June 22, 2020 • 10 mins
In this bonus episode, Mónica gives us a sneak peak into the side of Juárez that is often discussed, but rarely understood. We meet cultural anthropologist and border expert Howard Campbell, who has deeply researched the various criminal networks at work in Ciudad Juárez by spending time on the ground. We'll be back next week with a new episode that takes us even further into the Juárez underworld.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
During the month of April. Shop the buy one, get
one fifty percent off personal care sale happening now in
the health and beauty aisles. It's Safeway. Shop select products
like Dove Deep Moisture Gel Handwash, Trust them a rich
moisture shampoo with Vitamin E, Simple Kind of Skin, facial
cleansing wipes, or Nexus Color and Shore Conditioner Salon haircare
and get them Buy one, get one fifty percent off
(00:22):
at Safeway. Visit Safeway dot com or head into your
local Safeway store for more great deals in the health
and beauty aisles. We joined the UNST community when our
twins were just four years old. We became part of
the uns community for our daughter, and she's not due
for six months. Join over six hundred thousand parents and
children that are registered with UNST by downloading the app today.
(00:45):
UNST put smart investing tools right in the palm of
your hand, with flexible accounts that can be used for
college tuition, a first car, and more. Download the UNST
app from the App Store or Google Play Store. See
terms and conditions at uneest dot coo. We just went
to Ross and found tons of savings on brand name
clothes like Yeah at prices as low as Oh yeah,
(01:07):
I'm trying to tell them how they can save on
versatile spring books that go from days and nights. Oh sorry,
I just didn't know Ross had all these brands. Yes
for less. Hi everyone, this is Monica. Thanks so much
(01:28):
for listening to the show, and thanks also for your
feedback and comments. I'm personally very moved to see how
you engage with these stories. Along the journey of this podcast,
we'll see many of the themes that are front and
center in our society at this very moment. These include
police accountability, freedom of the press, globalization, immigration, and violence
(01:52):
against women. We hope the story we tell portrays the
importance of questioning our institutions and holding them accountable. We're
taking a break from our main story this week, but
in the meantime, we wanted to leave you with a
teaser into the second half of the podcast. You'll remember
(02:13):
from our last episode we met the so called Devil's
lawyer Dante al maras he offers journalist Alfredo Corcillo a
passport into the Howatis underworld. First of all, I can't
get over how appropriate it is for a man named
Dante to lead Alfredo into the underworld. To me, Wattas
(02:34):
is itself a character in this podcast, and like any
good character, Wattas is complicated. The city is made up
of these many intertwining layers that you can't always see
how deep they go. Well, we're about to take the
plunge into one of the darkest layers. Before we let
(02:57):
Dante guide us, I want to introduce you to somebody else.
His name is Howard Campbell. He's an anthropology professor my
alma mater, the University of Texas at al Paso. Well,
for the last twenty seven twenty eight years, I've been
wandering around downtown wada Is and I in fact created
(03:18):
a kind of research methodology which I call wandering. To me,
Howard is not your typical professor in that he conducts
the bulk of his research in a library or on
a computer or over the phone. He's an anthropologist and
he gets out there. I grew up in the state
of Idaho and the mountains and wandering around the forests.
(03:42):
The idea is to wander around and get to know
a place intimately on a personal level, without necessarily a
full blown research plan, and sort of stumbling onto things,
meeting people, in a very impromptu way, and in that
way I felt that I got to know downtown Wada
Is quite well. Of course, have any is, in my opinion,
is one of the great walking streets in the entire world.
(04:03):
I would compare it to La Ramblas in Barcelona, or
lau Revo in Tijuana, or Reforma in Mexico City, or
Broadway in New York City. That is an incredible street
of anat is. Thousands of people at times on the street,
and just this endless parade of interesting people and characters
and unpredictable kinds of eccentric people and regular people and
(04:27):
criminals and all the like. Can you describe what it's
like to walk from El Paso over the bridge onto
Abne the hotters, And so once you get on the bridge,
you're in this nomad's land. You're going from one world
to another, one country to another, one city to another.
