Semester Wrap Up!

Well the semester is coming to a close and graduation is just weeks away! I must say this semester has been quite the whirlwind, but Border Beat has been a pretty amazing experience!

In the last 16 weeks I have explored Barrio Veijo and Barrio Anita. I have found some of Tucson's oldest landmarks, and most interesting activities, as well as met some awesome people.

If had to chose my favorite part, I would say it was definitely the special projects. The first one I did on Barrio Viejo and it helped me take a much deeper look into the Barrio then I could have done for a story. The second one, on the St. Andrew's Clinic, was truly an experience unlike any other.

I have also really enjoyed writing this blog. Now, don't get me wrong, I have blogged before, but this one was different. Covering the barrios was really unique because they are such visual parts of Tucson. I really enjoyed being able to take photos and create videos so that you could see some of the amazing places I have gone. Other blogs I have done are not quite so visual, and the visual element is what makes it fun.

I feel that participating in the Border Beat capstone has definitely improved my writing skills. It also taught me to think outside the box for story ideas. During this semester alone, I have written about the experience of crossing the Iraq border, a Mexican documentary that was pulled from theaters, a school event at the Presidio San Agustin Del Tucson, teleconferencing across the border, homemade tortillas and more.

Being a part of this class has been a great opportunity, and as I head off into the "real world," I am excited to use what I've learned!

Update on St. Andrew's Children's Clinic

It's official, the St. Andrew's coverage by the Border Beat class is going to be amazing! Today we started submitting pieces and I must say it is coming together better than I expected. I am so anxious to see how it all turns out!

I completed my three elements yesterday and they are waiting to be merged with all the other stories and then should be released later this week.

I did one large story sort of discussing in detail a little more about what the St. Andrew's clinic is. I called it, The past, present and future of St. Andrew's. It gives a history of the clinic as well as their plans for the future.

I also did a video about the different volunteers who help out at St. Andrews. In the piece, which features photos by fellow border beater, Samantha Sais, I talk to a medical student, tour guide, public relations representative and newsletter editor from St. Andrews. Each volunteer gave me a different perspective on the importance of the clinic and why they help out here. It was awesome to see and I hope their passion is apparent in this video.

Lastly, I did a video profile, with pictures by Kayla Lema, of St. Andrew's Executive Director, Laura Romero. In the 30 minutes I spent interviewing Laura, I can tell you I have never seen someone with so much passion for what they do. Her face literally lit up when she talked about the clinic. It was such a rewarding experience to interview her and see her dedication to these children.

Check out Laura's video below and watch Border Beat later this week to see the rest of the St. Andrew's coverage!

St. Andrews Clinic

This week about 10 students from our Border Beat class traveled down to Nogales, Arizona to cover the St. Andrews Clinic. Held in a local church, this amazing clinic is put on the first Thursday of every month. Families come up from Mexico to get medical attention and some of them have traveled very far to get here. One girl talked about taking a 12 hour bus ride just so she could come to the clinic.

I think the most amazing part of this clinic is that the entire thing is completely run by volunteers. The physicians are doctors and med students who have given up their time to come down here and help others. Then there is another group of volunteers who are responsible for making sure the whole clinic runs smoothly. They check people in, weigh patients, take them around to the correct areas and more. Seeing this team of people work together was an amazing experience.

Another group of volunteers spends all morning making a delicious lunch for the volunteers. They make fresh carne asada as well as a whole bunch of side dishes. The food was absolutely awesome!

This clinic sees more than 200 patients every time it runs. Walking around and seeing all of the different things these doctors were able to do for these kids was fascinating. There is an area for hearing, vision, physical therapy, orthopedics, pediatrics, and more. I think one of my favorite areas to watch was the vision. It was so neat to see these kids look through a lens and see things for the first time. I definitely found this to be one of the most inspiring areas.

Border Beat will be putting together a large special project on our St. Andrews coverage, so make sure to watch for it. I will be working on the overall history and a video piece about the volunteers and the current executive director, Laura Romero.

Barrio Anita

This week I took a little adventure down to Barrio Anita, located between Stone and I-10 and between Drachman St. and St. Mary's Road.

