From the front porch of Casa Encuentro in El Paso, Texas, you can see Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, about a mile away. The thin ribbon of water that separates these two cities and the countries of the United States and Mexico—the Rio Grande— is only discernable at turns in the river where sunlight reflects on the water. A large red X sculpture is visible to thesoutheast, but from the vantage point of Casa Encuentro, it is impossible to tell if the structure is in Mexico or the United States (it’s in Mexico). On the immaculate streets surrounding Casa Encuentro—where Spanish is heard more often than English, adobe style homes feature frescos of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and big American cars rev their motors to ascendthe steep hills—one gets a sense of being in two worlds, two cultures, two realities at the same time and in the same place.