But also you're in this nether world in which the
(04:49):
law doesn't really hold as strongly as the United States
government like it too. And you see a lot of
people making a living from illicit activity, scams, hustles, people begging,
people selling drugs, people smuggling birds, the human creativity on
the bridge is remarkable, and it's quite remarkable to leave
a kind of a regular, upper middle class professional job
(05:12):
in El Paso and all of a sudden being at
times the most dangerous city in the world. I hate
to say it, but part of the appeal for a
lot of people that explore Wadas is the attraction to
the dark side. Howard discovers. It's not that difficult to
wade into this dark side. You simply have to walk
(05:32):
across the International Bridge and be willing to walk past
the boundaries of caustion. That's what Howard does. But I
often try to pretend I'm just a tourist or one
of the American expats that lives in Wadas and goes
to the kind of grungy bars. I've had some difficult
circumstances where I've been essentially captured by police that took
(05:54):
money from me, or else pulled me away from the
crowd of people into a dark area and threatened me,
was locking me up in jail if I didn't pay them,
or pushing me around that sort of thing. About a
year ago, as robbed by a woman. It was a
very strange circumstance. She told me this kind of sob
story about how difficult her life was and wha is
(06:16):
and she wanted me to see how badly she was
living after being deported from the United States by President Trump.
She said, Howard follows the woman to her one room apartment,
which is in what's known as a vism dove, in
this case, a three story building on a dirt lot.
Once I got into the apartment with the intention of
interviewing her, she started taking off her clothes and said
(06:39):
we were going to perform a sex act. And I said, well,
I didn't come to do this. I came to interview you.
And then she locked me into the room with a
padlock and a chain on the door. I picked up
a hammer and a sharpened piece of metal from a
table and threatened me. As I turned to the right
and looked at the wall. She had a table with
(06:59):
two atues of las an tam mauerte and burning candles
so the grim Reaper statue. After speaking English, she switched
to Spanish and told me that she was a member
of the Familia Michoa kind of drug cartel, and she
started telling me if I didn't pay her that she
would call for her pamp. She called Jore and also
(07:21):
the police, and so I was trapped. Eventually, I had
to give her all of my money and she let
me out. And this one was five feet tall, so
I felt she beat me. She actually told me I
won gringo. So sometimes you get your come uppance. Maybe,
(07:42):
and maybe I deserved this, you know, because I'd been
exploring in the sort of the darker side of downtown
Badis for so long. I kind of expected something like
this would happen, And ultimately it wasn't so bad. I
lost some money in a bit of my pride, but
I wasn't harmed. Howard got lucky that time, and I'm
willing to wait. His risk tolerance is far greater than
(08:04):
most anthropologists. He also has the privilege of coming and
going from Watas whenever he pleases. That's a luxury lots
of people who live in Wattas don't have. We'll hear
more from Howard later in the podcast, and we'll be
back with another full episode of Forgotten on June twenty ninth.
(08:26):
See you then, imagine what your dog would tell you
if they could talk. More treats with Canine Health Check
your dogs jeans can speak to you. Canine health Check
screens for over two hundred and fifty genetic diseases and more.
(08:48):
Just swab, send the sample and wait two weeks or
less for results. We offer genetic screening for dogs that
has been developed by expertly trained veterinarians and PhD geneticists,
so you can trust that your results are the highest
quality and accuracy. Visit canine health check dot com and
get thirty percent off with code iHeart. I'm loving this
(09:08):
Cheap Caribbean dot Com vocation. Let's take a walk on
the sand. Yes, and I'm craving some jerk chicken. Yes,
and I want to go snorkeling. Yes, And did you
see those pina coladas? I need one Yes, and I
want to mokedo. Two are better than one. Yes, and
there's a spot at the swim up bar with my
name on it. I get more food, more drinks, and
more fun for less money. Get a next level, all
(09:31):
inclusive beach vacation at Breathless Resorts and spas. Book today
at Cheap Caribbean dot com. And now the best Man.
I was going to plan this speech out while I
got my oil change, but I went to take five
and it was a lot faster than I thought, So
here he goes. Okay, Tim, you were my first friend.
