By Chris Canales

It was a windy afternoon in the sun city. I knew CNN’s Anderson Cooper was in El Paso for an AC360 special on the violence in Juarez, and I got a tip about his evening shooting location. After some sleuthing and some waiting, I was able to find Cooper on the riverbank down by the border and work my way in to get an interview with him. This is the first interview in my new series of Q&A’s entitled tete-a-tete:

Chris: Why are you covering the drug war?

Anderson Cooper: Overall, there are many Americans who don’t know about what is happening with the cartels in Juarez. People in this area know, I mean you seem to know about it, but in most other places, people don’t. People don’t understand the spread of the drug cartels around the United States. We need to let them know what is happening. It’s not only on the Mexican side, but on the American side, too. Mexico controls a large amount of the drug traffic throughout the United States.

C: What did you do today?

AC: I spent the day in Juarez and I went on patrol with the military over there. They didn’t know I was coming. We just drove around until we found a convoy, and I talked to the commander there and he agreed to let me spend the day with them. I also talked to the mayor of Juarez.

C: How do you find your sources ?

AC: It is all about showing up and just talking to people. In Juarez, we had no authorization to go out with the military. We were just driving around and we saw a military group. I talked to the man in charge and he agreed to let us drive around with him. Sometimes it’s that easy. We also talked to the man who claims he is a cartel member. At first he agreed to an interview, but he got scared and backed out at the last minute. We later went back, and he agreed to do it. The hard part is making sure that someone is actually who they say they are. In the United States, it is usually harder to meet with people because things are typically more structured and organized. When you are anywhere overseas or outside the country, once you’re there and you have a camera, people will talk.

C: Were you afraid to go into Juarez?

AC: Well, I worked in Iraq and in many other places where I’ve probably been more nervous. You know, you go to places and you learn how to not draw attention to yourself, and not to linger in one place for too long. I’ve been in warzones and some other bad situations, so I guess it just doesn’t faze me anymore. I mean, you see things about people being taken hostage. Sometimes you can’t help but be a little bit afraid.

C: What scary situations have you been in?

AC: One time I was in Sarajevo, which kind of sits in a valley, and the Serbs were in the hills lobbing mortars and shooting people as they cross the intersections, so you know that was scary. I didn’t have a bulletproof vest or an armored vehicle. That was the first time I got shot at. It was kind of exhilarating. And I have been in mobs. A mob can turn against you really quickly. You know it only takes one [member] turning on you and then the whole crowd turns on you. I don’t get scared much anymore about those things. I’m more careful. Kidnappings scare me a lot. I think about getting kidnapped and tortured, and it’s a little intimidating. In Iraq or Afghanistan now, we he have a big security team that travels with us. I’m a lot more careful. I would never do some of the things I would do when I was younger. It has really gotten to the point that you can’t do anything that I did. I used to just go running around to wars. Now you are more of a target. At first it never occurred to me. I used to do a lot of work in Somalia with the famine and there was a civil war going on at the time and it was just total anarchy. There were various warlords in various areas. It never occurred to me that I could be kidnapped.

C: There is an interesting story about how you got started and eventually got your current job at CNN doing AC360°. You started out as a fact checker, right?

AC: Yeah. I was a fact checker at Channel One, a news show that broadcasts to middle schools and high schools. Then I worked at ABC News, but I could only get jobs as a fact checker. I wanted to be a reporter, but no one would really give me a chance, so I decided I had to sort of take a chance. I made a fake press pass and I borrowed a camera and I started going to wars.

C: And it just worked out for you?

AC: Well, I don’t recommend it to any young journalist who thinks they should do that. But yeah, in many ways it was very foolish, but in retrospect, it was amazing.

C: What do you recommend to young people who want to get into journalism?

AC: The one most important thing is learn how to write in your own voice. That’s something that takes a lot of practice. Whether you are in T.V. or in print, you have to be a good writer. A lot of people think that people on T.V. don’t have to write. I have writers, but when I’m in New York I actually take what they write and rewrite it in my own voice. Other than that, and this applies to any field, you can never underestimate the value of just working harder than the other people who you have to compete with.

C: Why did you want to be a journalist?

AC: It’s just an incredible way to make a living. You know, if you can get a job doing this kind of work, it’s incredible. It’s an opportunity to meet and talk to people and to see history as it is happening. I have no actual skills, so there is nothing else I could do at this point, but I can’t really imagine doing anything else.

C: Have you ever been to this area before?

AC: I’m actually embarrassed that it’s my first trip here. I’ve covered a lot of border stuff in

C: Have you ever been to this area before?

AC: I’m actually embarrassed that it’s my first trip here. I’ve covered a lot of border stuff in California and Arizona. But I like El Paso, and I liked Juarez today, too.

C: You said you talked to the mayor of Juarez today. Have you talked to El Paso Mayor John Cook?

AC: Actually no, I haven’t. I try to stay away from politicians as much as possible.

C: Can you do your live show from here?

AC: Yeah. We will doing the whole broadcast live tonight from here. You don’t even need a big satellite truck. Like for working in Africa, you can get the equipment in the back of a pickup truck or even in a small suitcase size. The truck allows you better quality, but you don’t actually have to have it.

C: How has it been right on the border?

AC: We were on last night, and apparently during the show, some people tried to cross the border. The border patrol guys didn’t tell us, or else I probably would have mentioned it on the show. We were originally going to stay here for two days, but I decided to stay here for one more day. I also work as a correspondent for 60 Minutes, and they allow me to re-air stuff on CNN.

C: Have you picked up any Spanish?

AC: That was always my weakness. I don’t; I’m embarrassed to say I really speak nothing. I’m really terrible at languages. I studied German in middle school and high school, I learned Swahili in college, and Vietnamese. But I already forgot everything I learned. The only thing I remember how to say in Swahili is “I am not a good student,” which really explains why that is the only thing I remember.

C: Do you watch your show? Is it odd to see yourself on the television?

AC: It has no reality that I’m actually on T.V. I sometimes do watch just to see how something ended up looking. For example, I haven’t seen the piece that I wrote today. We don’t have time to edit it here, so it’s being edited in New York. As we are going live tonight I’ll be able to watch it on the monitor, but it makes me self-conscious, and I’m hugely critical of myself. In my mind, I still have brown hair, so I’m always shocked when I see it. People used to tell me it was salt and pepper, now I think there’s not much pepper and it’s just salt.

C: So, what is going on now?

AC: I’m going to do a show where I talk to Larry King. I have to go over and read the script. I get the script from the writers in New York right here on my Blackberry and I go through it and make any changes it needs. You know it’s amazing how many people it takes to put a show on the air. There are people here and in New York working hard just to put one hour of something on the air.

C: What will you do on Larry King Live? What will he talk to you about?

Larry will probably ask me about the things I did today and about the missing U.S. Marshall, and then he’ll ask about the interview I did with the cartel guy, and I’ll toss it over to a sound bite that we have already cut. Then they’ll toss it back, and at about quarter to the hour I’ll do a tease for my own show. At the top of the hour I’ll start live. So I have to prepare now, but you are welcome to hang out for the show.