a doorway to ethnic media in the american heartland
Archive for immigrant journeys
April 20, 2010 at 3:42 pm · Filed under on immigration as a public policy issue
There will be marches on May 1 but that is only one story on one day.
How else can you cover immigration and keep it fresh and pertinent?
What has changed today here for immigrants and refugees? What are the stories that celebrate immigrants and the stories that they need?
With state and federal services evaporating in the financial meltdown that still touches many agencies, where are services being curtailed or cut?
Here are some tips from the IRE-Investigative Reporters and Editors – who recently held a workshop here for the ethnic news media. Look over these – there a number listed.
http://www.ire.org/training/uncategorized/tips-for-covering-immigrants
Again, please let me know if you are doing some reporting that you want to share.
Stephen
March 18, 2010 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Immigrant Stories, community reporting that matters, on immigration as a public policy issue
Day after day the story about immigrants is the story about immigration reform. The recent demonstration by undocumented students here showed that.
It is a powerful story of fear and courage and uncertainty.
Watch this audio slide show of the demonstration here in Chicago and tell me if you don’t agree. It is by Peter Holderness
http://www.peterholderness.com/iyjl/index.html
So the job for the ethnic news media now is to cover these developments, and to explain where they are going and what they may result in.
What will happen to these students? Are they truly the parallel story to the freedom riders of the 1960s’ in the American South?
Can you stay with this story by telling about one person, one group, one family over time?
The students’ coming out is a prelude to the march this Sunday, March 21, by thousands of groups to push for immigration reform in Washington.
As many as 6,000 persons in Illinois are expected to take part and this a story in itself. They are leaving on Saturday on dozens of buses, a scene that could easily become part of a longer story.
Who are these people? What are their hopes? What is different about immigration reform today in 2010 in terms of expectations of the average person?
These are the contacts for the march;
Catherine Salgado, 312.332.7360 x 235 or 630.362.6202 (mobile)
Salvador Cervantes, 312.593.6411 (mobile)
Kere Picon, 815.621.8065 (for details on buses & logistics)
If you write or broadcast anything let me know,
Stephen
December 27, 2009 at 12:53 pm · Filed under community radio we listen to, immigrant journeys, latino news media
There’s a radio show on a station in Progresso, Honduras where the sad message goes out daily. Do not go there. Do not let your dream become your nightmare.
But if you try to travel to the U.S., then know this is what you will face.
Hundreds of miles away in Tapachula, Mexico – a town on the border with Guatemala, there’s a small clinic that is a miracle. It’s financed by human spirit but because the spirit is so lacking the clinic barely supplies more than a bed for the Central American immigrants who have lost arms and legs trying to cross into Mexico on the way to el Norte.
Here is a blog from a reporter at Radio Arte that reminds me of these two places I visited not that long ago, that talks about the human wave snared daily in these traps, and about the power of a story from far away that feels close to those who have roots or legacies or even emotional bonds with those in Honduras or elsewhere. This is the power of the ethnic media.
Steve
Jose Luis Hernandez, 23, made his first attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at age 18 because he felt there was a lack of economic opportunities in Honduras. The attempt was unsuccessful, but Jose Luis was undeterred. Determined to help support his parents and siblings in Honduras, Jose Luis tried again.
“I overheard doctors in the hospital saying, “God must really want him here. He’s lucky the train didn’t kill him,” Jose Luis says remembering his ordeal. Jose Luis, however, was not the only lucky one. In his hometown in Honduras, with a population of slightly over 2,000 people, there are 69 others who shared his fate.
After days, with no food or water, of making the journey “train hopping” to the U.S., Jose Luis’ American dream became a nightmare. Weakened, he fell from a train which severed his leg, and arm. The pain was so excruciating he tried to use his other arm to pull at the leg which had been caught by the train– his hand was almost entirely crushed. He had made it to a small town in Mexico.
In the beginning, Jose Luis wished he had died. Not only had he lost his limbs but he felt, instead of helping his family, he would be a burden.