(09:51):
Angela you were my first Yeah. I never thought the
two of you would make it, but I guess love
really is blind. No, no, no, I'm eat in a
good way. At take five. Your oil change is faster
than you think. Take five to stay in your car.
Ten minute oil change.
During the month of April. Shop the buy one, get
one fifty percent off personal care sale happening now in
the health and beauty aisles. It's Safeway. Shop select products
like Dove Deep Moisture Gel Handwash, Trust them a rich
moisture shampoo with Vitamin E, Simple Kind of Skin, facial
cleansing wipes, or Nexus Color and Shore Conditioner Salon haircare
and get them Buy one, get one fifty percent off
(00:22):
at Safeway. Visit Safeway dot com or head into your
local Safeway store for more great deals in the health
and beauty aisles. We joined the UNST community when our
twins were just four years old. We became part of
the uns community for our daughter, and she's not due
for six months. Join over six hundred thousand parents and
children that are registered with UNST by downloading the app today.
(00:45):
UNST put smart investing tools right in the palm of
your hand, with flexible accounts that can be used for
college tuition, a first car, and more. Download the UNST
app from the App Store or Google Play Store. See
terms and conditions at uneest dot coo. We just went
to Ross and found tons of savings on brand name
clothes like Yeah at prices as low as Oh yeah,
(01:07):
I'm trying to tell them how they can save on
versatile spring books that go from days and nights. Oh sorry,
I just didn't know Ross had all these brands. Yes
for less. Hi everyone, this is Monica. Thanks so much
(01:28):
for listening to the show, and thanks also for your
feedback and comments. I'm personally very moved to see how
you engage with these stories. Along the journey of this podcast,
we'll see many of the themes that are front and
center in our society at this very moment. These include
police accountability, freedom of the press, globalization, immigration, and violence
(01:52):
against women. We hope the story we tell portrays the
importance of questioning our institutions and holding them accountable. We're
taking a break from our main story this week, but
in the meantime, we wanted to leave you with a
teaser into the second half of the podcast. You'll remember
(02:13):
from our last episode we met the so called Devil's
lawyer Dante al maras he offers journalist Alfredo Corcillo a
passport into the Howatis underworld. First of all, I can't
get over how appropriate it is for a man named
Dante to lead Alfredo into the underworld. To me, Wattas
(02:34):
is itself a character in this podcast, and like any
good character, Wattas is complicated. The city is made up
of these many intertwining layers that you can't always see
how deep they go. Well, we're about to take the
plunge into one of the darkest layers. Before we let
(02:57):
Dante guide us, I want to introduce you to somebody else.
His name is Howard Campbell. He's an anthropology professor my
alma mater, the University of Texas at al Paso. Well,
for the last twenty seven twenty eight years, I've been
wandering around downtown wada Is and I in fact created
(03:18):
a kind of research methodology which I call wandering. To me,
Howard is not your typical professor in that he conducts
the bulk of his research in a library or on
a computer or over the phone. He's an anthropologist and
he gets out there. I grew up in the state
of Idaho and the mountains and wandering around the forests.
(03:42):
The idea is to wander around and get to know
a place intimately on a personal level, without necessarily a
full blown research plan, and sort of stumbling onto things,
meeting people, in a very impromptu way, and in that
way I felt that I got to know downtown Wada
Is quite well. Of course, have any is, in my opinion,
is one of the great walking streets in the entire world.
(04:03):
I would compare it to La Ramblas in Barcelona, or
lau Revo in Tijuana, or Reforma in Mexico City, or
Broadway in New York City. That is an incredible street
of anat is. Thousands of people at times on the street,
and just this endless parade of interesting people and characters
and unpredictable kinds of eccentric people and regular people and
(04:27):
criminals and all the like. Can you describe what it's
like to walk from El Paso over the bridge onto
Abne the hotters, And so once you get on the bridge,
you're in this nomad's land. You're going from one world
to another, one country to another, one city to another.
