Dominic Bracco II

Aqui Vivimos

[ EPF 2014 FINALIST ]

My interest in Honduras started nearly seven years ago when I found a Honduran woman laying under a mesquite in South Texas near where I grew up. She’d been separated from her group and was lost out there. She’d been traveling for three months. The rancher told me to back away from her because she was sick while he dialed the Border Patrol. She begged me to help her, but I didn’t know how I could. I was already a journalist. My uncle had been in prison for trafficking. I thought to myself, “What kind of place would drive someone to come all this way risk death here in this desert?” Seven years later a friend and I took our savings and finally went. What we found was as beautiful as it was terrifying.

The tiny country of 8 million is the world’s most violent country. Gangs control entire cities. Campesinos war with corporate funded paramilitary groups in the east. Warring cartels massacre entire villages in La Mosquita. In the capital Tegucigalpa violence has become more sporadic and faceless. Random crime has increased. Car jacking, robberies, and assaults are a daily occurrence. San Pedro Sula, the country’s industrial center, sees an average of 19 murders a day.

The normalcy of violence in current Honduran society is extremely troubling and yet it is understandable. As a journalist who has covered violence for five years, there is something unnerving in its consistency.

Honduras is one of the most under reported stories of our time. Those stories that are done often ignore the root causes: deep political rifts that mimic those of earlier Central American wars, widespread poverty, extreme gloves off capitalism, private foreign interest, and the extreme corruption it produces. Aqui Vivimos explores these ideas and looks at daily life, the contrast between beauty and horror, and the often-surreal landscapes, and personalities it produces.

 

 

Bio

Dominic Bracco II explores the effects of global economics on local communities. Although he works internationally, Dominic’s work often returns to document the effects of Mexican and North American policies on the Texas / Mexico border region where he was raised. He has degrees in journalism and Spanish literature from The University of Texas at Arlington. Past clients include The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Dominic is also a founding member of the collective Prime. He is based in Mexico City.

 

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  1. Pingback: Photojournalism Daily: Nov. 24, 2014 - LightBox

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