Nostalgic Jose Luis says, “All I could do was cry like a little boy… The doctors would sedate me to calm me down”.
He spent two years in a hospital in Mexico rehabilitating himself. The hospital donated the prosthetic on which Jose Luis now walks, and he is grateful to the man who helped him the moment of the accident, but Jose Luis doesn’t stop at just gratitude.
“My mission is now to let others know that it is not necessary to immigrate to reach your goals.” Jose Luis works to warn others of the dangers of crossing borders undocumented. Sharing his story with young people, he hopes to motivate them to reach for their dreams, and search for opportunities in their homeland. Radio Progreso, in Honduras, helps Jose Luis spread his message.
When questioned about his future, Jose Luis is not shy in saying that he likes to sing, and he wants to continue to share his story in the hopes of helping others, but there is another dream that he wants to fulfill. Jose Luis requires specialized reconstructive surgeries for his hand, which can only be done in the United States, and a new prosthetic as his has become worn from use and age.
Jose Luis ends by saying, “I had everything, and I could of done a lot of things, but I did not do them, and now I regret it.”
*****If you know of an institution or individual that may be able to help Jose Luis Hernandez, here in the U.S., please visit WRTE.ORG, and post the information to Radio Arte’s Facebook or Twitter. You can also leave your comments and/or information on this blog. Part of this story is available on www.vocalo.org/explore in Spanish audio format.
http://tinyurl.com/yeswae7
December 3, 2009 at 2:20 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, community reporting that matters, on immigration as a public policy issue
They are angry but they are divided. What is right? What should be done?
How can families be broken? But, also, how can they live here – living outside the law.
It’s the story of immigrants without papers and the often disastrous collision with U.S. immigration laws.
But this story, as told below, takes place among Poles living in the U.S.
Read the editorial from the Polish Daily News, and then watch the trailer from a story about a Polish couple from Chicago that were broken up – the wife deported.
Here is this story as presented by our colleagues, the New York Community Media Alliance
Stephen
Defending the undocumented?
By JL, Nowy Dziennik, 27 November 2009. Translated from Polish by Aleksandra Slabisz.
There are an estimated 12 to 15 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The Polish community also has individuals who neither have permanent status nor prospects of being granted it – we are unable to determine the number.
Among the immigrants who have already received green cards or have been naturalized as citizens, there are many – who knows, maybe the majority – who broke the law in some way, for example by entering the country as tourists but with the hidden intention to work and get paid under the table; by finding a sponsor for the green card who in fact was never going to employ them; by overstating their previous job experience; or by altering their credentials. Even those Poles who proudly claim that they have not fallen out of status for a single day may have committed small offenses, such as getting a driver’s license in another state where the requirements are less restrictive.
It would seem that reform of the immigration system is an important topic for an ethnic newspaper like the Polish Daily News. We editors believe so and devote plenty of coverage to the issue. We figured that our community (including some formerly undocumented immigrants) would sympathize with those Poles who have not been lucky enough to get sponsored for a green card. Frequent comments on our website in response to articles on the subject confirm this empathy. The fact that sales of our newspaper go up when the cover story is on immigration reform indicates there is interest within the community on the issue.
The picture gets complicated though once we read the comments. Their tone is rather surprising. For the most part, Poles who share their thoughts on our website regarding immigration issues seem not to favor the reform. Many of the comments are sharp and contemptuous: “They broke the law, why should they be rewarded now?” Many call the undocumented immigrants freeloaders, who shun paying taxes and are a burden on the recession-stricken economy. Others believe that granting amnesty for those who have broken immigration laws will encourage other immigrants to remain here illegally, in hope that they will be forgiven via another amnesty.
Even Poles who used fake Social Security numbers, provided false proof of having worked in Poland, or gave an address different from that of their home address for the driver’s license application have now transformed into law defenders and ethical purists.
