel related to this topic. Recently, Cinco Puntos published "Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots and Graffiti from the U.S./Mexico Border," a collection of essays about the frontera produced by noted border writers from the US and Mexico (http://www.cincopuntos.com/). Other people on the panel include authors Gabriel Trujillo and Tom Miller.

Keynote speaker: Sam Quiñones

Sam Quiñones, the author of “True Tales from Another Mexico," will give the conference's keynote address. "True tales" is a collection of writing about the Mexico that US visitors rarely see and that is rarely represented in the US media. Quiñones has been a freelance writer in Mexico since 1995 and has written for the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Newsday, San Diego Union-Tribune, Riverside Press-Enterprise, LA Weekly, Ms. Magazine, Mexico Business Magazine and Latin Trade Magazine, among others. In 1998, he was awarded the Alicia Patterson Fellowship, one of the most prestigious fellowships in U.S. print journalism.

For more information on the Border Journalism Conference, or to register on-line, go to http://www.homelands.org/confgene.htm.

Encuentro Fronterizo

Coinciding with and following the Border Journalism Conference is the Fourth Meeting on the Border Environment, held at the same location in Tijuana, and also sponsored by the Ford Foundation. Commonly referred to as the "Encuentro" (from its name in Spanish), the conference addresses border environmental concerns and the difficulties facing binational attempts to remedy these problems. Running from May 15th through May 17th, the Encuentro also works to motivate and network border environmentalists and to enhance collaborative cross-border efforts. 

Frontera NorteSur attended the previous Meeting on the Border Environment which resulted in two articles. One article was about Tijuana's Ecoparque which is a low-tech, low-energy decentralized water treatment and reuse facility (http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/may01/feat3.html) and another looked at successful binational, bioregional environmental education (http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/jun01/feat1.html).

For more information on the Encuentro go to http://www.encuentrofronterizo.org.

March 18, 2003
Tijuana-Rosarito Water Master Plan to Cost Over US$1.2 Billion, Includes Desalinization Plant

A newly completed water master plan for the Tijuana-Rosarito area will cost US$1.245 billion to complete over the next twenty years. In order to guarantee the supply of drinking water to the cities, and to ensure appropriate waste-water treatment, the region will see the construction of a desalinization plant and a waste-water treatment facility. An already existing waste-water treatment plant will be expanded. 

The water master plan was created for the Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Tijuana (State Commission of Tijuana Public Services, Cespt) by the consulting firm Camp Dresser McKee and was funded by a grant of US$1.7 million from the US EPA. 

The study estimated the population of the Tijuana-Rosarito area to be 1.435 million. By 2013, the region's population will be an estimated 1.923 million people and by 2023 it should be at 2.463 million residents--approximately one million more inhabitants than there are now in the area. 

Currently, the Tijuana-Rosarito region consumes 3,658 liters of water per second, according to an official with the Cespt. By 2015, this figure could rise to 5,582 liters of water per second. By the end of the master-plan construction program, the water utility will be able to provide 8,202 liters of water per second. 

The US$1.245 billion master plan was one of many considered and was selected not only on economic merit but also because of the attention it pays to water conservation and water quality issues. Other aspects of the program include the construction of new pump stations and sewers. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), March 18, 2003. Article by Luis Adolfo San Isan. 

February 27, 2003
UABC Celebrates 46th Anniversary

While the push to create the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) got underway in 1952, its legal existence did not come about until 1957. Thus 2003 marks the 46th anniversary of the university.  

The first part of the university to open was the school of nursing in 1959. From then until 1971, the UABC struggled to find a solid financial foundation, a process that was finally helped along by a state tax imposed in 1968 which raised funds for secondary and higher education in Baja California. 

Currently, nearly 50% of BC college students are in the UABC system. With 47,000 people enrolled in Baja California universities, 23,000 attend the UABC. 

With sites around the state, the UABC has 32 academic units which are divided between seven schools, seventeen departments and eight research institutes. The university offers 66 majors or career paths. 

Located in Tijuana are academic units devoted to economics, chemistry, accounting, law, medicine, humanities, tourism and more. 

In its 46 years, the university has had 12 presidents and graduated more than 60,000 students, 20,000 of these from the Tijuana campus. 

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), February 27, 2003. Article by Patricia Blake.