The first thing I noticed upon entering Barrio Anita is that it has a very different look from some of the other Barrio's I visited, such as Barrio Viejo. The design and style is not as distinctive. For example I didn't see the bright colors that surround Barrio Viejo.

One thing that Barrio Anita is famous for is the Anita Street Market. Located at 849 Anita Ave. this market makes amazing homemade tortillas and is open six days a week. According to one customer they are fresh, warm, and mouth watering.

I think part of what makes the Anita Street Market so unique is its quaint atmosphere. Nestled in the midst of a residential neighborhood, this small grocery store/restaurant has an outdoor patio to sit and enjoy the delicious food.

Another unique element of Barrio Anita is the "Bicycle Church" as it is called. This metal artwork display is made out of bike pieces and serves as a memorial to all those killed on the streets of Tucson while bike riding. However, the memorial can also be a place of celebration as they occasionally have weddings or star gazing at the sight.

The memorial itself is gorgeous with stained glass pieces and various items of religious symbolism. If you ever travel down to Barrio Anita, make sure you stop and take a glance, it stands alone on the side of the road and is easy to spot.

While Barrio Anita is different from Barrio Viejo in a number of ways, it has its own unique elements and is definitely worth a visit.

Click here to check out a YouTube video about the Barrio Anita Bicycle Church!

Follow up to Friday at the Fort

Friday at the Fort, the educational event at the Presidio San Agustin Del Tucson, was last Friday and let me tell you what an amazing experience it was.

Held for the fourth graders of Carrillo Elementary school, the event kicked off with all the students lining up according to color groups. All the students were then given red bandannas and taught basic soldier commands before being named 'recruits' for the Spanish Fort.

After a brief introduction the students spread out among the eight stations displaying activities of everyday life at the Presidio. The stations ranged from washing clothes, to blacksmithing, to making tortillas.

Each station lasted about 20 minutes and the time to switch stations was marked by a shot from the musket.

Watching the kids do these activities was so interesting. I actually heard one of them say while 'grinding corn for breakfast' in the metate, "Wow, they had to work really hard." Watching the kids observe how different life was was definitely the best part.

The eight booths were a perfect blend of hands on activities and the looks on their faces during these activities were priceless.

The teachers and parents who came along for the field trip also seemed to be having a very good time. I think they learned almost as much as the kids and I heard nothing but positive feedback.

At the end of the eighth station rotation, everyone met back in the middle and the Presidio soldiers fired the cannon. The cannon seemed to be the highlight of the event and the kids would not stop talking about how loud and awesome it was (They also got a kick out of how the loud noise set off nearby car alarms).

To see more photos of Friday at the Fort, check out the photo slideshow below:

Friday at the Fort

There are a lot of awesome landmarks in Downtown Tucson, but at the corner of Church Ave. and Washington St. is The Presidio San Agustin Del Tucson. This 1800’s style fort is built to replicate part of the original fort, which is where Tucson started.

This Friday, at the Presidio, they are hosting ‘Friday at the Fort,’ an experimental educational program. The program is being done for fourth graders as social studies state standards for the grade focus on Arizona history.

The day will consist of sending students through eight stations teaching: cow roping, butter churning, tortilla making, soldiering, and other daily living skills. The idea is to use on the hands-on exercise to give students an idea of what life was like in Spanish Colonial Tucson.

The President of the Tucson Presidio Trust told me, he hopes this goes well and they can start to do it four times a year. This first event will be for the fourth graders of Carrillo Elementary School.

The event is going to be run by Presidio volunteers and living history reenactors.

As a local Tucsonan, I remember we used to go on field trips to Tubac and Tumacacori to learn abut Arizona history, but the Presidio wasn’t opened yet. They had their grand opening in May 2007. I think it is pretty neat that kids will now get to go to where Tucson first started to learn about Arizona history. It puts more of a local angle on it.

Click here to watch Presidio Soldiers fire the cannon!

A Little off Track...

So this week I am going to go a little bit off track in my post, but since it is Spring Break, I figured it was okay.

My cousin, who is from Tucson but lives in Flagstaff, came home for the break and yesterday we were all hanging out. After a busy day of shopping, we were hungry. My cousin said she wanted some authentic Tucson Mexican food. Lucky for me, all my research about Tucson's Barrios came in handy. I immediately suggested we try out El Minuto Cafe on S. Main Ave in Barrio Viejo.