There are times that they too will admit concern for Poles living in the States illegally. Some would even grant amnesty to close friends who are undocumented while not showing mercy for others, believing that the real illegal immigrants are those coming from southern countries – Poles who do not support immigration reform don’t welcome the inflow of Latinos into the United States, and the resulting changes in the social structure. One can say they are racist; someone else might argue that they fear for the economy. Whatever their reasoning, Polish Americans have turned their backs on undocumented immigrants, including their own.
In editorials section of Edition 401 3 December 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NZGQwSO4xw
Tony and Janina\’s Story
September 17, 2009 at 8:38 am · Filed under on immigration as a public policy issue
click below for video
A place called home
They worry about the economy, just like everyone else. They miss the places they came from, but most feel quite at home in their new homes. They worry about discrimination against immigrants, but, ironically, most think the discrimination is aimed at others, not them, not these immigrants.
These are the fascinating findings of a newly issued report on how immigrants in the U.S. view their lives - findings as timely as ever in our ongoing debate about immigration reform. It is a base for so many news stories that can be told and expanded upon in print, on the air, on the Internet. It can also be an example for a local version of the lives of immigrants here in the Chicago area.
Here is the report from Public Agenda:
http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/immigrants
Steve
August 12, 2009 at 1:58 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters, on immigration as a public policy issue
Here is a story by Fabiola Pomareda of La Raza that takes a news event and puts it into a bigger context, that brings forward news resources to give the story a larger meaning and uses good writing and a sense of humanity to make it so readable and compelling
CHICAGO, Ill. — Time seemed endless for Luis León Ortega, who spent nearly seven months in various Illinois detention centers after being caught by immigration officials and scheduled for deportation hearings.
The shadowy world of immigration detention has been in the spotlight lately with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials being forced to make public a series of reports about conditions at numerous detention centers throughout the country. The reports tell the stories.
Luis León Ortega has the pictures. “I used to draw to pass the time,” says León, a native of Guanajuato, Mexico. “There was a Hispanic guard who always had pencils, so I asked her to lend me one and she did.”
León’s drawings are simple, yet provocative. One traces the very symbols often used to highlight this country’s greatest attributes: an august bald eagle, the prominent Statue of Liberty, a bold Sears Tower, the nation’s stately capitol dome.
But these images are ominously juxtaposed against a symbolic wall — the U.S.-Mexican border wall — that twists into a serpent bearing its sharp jaws, mouth wide open and ready to strike. In the drawing the serpent is poised to devour a man trapped in its mouth, presumably the artist.
Images of Stability
There are 35 sketches in all. Some of them depict innocent childhood subjects like Disney characters, a dog with a Chicago White Sox baseball cap. Others are more conceptual, like the one depicting a tree whose vine-like branches covered in spines twist around a heart – a common image in Mexican culture that could either reflect a loss of faith in God, or suffering of the heart. There is also the famous crime-fighter Batman – one of his son’s favorite drawings — and an eerily simple depiction of his own isolation in jail cell number 115.
To add a bit of color to his drawings, León purchased Kool-Aid packets and mixed in a little water.
Six Months, Five Transfers
León’s journey through the murky world of U.S. immigration detention centers began on a normal Chicago winter day, back in February 2008. He was pulled over by police and charged with driving without a valid driver’s license. Authorities quickly discovered his undocumented status, and he would spend the next 30 weeks rotating between five different Illinois correctional centers. He only remembers the names of two – the McHenry County Adult Correctional Facility and the Pontiac Correctional Center.
Every day, officers would try to get him to sign a voluntary deportation order.
“The first thing they do when you go to breakfast is try to convince you to sign your deportation papers. They did this every single day,” León recalls.
“We weren’t allowed to have anything in our cells. Masked guards armed with large, rubber-bullet guns would search our cells. They swarmed in as if they were the SWAT team. If they found even a packet of sugar, we were confined to our cells for 15 consecutive days,” he says.
His cell was just large enough for two beds, a shared toilet and a sink.
