juliocesarsalad

[juliocesarsalad]

January isn't even over yet and this already won tweet of the year for me

[juliocesarsalad]

With bridges collapsed and roads blocked after Hurricane Maria, many people in Puerto Rico couldn't access the medical care they needed. In some of the most extreme cases, the US Army would airlift patients from their isolated homes and take them to hospitals in San Juan, the island's capital. #HurricaneMaria #HuracánMaría #PuertoRico #Boricua #USMilitary #USArmy #ArmyStrong #HurricaneRelief #IslaDelEncanto (at Puerto Rico)

[juliocesarsalad]

Many Puerto Rican communities in the interior of the island were cut off from the rest of the world after Hurricane Maria, making helicopters the only way food and water could reach them. US Army soldiers deployed to the island to provide relief. It's been more than six months since the hurricane hit. Taken: October 7, 2017 #HurricaneMaria #HuracánMaría #PuertoRico #Boricua #USMilitary #USArmy #ArmyStrong #HurricaneRelief #IslaDelEncanto (at Puerto Rico)

[juliocesarsalad]

A small post on what it's like as a journalist to cover a tragedy, and how the Florida shooting affected me (although I didn't cover it)

I never knew I had a buried form of PTSD until yesterday.

I was in my photojournalism class at school and the professor began the day wth a discussion about the coverage of the Florida school shooting. Students readily piped in with comments about how unethical it was for the journalists to be doing constant coverage of the event and interviewing the kids. They criticized the photographers for intruding in the families toughest moments and taking pictures (all of which were obviously from a distance).

These are university student that haven’t yet gone out with an internship or a job and don’t have any real-world experience. Having worked in my field while studying for three years, I had to speak.

I raised my hand and told them that no one would be criticizing reporters contacting students on Twitter if people weren’t watching the exact same feeds. It’s hypocritical of you to be watching a kid’s Twitter thread and not want the events to be shared with more people.

Yes it leads to more ratings, but that’s not why we do this. We do this because it’s our job to tell the story.

I told them what it was like for me to cover a shooting at the VA hospital when I was a 20 year old kid. You can’t feel, you can’t let anything get in the way of you disseminating the information. We were “lucky” that the shooting killed only a doctor and the shooter. But we didn’t know that as the events were unfolding.

I have a friend who covered Sandy Hook. No one wants you there, everyone wants to be left alone. Children died. And the press were calmer, they didn’t do the same coverage of the events. You know what happened? We got endless conspiracy theories about how these families and their pain didn’t exist. How their dead children didn’t exist. Because people didn’t see that pain for themselves. They didn’t see the coverage we saw in Florida.

When I got back home from Hurricane Harvey it took me a week to break down crying at all the destroyed lives I saw and all the people I met.

When I got back from Puerto Rico I didn’t feel anything for several days. I had seen so much destruction. I was embedded with the Army, documenting the aid efforts. We were in helicopters flying into the most isolated villages not accessible any other way. One month after Hurricane Maria we stopped one one village that had been cut off, and as soon as I stepped down from the helicopter a woman saw me, yelled to get my attention, waving her arms and calling me over.

Here we’re soldiers dropping off food and water, and this woman ignored them to speak to a journalist. Her village had not seen anyone for a month, hadn’t received any aid, and we were the first people to help. She had no idea Trump had already stopped by to visit. She wanted her story heard and to demand action from those in charge, and to her that was more important than being in life for food and water.

It was incredible.

In school, these university students were giving everyone a sermon about how the news should be covered when they haven’t written a single article under deadline, much less covered tragedies, and talking to the class, barely scratching the surface, affected me more than I imagined.

I didn’t even know there was a form of PTSD from these stories hiding inside me.

Now, I’ve been in a bad car crash (no injuries) and ever since I get nervous when I’m too close to the car in front of me. But this didn’t feel like that; it was so much worse.

My heart was racing, it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest, and at the same time it felt weak, like fluttering. There’s a reason alcoholism is rampant with journalists. It took hours to feel normal again.

