Photo Camp Arizona: Empowering Teens to Tell Their Stories of Border Life
“Usually in Arivaca we have a bad name. If we’re on the news, it’s in a negative way. Even though, our town, in my opinion, is amazing.” —Sienna Wallen, National Geographic Photo Camp Arizona student
The small desert town of Arivaca, Arizona, 11 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, has a reputation for being a rough place—a ground zero for drug smuggling, illegal border crossings, and tension between the community and federal law enforcement. Anthropologist Jason De Léon has a different view. For the past five summers, the town has served as the base camp for his brainchild, the Undocumented Migration Project.
“There was no border in the beginning.”—Mireya Fierro, National Geographic Photo Camp Arizona student
Since 2009, De Léon,
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