Every week,?? ??? ?? a little league team in El Paso, Texas, practices late at night under piercing lights. In the distance looms a large, illuminated red "X," marking the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The team is made up of 11-year-old boys, all of whom have grown up within a stone's throw of the border. They've grown up knowing this area of the U.S. — one that is currently a hotbed for political debate on immigration — as home.
SEE ALSO: This app helps immigrants instantly alert family and lawyers when they're detainedNow, two brothers who also grew up along the border are helping to tell the stories of countless people who live in the region. Yonathan Moya and Jordan Moya traveled the 2,000-mile stretch from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California, in a span of nine days, hoping to capture life on the border through photos and personal anecdotes.
The trip, which took place in late February and early March, resulted in the photo series Border Perspective. Through the project, the brothers hope to connect people who might never visit the border to those living on the highly politicized land.
"We had no agenda," Yonathan says. "We only wanted to document life on the border and learn by listening to the perspectives of the people who live there."
"We had no agenda. We only wanted to document life on the border."
Their journey took them across the southernmost parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In their travels, they met people with a variety of experiences — a woman collecting the worn shoes of immigrants to help share their journeys, an immigrant who was being deported, a woman helping to provide shelter to immigrants just reaching the U.S., and that little league team in El Paso.
The Moya brothers funded their travel expenses and equipment for the journey through a Kickstarter campaign.
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As the name hints, the brothers say the border has its own culture and perspective. Yonathan describes the region as not entirely the U.S. and not entirely Mexico — it is its own place.
"As much as we wanted to share the border with others, we also wanted to learn more for ourselves."
"Who we are today is largely shaped by growing up in this region of the U.S.," Yonathan says. "But even though we grew up on the border, we realize that we don't know everything about life on the border. As much as we wanted to share the border with others, we also wanted to learn more for ourselves."
Though the brothers have long been fascinated by the culture of the region, Yonathan says they were compelled to launch Border Perspectiveto help challenge the current fixation around President Donald Trump's proposed "wall."
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The intense debate around a border wall was a defining talking point of Trump's presidential campaign, with Trump describing the potential structure as a "big, beautiful wall."
The president has repeatedly characterized immigrants as dangerous, saying they "present a significant threat to national security and public safety" through violent crime, and drug and human trafficking. Those claims, however, have been refuted by immigrant activists and research.
The brothers, according to Yonathan, were hoping to inject more compassion and understanding into the conversation by showing the people who would be most impacted by a border wall.
"When we hear perspectives about the border they often only represent a structure, and most of the time, these perspectives overlook the humanity of the border," he says. "The only perspective many people have about the border is how the media portrays the region, which is often only the negative side of life, like drugs and illegal immigration."
Though their journey ended in March, Yonathan says they still have more stories and photos to share through Instagram and the Border Perspectivewebsite. They're also currently applying for grants and funding to make more trips to the border and continue telling the stories of the people who live there.
Yonathan and Jordan invite people living along the U.S.-Mexico border to share their experiences of the region using the hashtag #borderstories.
"One of the takeaways that I want people to think about," Yonathan says, "is that people who live on the border make an everyday decision to continue living normal lives amongst all of the complex issues that the border faces."
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