We arrived at the restaurant about 6 p.m and I had been raving about all the great things I had heard the whole way down there. When we got there they had a huge wait so unfortunately we couldn't stay, but we promised each other we would go back another time. I told her about how nice the owners are and how good the food looked when I was there and we decided we will definitely be going back soon.

We ended up going to La Parrilla Suiza instead and while the wait there was almost just as long, the food was delicious! So our lesson was learned, all restaurants have waits on a Saturday at 6 p.m. next time we will try the cafe in the Barrio.

Check out this video from El Minuto that I did as part of my project on Barrio Viejo:

A More Personal Take on Barrio Style

For those of you who may have checked out the Border Beat special projects, you probably saw mine about Barrio Viejo. Well, in section number two, I talked a lot about the style of Barrio Viejo. In this blog post I am going to give a more personal account of that style.

I think the colors down in Barrio Viejo are my favorite part. It is so awesome to walk around and see red, blue, purple and yellow houses. I have lived in Tucson my whole life, and I mean it when I say, this is the only area where you can see such a variety of colors.

I also love the doors in this neighborhood. Some of them are so rustic and have such unique, historical touches. My favorite one is light blue and lined with probably 10 locks from top to bottom.

I also think part of what makes this neighborhood so fascinating is the variety in the ages of the homes. Some are so old, and look as if they have not been touched since being built in the 1800s. Then, on the next block will be a home that looks brand new. It is a really curious feeling to see such a variety when walking down the street.

I think of all the pictures I took in exploring Barrio Viejo, my favorite one is the dark blue house with the teal door frame and the porch light on. In class, our professor was joking with me about how he has gone down there hundreds of times praying for the lights to be on so he can get the picture. I was lucky in that it was on my first time down there.

I put together a slideshow, with music, showing some of the colors and doors in Barrio Viejo, check it out:

Rosendo S. Perez Park

I have been exploring Barrio Viejo for a few weeks now and it truly amazes me the amount of history hidden in this neighborhood. Every time I walk through here, I find another park dedicated to someone of the past. I think this history is part of what makes the Barrio such a neat area of Tucson.

This week I found the Rosendo S. Perez Park. Another park, covered with unique and personal artwork, it is a must see part of Tucson's history.


Check out this video to learn what else I discovered about the park:

Click here to learn more about the Tucson Parks and Recreation website.

The Wishing Shrine...

In exploring Barrio Viejo over the past couple weeks I have discovered that there are a number of Parks and Shrines throughout the neighborhood. This week I discovered El Tiradito, or The Wishing Shrine. This quaint, yet beautiful, shrine is located on Main Ave. next to the delicious El Minuto Café.

El Tiradito translates as the castaway or the outcast. It is said that an individual of the Catholic Church once committed such a sever sin before dying that they would not allow him to be buried in the Catholic Cemetery. He was buried at this site instead.

Today the site remains as a city park. The adobe wall, which lines the back, contains holes and pockets stuffed with notes and prayers of well-being. In the front of the shrine is a large candle umbra adorned with flowers and the drips of melting wax from the thousands of candles lit over the years.

Going to the shrine today was really interesting because there was still a lot of memorabilia from the Jan. 8 shootings. Numerous photos of Gaby Giffords were displayed, with candles and prayers. It was also sad to see, that like many other places in Tucson, the near by cactus froze in the deep freeze we had a few weeks back. They poor cacti are hanging, drooping along the side of the shrine.

I can tell the shrine is still visited often. In my time there on Sunday I saw three people stop and take pictures, and there were even a few candles lit when I arrived.

Our Video About Tanias 33

So last week I blogged about Tanias 33 and how amazing it was, but what I didn’t mention, was the reason that I went there. A fellow Border Beater, McKenzie Sheldon, and I decided to do a joint project profiling the well-known restaurant.

We wanted to put together a video piece with still photos, b-roll, and an on camera interview with owner Rudy Lira. McKenzie and I ventured down there, (after calling twice to ask where they were…what can we say, apparently directions aren’t really our thing,) but anyway, despite our sense of direction, or lack there of, we found it. With my video camera, and her still camera, we went in to get our story.

