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I felt so bad for this kid, Juan, who last year moved in with his aunt and uncle in Mexico from Chicago. He doesn’t speak spanish that well and he doesn’t have anyone to speak english with. He’s in a no man’s land. (story)

World Picture Network, before they closed up last month, asked me to submit a Dispatches column to the Digital Journalist website about my experience covering the March presidential elections in El Salvador. So I did, and I don’t know what happened to to all my commas on the way, but its up on the site here.

This is the edit of photos I’d prepped for publication:

So the El Salvadoran presidential elections went smoothly. No violence, no major allegations of fraud, and the lefties won, shooing out the ruling party that had held power since the country’s ‘92 cease fire. I’ll have an essay up sometime soon. First I have to get back to Mexico… I’m almost surprised at how much I miss the place.

I’ve been getting a sense of El Salvador this week, shooting some photos and getting ready for their March 15 presidential elections. The general expectation is that history will be made, and if not that, probably violence.

[EDIT: Here I am pictured in a local newspaper, staring at the back of my camera in front of the leftist FMLN candidate.]

My friend Brian showed me the work of Jason Eskenazi last night. Its really beautiful documentary photography. As far as I can tell, his book is out of print and now goes for $300. Hopefully it will see a second edition someday.

My roommate Tito’s band, Capo.

I’m off to El Salvador on Sunday. More on that soon.

I spent a little time today in Iztapalapa, one of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs.

This ran last weekend, as a sort of preview story for the Oscars in The Chicago Tribune. Illegal DVDs are big business here.

I got it in my head last night that I want a new lens. Nothing extravagant, just as close of a focal length as I can get to my Lomo LC-A, which, to put it clearly, I love(d). I’ve gone through two now. One day I’ll learn to stop dropping them.

So today, after an early breakfast, I took a bus to a camera store that turned out to sell only Sigma brand lenses. No thanks. I found another store, with a large, promising CANON sign, and was quoted a price. I nearly fell over upon hearing that it was double what B&H would charge.

So it goes in Mexico. Your rent and your food might be cheap, but name brand goods will cost you. I tried to buy shoes my first week here, but decent Nikes would’ve cost me around $100. This is where you start to see knock offs - the imitation Chuck Taylors look pretty close to the real thing.

Last night, when I was thinking about that lens, Mr. T was on my little television selling late-night Mexican viewers the Flavor Wave, some completely useless cooking device. The best part was the spanish overdub of his voice, which was so cartoonish it reminded me of Bumblebee Man from the Simpsons. And the Flavor Wave? It too is more expensive in Mexico, by about 50%.