Photographers, Scholars to Focus Their Lenses on Border Issues

A symposium in conjunction with a photo exhibit exploring life on the U.S.-Mexican border will be held Friday and Saturday.

The symposium and exhibit, jointly titled “Los Vecinos” (The Neighbors), are organized by the Museum of Photographic Arts.

The exhibit, on display at the museum through Jan. 7, features the work of seven photographers who each chose one aspect of border life on which to focus. The symposium, which is free and open to the public, will include a number of panel discussions that further explore the issues addressed by the photographers.

The symposium begins Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the Recital Hall in the Palisades area of Balboa Park, next to the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater. The first session is on “Cultural and Economic Integration at the Border” and includes photographer Elizabeth Sisco, and commentators Lawrence Herzog and Richard Sinkin.

Sisco’s work in the exhibit explores the tourist industry in Tijuana and the stereotypes common to both sides of the border. Herzog is an associate professor of Mexican American studies at San Diego State University. Sinkin is managing director of the San Diego-based Interamerican Holdings Co.

Photographers Don Bartletti and Graciela Iturbide will be joined by commentator Susan Tiano for the 1 p.m. session, titled “Family and Daily Life Along the U.S./Mexico Border.” Bartletti, a staff photographer for the San Diego County edition of The Times, has documented living conditions for undocumented workers in North County. Iturbide explored the subculture of cholos, disenfranchised youths who have their own style of dress and talk and who often are gang members. Tiano is an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico.

At 3:30 p.m., photographers Antonio Turok and Susan Meiselas and commentators Kitty Calavita and America Rodriguez will discuss “Immigration and Migration.” Turok’s exhibition photos follow two Guatemalans as they make their way from their homeland to San Diego, while Meiselas accompanied the U.S. Border Patrol on their rounds of the region. Calavita is an assistant professor of social ecology at the UC Irvine and Rodriguez, who coordinated the symposium, is a free-lance reporter for National Public Radio with a specialty in immigration and border politics.

The symposium continues Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park with a session titled “National Perspectives on the Border.” Photographers Liliana Nieto del Rio and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio will be joined by commentators Peter Smith and Jorge Bustamante. Nieto del Rio’s exhibit photos focus on the youngsters who live and work on the streets of Tijuana, and Monasterio explored the maquiladora industry.

Smith is a professor of political science, adjunct professor of international relations and Pacific studies, and Simon Bolivar professor of Latin American studies at UCSD. Bustamante is director of the Border Studies Center at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.

For more information about the symposium, call MOPA at 239-5262.