Let me just say that it didn’t take long to notice that restaurant/kitchen lighting kind of stinks for photos and video. After adjusting the settings on the video camera a number of times, I thought I had it. The LCD screen showed a well-lit image, but the video footage turned out a little darker than expected. Then for some reason, it got even darker after putting the video on YouTube, which was a bit frustrating to say the least! Oh well, at least it is still visible, and I learned how to brighten footage in Final Cut, so that I can avoid this problem in the future.

Watching McKenzie take photographs I also realized something I had never thought about before. Food photography is hard. I had never realized how it is a science all its own. In fact, she blogged about it last week. Capturing the details of the food, like the colors and textures, is not easy, but she did an awesome job. The photos she took turned out great and really added to the overall quality of the video.

We also had a great time talking with Rudy, the owner. I know I mentioned this last week, but he is so friendly and welcoming. It made our film making experience even more valuable. Plus, all his talk of menudo sparked our interest. It is their best selling item and neither of us has ever tried it… Needless to say, we decided that is going to be our next adventure. I will let you know how it is!

Tanias 33

On Grande Ave, just north of St. Mary's Road is Tanias 33, a wonderful little Mexican restaurant specializing in Sonoran style Mexican food. This little gray building, adorned with a purple awning, is home to one of the best breakfast burritos I have ever had. Of the over 32 breakfast burrito options, I went for the one with green chilies, ham, eggs, and cheese...oh was there cheese! And the best part, it came in the most delicious homemade tortilla I have ever had.

When I first walked in I was surprised by the huge menus lining the wall above the register. Then I was greeted by Rudy, the incredibly friendly owner. I was invited back in the kitchen to watch them make the delicious tortillas, and let me just say, there is something amazing about watching the thin, crisp, flour bubble up on the hot stove before being flipped over. It really gave me the feel of authentic Mexican food. It was so neat to see the whole tortilla making process.

In the back of the restaurant, in the large supermarket style fridge, there is another awesome element to Tanias, The Cold for Less section. This area contains pre-packaged meals such as burritos with rice and beans, tamales and even fresh salsa you can take home with you. This allows people to pick up food to go that they can simply reheat later.

Another unique element to this Mexican restaurant would be the owners side job, real estate. I don't know any other restaurants where you walk in for food and can leave with a house hunting appointment. Rudy is an excellent sales man... I heard him pitch to four different customers in an hour. The biggest selling point is that if you buy a house from Rudy he provides free catering for the Housewarming party. Note to self: When it's time to buy a house go to Rudy, the free catering alone would make it worth it!

El Parque de Orlando y Diego Mendoza

In Barrio Viejo, on the corner of 18th St. and Convent Ave., lies a park. However, this is not just any park, this is a park to honor Orlando and Diejo Mendoza, two young boys killed by a drunk driver, at this intersection, in 1981.

The park is a memorial to honor the boys, Orlando who was 2 years old and Diego who was only 17 months old. Built by neighbors, the park contains a plaque which tells the young boys' story. Directly in front of the plaque is a shrine, covered with candles, stuffed animals and other memorabilia to honor the innocent lives lost.

Along the back wall of the park are decorations, based on papel picado, or the paper decorations used during Dia de los Muertos, a November 2nd holiday in which the Hispanic culture honors the memories of departed loved ones. Every year, on the Day of the Dead holiday, celebrations are held at the park to remember the young boys and all other children who may have died too young. The park reminds us all that it is our responsibility to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

The park is surrounded by beautiful plants and flowers and there are a number of iron chairs to sit and enjoy its visual elements. There is even a concrete chess table for an afternoon game. The park describes itself as a, "Quiet respite and a reminder of how precious life is." Check out the photo slide show below to see more of the park.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to Barrio Beat! My name is Erica and I am a senior at the University of Arizona majoring in Journalism and Media Arts. This blog is designed to contribute to Border Beat, a website which specializes in border stories and is run by the UA School of Journalism.

Join me as I explore the Barrios of Tucson, Ariz. Known as Tucson's link to its Spanish and Mexican past, these neighborhoods are famous for their colorful, artistic and Spanish styles. Follow me through the semester as I take a look at the sights, sounds and culture that these historic districts have to offer.