New York Times immigration reporter and author Jazmine Ulloa will make stops in Alpine, Marathon and Marfa this week as part of a West Texas mini-tour promoting her new book, “El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory.”
According to promotional materials shared online, Ulloa is scheduled to appear Tuesday, June 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Front Street Books in Alpine. She is also slated to appear Wednesday, June 3, at 5:30 p.m. at Leatherbound Books in Marathon and Friday, June 5, at 6 p.m. at Agave Festival Marfa’s Crowley Theater event space in Marfa.
Ulloa, who covers immigration for The New York Times and reports extensively on the U.S.-Mexico border, describes the book as an exploration of the intertwined histories of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez through the stories of five families over a century. Promotional material for the book notes that the region predates both the United States and Mexico as nation-states and examines themes of migration, race, violence and memory in the borderlands.
In social media posts promoting the tour, Ulloa wrote that she is “bringing the stories of ‘El Paso’ to the high desert,” inviting readers across Far West Texas to meet and discuss the work.
The book, published by Dutton, focuses on the deep historical and cultural ties between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, which once existed as a single community before the international border divided the region. Ulloa’s reporting career has focused heavily on immigration and border issues, including national coverage of asylum, enforcement and migration policy.
The West Texas stops bring the conversation about border history and identity to communities that sit within a broader Trans-Pecos region shaped by many of the same questions surrounding migration, culture and place.
