In Violent Mexico City, Cameras Instead of Guns Judith Matloff - Al Jazeera
go to original February 9, 2015

Photojournalist Jesús Villaseca, far right, is in charge of the photography program at the alternative school in Mexico City known as the Faro de Oriente or the Lighthouse of the East. (Keith Dannemiller/Al Jazeera America)

IZTAPALAPA, Mexico — By the time Alam Bernal turned 11 he was mute. The boy stopped talking after his mother was shot in front of him and his father went to jail for murdering her killer. The aunt who became his guardian didn’t know what to do with the boy. She feared that in this rough part of Mexico City he’d succumb to a similarly violent fate.

Then someone told her about a cultural space called Faro del Oriente, or Lighthouse of the East, located near her house. She brought the boy to the photography teacher, Jesús Villaseca, who had gained fame for steering youths away from trouble. Villaseca, a walrus of a man with a giant moustache who himself knows about pain, gently coaxed the boy out of his shell and gave him an outlet for his rage. Slowly, Alam learned to frame shots, document his neighborhood and, most importantly, trust. He resumed speaking, and today is studying politics at a leading university to prepare for a career in photojournalism.

“Jesus saved my life,” Alam reflected at a recent exhibition of student work at Faro. “Photography gave me a way to channel feelings and support myself. It gave me a way to seek justice and a reason to live. This psychological help kept me from turning to guns or drug. Crime is an easy path. I could have ended up that way but now I feel part of something larger. “

True to its name, this gritty center on the violent fringes of Mexico City is a beacon for youths who would otherwise be lost. It’s located in Iztapalapa, a neighborhood with one of the highest incidences of murder and gang activity in the capital.  To keep kids off the streets, the city government formed Faro in 2000, and today it offers an array of classes including dance, theater, carpentry, metal work, ceramics, yoga, painting, video and poetry.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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