Equal Times, June 2017. En español, français. The municipality of Santo Tomas, El Salvador, absorbs the impacts of the maquila industry like a human body. Its daily routine ebbs and flows with the textile production schedule like blood through veins. At 06:00, the 37 bus bulges with women from Santo Tomas en route to work in the maquila zones of... Continue Reading →
Deported to El Salvador
The Intercept, May 2017. See accompanying film by Leighton Akio Woodhouse and Pedro Armando Aparicio here. Thousands of miles from his home and family, Jose Escobar lives in a small rural community in La Unión, El Salvador, amid fields of sugar cane and corn, bordered by the Chaparrastique volcano and the Gulf of Fonseca. Escobar,... Continue Reading →
A Salvadoran writer goes into exile
The New Yorker, February 2016. Before it dawned on him that he would have to flee his country—a realization aided by a series of death threats in November of last year—the Salvadoran writer Jorge Galán had some questions for Father Jon Sobrino, an elderly Jesuit priest. Father Sobrino is from Spain, but he has spent... Continue Reading →
Transgender Salvadorans legally allowed to vote for first time
The Global Post, March 2014. With Gloria Morán. With victory in tow, LGBT rights groups now push new president to end violence, corruption and discrimination. Rubi Navas is among the first transgender women in the history of El Salvador to be allowed to vote. In previous years, Rubi and her peers were normally barred from... Continue Reading →
Central American farmers seek buffers against climate change
The National Catholic Reporter, October 2012. In 2009, El Salvador was not only the most vulnerable country in Central America to climate change -- it was No. 1 in the world.In the past several years, natural disasters have hit the country with increasing frequency. Their intensity and duration have risen exponentially, as well as their cost.The... Continue Reading →