The New Yorker, May 2021. Film by Erin Semine Kökdil. The opening scene of the film “Desde Que Llegaste, Mi Corazón Dejó de Pertenecerme” (“Since You Arrived, My Heart Stopped Belonging to Me”) is shot through the windshield of a bus barrelling through fog, wipers swiping to no avail. We cannot discern what doom—or what... Continue Reading →
The grim compassion of searching for missing migrants in the desert
The New Yorker, April 2021. Film by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Maite Zubiaurre. On a recent Thursday afternoon, Marisela and Ely Ortiz, a middle-aged couple, went to a Costco in Temecula, California, to buy crates of bread and bottled water, a weekend’s worth of nourishment for twenty-five volunteers who would spend two days walking in extreme... Continue Reading →
The hidden connection between U.S steel giant Nucor and the controversial Los Pinares mine in Honduras
Contracorriente, Univision Investigative Unit and the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), November 2020. With Jennifer Ávila. The following is an English translation of the original article in Spanish; disponible en español. An environmental conflict marked by violence is raging in Guapinol, Honduras, where local inhabitants resist an iron oxide mine in a national park.... Continue Reading →
Risks of union organizing in Honduras and El Salvador
Equal Times, March 2020. En español, français. Photographs by Martín Cálix. On an average day, Joel Almendares is counselling Honduran middle and high school students about how to excel in school and plan their futures. But he is also fighting off worries about violent attacks on himself and his unionised colleagues. Almendares is secretary general... Continue Reading →
The Criminal Age // Tiempo de crímenes
Contracorriente, Oct 2019. En español aquí. With Jennifer Ávila. A trial in New York reveals narco control in Honduras *This article has been amended since its original publication to reflect changing news. Tony Hernández is a former congressman from Honduras' ruling National Party and the brother of the sitting president. Since 2004, Tony Hernández has... Continue Reading →
Deported into a Nightmare
The Atlantic, June 2018. Photos at The Atlantic by Danielle Villasana. This reporting was supported by the International Women's Media Foundation. Edwin Vásquez, a 16-year-old, is learning how to live with fear. One afternoon last fall, as he played soccer on a field near his house in La Rivera Hernández in San Pedro Sula, Honduras,... Continue Reading →
The cancellation of CAM, a refugee program for Central American children
The Intercept, November 2017. With Cora Currier. The State Department announced Wednesday evening the abrupt cancellation of a program that gave youth fleeing violence in Central America the chance to apply for asylum and join their families in the United States. While the Trump administration had already narrowed the scope of the Obama-era initiative and indicated it would... 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 →
Why immigration reform matters for LGBT migrants
Le Monde Diplomatique, December 13, 2013. NEW YORK Jose (1) was a closeted gay teenager when he was brutally sexually assaulted by gang members in his native El Salvador and fled to the United States, illegally. He suspected he was targeted because of his sexual orientation. The trauma and shame prevented him from... Continue Reading →