Stop with your sanctimonious bullshit. If you don’t want the news to cover events like this then don’t watch the live coverage and don’t click on those articles. Keep in mind what lack of coverage can mean for the aftermath of these families.

Do you think we want to cover these tragedies? No. We don’t. We don’t want to be there and it fucks us up every time we are.

This post was originally written on Friday, February 16 and published on Reddit’s r/journalism. It has been lightly edited.

[juliocesarsalad]

View from Mammoth Rock-One of the best things I've ever bought was my park pass. It makes hiking a whole lot simpler and will pay for itself in two more weeks. Get one, it's a great way to enjoy our parks more and support the @texasparkswildlife conservation efforts, keeping our city and state beautiful #fmsp #thegreatsw #southwest#elpaso #border #USMexicoborder #igerselpaso #instaeptx #itsallgoodep #elpasotx #iPhone #Lightroom #hiking #betteroutside #optoutside #texas #stateparks #parks #backpack #backpacking #desert #landscape #franklinmountains #txstateparks #igtexas #hiking (at Franklin Mountains State Park - Texas Parks and Wildlife)

[juliocesarsalad]

The bowl of McKelligon Canyon with El Paso and Juarez in the background #elpaso #border #USMexicoborder #igerselpaso #instaeptx #itsallgoodep #elpasotx #iPhone #Lightroom #hiking #betteroutside #optoutside #texas #stateparks #parks #backpack #backpacking #desert #landscape (at Franklin Mountains State Park - Texas Parks and Wildlife)

[juliocesarsalad]

Life in the desert, plants salute the moon #elpaso #border #USMexicoborder #igerselpaso #instaeptx #itsallgoodep #elpasotx #iPhone #Lightroom #hiking #betteroutside #optoutside #texas #stateparks #parks #backpack #backpacking #desert #landscape (at Franklin Mountains State Park - Texas Parks and Wildlife)

[juliocesarsalad]

Purple sunrise over the Franklin Mountains #elpaso #border #USMexicoborder #igerselpaso #instaeptx #itsallgoodep #elpasotx #iPhone #Lightroom #hiking #betteroutside #optoutside #texas #stateparks #parks #backpack #backpacking #desert #landscape

[juliocesarsalad]

Sunrise from inside the Franklin Mountains #elpaso #border #USMexicoborder #igerselpaso #instaeptx #itsallgoodep #elpasotx #iPhone #Lightroom #hiking #betteroutside #optoutside #texas #stateparks #parks #backpack #backpacking (at Franklin Mountains State Park - Texas Parks and Wildlife)

[juliocesarsalad]

Comida de noche #juarez #juarezpaso #elpasojuarez #instajuarez #igersjuarez #elpaso #igerselpaso #instaeptx #itsallgoodep #elpasotx #656 #igersmexico #street #streetphotography #urban #city #nightphotography (at Ciudad Juárez, Mexico)

[juliocesarsalad]

Valeria Cerrillo is one of more than 50 children helped by Lazos de Bondad, a shelter in Anapra, outside of Cd. Juárez. The shelter feeds children breakfast every Saturday, but doesn't have any potable water. They're running a #GoFundMe campaign to raise enough money to be able to carry in water for the children to drink and wash their hands.

[juliocesarsalad]

I was also lucky enough to meet Chávez's son and tonight's winner, Julio César Chávez Jr. With two down, I'm only missing César Chávez, the activist; and Julius Caesar, the Roman general/dictator. I might have some issues with the last two.

[juliocesarsalad]

Tonight, after 20 years of being asked if I'm named "like the boxer," I finally met my namesake and boxing champion Julio César Chávez.

[juliocesarsalad]

Two press passes from the same station, nine months apart

[juliocesarsalad]

The El Paso #Artspace project is having its official groundbreaking today after years of being in the works

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From one job to the other

[juliocesarsalad]

Road trip!