Cactus Rose Trailer Park
Cactus Rose is a trailer park located in the Monotopolis neighborhood of East Austin, an area that has been subjected to heavy changes in the past few years. I spent a few days getting to know the community of Cactus Rose as part of a photography workshop organized by the Magnum Photo Agency with the support of the University of Texas. It is a very diverse community from a racial standpoint but also judging by the lifestyles of those that I meet. As many other poor communities throughout the country, this one will be hit hard in the next few months when they will have to relocate. The land is being sold and an apartment complex will be built in the place of Cactus Rose.
Relocation for these people is not as easy as for someone renting another apartment somewhere else in the city. Although well attended, most trailers are too old to be accepted in the few other trailer parks in town, and maybe to old to even be moved. Life as they know it, for the members of Cactus Rose will change dramatically when the new development will eventually take place. Some of them will be pushed out of town, while others might end up living in government housing or maybe will become homeless.
We remember yet again that we live in a system which charges forward at high speeds and the ones who aren’t tough enough are being left behind.
Bogdan Pastor was born in 1982 and raised in Romania. At the age of 17 immigrated to the US together with his parents and teenage sister. He graduated from Kent State University (Kent, OH) with a degree in finance and international business, but his dreams took him on unexpected roads: he spent the next 7 years in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, then moved west to Seattle, and now San Francisco. Through photography, he is hoping to better understand the world and himself, as well as find a language in which to better communicate his thoughts and feelings to others.
The End of Austin 