But also you're in this nether world in which the
(04:49):
law doesn't really hold as strongly as the United States
government like it too. And you see a lot of
people making a living from illicit activity, scams, hustles, people begging,
people selling drugs, people smuggling birds, the human creativity on
the bridge is remarkable, and it's quite remarkable to leave
a kind of a regular, upper middle class professional job
(05:12):
in El Paso and all of a sudden being at
times the most dangerous city in the world. I hate
to say it, but part of the appeal for a
lot of people that explore Wadas is the attraction to
the dark side. Howard discovers. It's not that difficult to
wade into this dark side. You simply have to walk
(05:32):
across the International Bridge and be willing to walk past
the boundaries of caustion. That's what Howard does. But I
often try to pretend I'm just a tourist or one
of the American expats that lives in Wadas and goes
to the kind of grungy bars. I've had some difficult
circumstances where I've been essentially captured by police that took
(05:54):
money from me, or else pulled me away from the
crowd of people into a dark area and threatened me,
was locking me up in jail if I didn't pay them,
or pushing me around that sort of thing. About a
year ago, as robbed by a woman. It was a
very strange circumstance. She told me this kind of sob
story about how difficult her life was and wha is
(06:16):
and she wanted me to see how badly she was
living after being deported from the United States by President Trump.
She said, Howard follows the woman to her one room apartment,
which is in what's known as a vism dove, in
this case, a three story building on a dirt lot.
Once I got into the apartment with the intention of
interviewing her, she started taking off her clothes and said
(06:39):
we were going to perform a sex act. And I said, well,
I didn't come to do this. I came to interview you.
And then she locked me into the room with a
padlock and a chain on the door. I picked up
a hammer and a sharpened piece of metal from a
table and threatened me. As I turned to the right
and looked at the wall. She had a table with
(06:59):
two atues of las an tam mauerte and burning candles
so the grim Reaper statue. After speaking English, she switched
to Spanish and told me that she was a member
of the Familia Michoa kind of drug cartel, and she
started telling me if I didn't pay her that she
would call for her pamp. She called Jore and also
(07:21):
the police, and so I was trapped. Eventually, I had
to give her all of my money and she let
me out. And this one was five feet tall, so
I felt she beat me. She actually told me I
won gringo. So sometimes you get your come uppance. Maybe,
(07:42):
and maybe I deserved this, you know, because I'd been
exploring in the sort of the darker side of downtown
Badis for so long. I kind of expected something like
this would happen, And ultimately it wasn't so bad. I
lost some money in a bit of my pride, but
I wasn't harmed. Howard got lucky that time, and I'm
willing to wait. His risk tolerance is far greater than
(08:04):
most anthropologists. He also has the privilege of coming and
going from Watas whenever he pleases. That's a luxury lots
of people who live in Wattas don't have. We'll hear
more from Howard later in the podcast, and we'll be
back with another full episode of Forgotten on June twenty ninth.
(08:26):
See you then, imagine what your dog would tell you
if they could talk. More treats with Canine Health Check
your dogs jeans can speak to you. Canine health Check
screens for over two hundred and fifty genetic diseases and more.
(08:48):
Just swab, send the sample and wait two weeks or
less for results. We offer genetic screening for dogs that
has been developed by expertly trained veterinarians and PhD geneticists,
so you can trust that your results are the highest
quality and accuracy. Visit canine health check dot com and
get thirty percent off with code iHeart. I'm loving this
(09:08):
Cheap Caribbean dot Com vocation. Let's take a walk on
the sand. Yes, and I'm craving some jerk chicken. Yes,
and I want to go snorkeling. Yes, And did you
see those pina coladas? I need one Yes, and I
want to mokedo. Two are better than one. Yes, and
there's a spot at the swim up bar with my
name on it. I get more food, more drinks, and
more fun for less money. Get a next level, all
(09:31):
inclusive beach vacation at Breathless Resorts and spas. Book today
at Cheap Caribbean dot com. And now the best Man.
I was going to plan this speech out while I
got my oil change, but I went to take five
and it was a lot faster than I thought, So
here he goes. Okay, Tim, you were my first friend.
(09:51):
Angela you were my first Yeah. I never thought the
two of you would make it, but I guess love
really is blind. No, no, no, I'm eat in a
good way. At take five. Your oil change is faster
than you think. Take five to stay in your car.
Ten minute oil change.
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