By Gabrielle Lubliner
“I am a 22 years old photographer/writer from France, who fell in love with El Paso through a distant relationship with the region. I decided to come visit the city last fall 2018 where I have been captivated ever since,” stated Gabrielle Lubliner.
Two years ago I was a student at the Fine Art School of Britany, in France. During a writing workshop we were asked to work on the idea of wandering, which was foreign to me. Having lived in a small fisherman village in Normandy for almost all my life, the concept of wandering was pretty much abstract to me. I decided to look at a region that sparked my interest from Old Western movies. Using Google Earth and Street Views as my tool, I journeyed into the dimension of the unknown.
This is how I met El Paso, by chance, and everything that has happened since that moment is very much about chance and wandering. A way to research truth and dreams.
I started following the current events of El Paso with local news outlets such as El Paso Times. Starting to understand the environment better.I was curious about its geographical position, so close to the Mexican border and CD. Juarez, I asked myself how interesting it must be to live so close, yet so far from a supposed totally different and dangerous world.
I think that of places where we grew up and where we live contribute to the development of our culture and identity. The more I kept reading and finding out about El Paso, the more I found myself attracted to the Southwest Region, its strange and unique characteristics. I wanted to find out more about its inhabitants and the impact of living on the border. The boundary involves a life between two worlds, two cultures and two singular rhythms.
Between September and November 2018, I rode my bike around the different neighborhoods of Segundo Barrio, Chihuahuita, Duranguito, Downtown El Paso, and Sunset Heights with a 35mm film camera. When I arrived it was a sunny and warm Thursday morning, I started cruising Rio Grade Avenue as my first neighborhood. After 2 hours of walking I noticed there was not a single car driving in sight. It reminded me of a forgotten land, abandoned from time and space.
Since that very first day, I’ve seen and met dozens of places and individuals. Recorded a wide amount of testimonies and many different opinions. Between all of them one comes back to my memory. My friend Deitra told me once about El Paso “This is the land of tomorrow but tomorrow never came”. What was the reason of a such desperate motto?
I heard that back in the seventies, it was the land of every possibility. I heard back then El Paso and CD. Juarez were two sisters cities working in unison rather then now. They are two twins cities sentenced to exile, forever apart from each other. Back then there was no fence and no border patrol detaining children apart from families. Back then CD. Juarez was a pleasant place to go, nobody would have told me not to go by myself as a young women alone. Fifty years later I discovered El Paso as the city version of the village in the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty.” A city stuck in time, a city protected from the gang wars and violence of CD. Juarez by fenced bridges and a huge military base. El Paso, “The Passage” is no longer the place to pass through, but I feel we all know that.
Despite all this, what I found out here is nothing more than great proof of the magical and mysterious facet of life. Although I feel the American dream no longer exists, a new Culture is being born here. One that is made of survival while disillusionment and hope remains, one that has been uprooted but is enriched by the diversity of its origins and cultures. I was wrong to consider this place asleep and dormant from all dreams.
From the young artistic punk scene reaffirming and acclaiming talent, a strong multi cultural identity. Striving to keep the historic neighborhood of Duranguito protected from work of organizations like Annunciation House, Las Americas, Border Network for Human Rights and many others. The border now is rising for a fair and more human mañana. What a wonderful place to live!
