Danny Lyon, Eddie, New Mexico, 1972

Narrator: Here, Lyon photographs Eddie Marquez Rivera, an undocumented immigrant Lyon befriended when he moved to New Mexico.  Rivera taught Lyon traditional adobe-building technique, and helped him construct his house.

Julian Cox: You see Eddie here framed low to the ground at work on one of the monumental beams that was designed to hold the roof of the house up. 

At this moment in his life Eddie would cross the border every season, backwards and forwards, from Mexico into New Mexico. Essentially Lyon helped to smuggle him across the border to try to help him make a life for himself in the United States. This picture documents the early stages of their friendship, of their working relationship.

Narrator: Marquez has since become a U.S. citizen, and lives near Lyon in New Mexico. The lives and status of immigrants have remained very important to Lyon.

Julian Cox: Living right by the Rio Grande river and close to the border, this inspired a whole new sort of crop of subject matter that becomes a significant focus for Danny Lyon through the 1970s and up to the present day.