During meals, detainees were forbidden from speaking, so León would look forward to the little time he could talk on the telephone with his wife and children. But even that was complicated, as phone calls were limited to 20 minutes each day and phone cards were costly. A $20 card yielded only three calls.
“Once they told me a lawyer was coming to meet with us. But there wasn’t enough time. There was only one lawyer for 300 people. He managed to speak with only 10 people, and I wasn’t one of them.”
If access to legal help was nearly impossible, so too was León’s ability to turn to religion for comfort. In order to visit the chapel, detainees had to add their names to a list two or three days in advance. They were forbidden from having religious items in their cells, except for a Bible. A prayer card sent by his wife was intercepted and confiscated. The chaplains who did visit detainees spoke only English.
“Once a week they would allow us to see our families for 30 minutes. But we didn’t get to see them in person. We had to look at each other projected on a screen and we had to speak to each other on a telephone. I would go to a room where the telephone was, and my family would be in another room below me,” León said.
After six months, he was released on bond. The six-foot-tall, 43-year-old had lost a significant amount of weight. Pictures of León before his arrest show a much heavier and healthier man. Today, his hands sweat when he recalls those months spent behind bars, where he was isolated from his wife and two children who lived at the family’s Southside Chicago home.
Authorities have begun the deportation process against León. His two U.S.-born children wonder if they’ll have to live in a country they know little about, or face living without a father at home. León’s next hearing isn’t until 2011, perhaps enough time, he hopes, for something to be done by President Barack Obama, who as a candidate promised swift immigration reform.
In the meantime, León holds down a job and provides for his family by working six days a week at a local supermarket.
Pulling Back the Veil
For years, ICE officials fought to keep the treatment of immigration detainees a secret. Last month, a three-year legal battle ended with an order for ICE officials to make public a series of reports that documented inspections at numerous detention centers throughout the country. On August 6, ICE Director John Morton announced that one center, the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas, which held up to 400 detainees, would no longer be used for detaining families.
The reports, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and lawsuits brought by rights groups, confirm many of León’s allegations of ill treatment at the hands of authorities.
In Illinois, a report by delegates from the American Bar Association, who visited the DuPage County Jail in 2003 and the McHenry County Correctional Facility in 2006 (one of the centers where León was held), found that detainees could not speak to legal assistants without an attorney present; could not see a doctor without a judge’s order; were denied dental care; and in at least one incident suffered physical abuse. The report also confirmed León’s allegation that detainees were unable to freely practice their religion.
Mary Meg McCarthy, director of the National Immigration Justice Center – one of the groups that successfully sued ICE for public access to documents describing detainee conditions — says she is happy the documents were finally made public. But she recognizes that many conditions detainees face remain unchanged.
“When the telephones don’t work properly and visiting time is strictly limited, the individual rights of detainees continue to be violated,” McCarthy says.
According to Gail Montenegro, regional spokesperson for ICE in Chicago, in 2007 ICE contracted the private companies Creative Corrections and the Nakamoto Group to inspect the centers where detainees were held.
Creative Corrections issued reports annually through June 2009 before being replaced by another company, MGT of America. According to Montenegro, Nakamoto continues functioning as an “on-site” monitor of conditions to guarantee that detainees’ rights are not violated.
ICE stopped sending detainees to DuPage County Jail in August 2004, but ICE officials say the decision was unrelated to the 2003 inspection by the American Bar Association delegation.
In a statement, Montenegro wrote that ICE officials learned of the attorneys’ delegation report on McHenry County Jail in early 2007 and quickly began addressing the report’s criticisms of detainee treatment.
“(McHenry County Jail) currently complies with ICE detention standards and was recently rated ‘Good’ by Creative Corrections in its most recent 2008 annual inspection,” Montenegro wrote.
One key issue left unresolved, however, is whether Congress and the Obama administration are willing to pass laws that protect detainees’ rights. Advocacy groups representing former detainees are lobbying for these laws, and at least two bills are under discussion in Senate committees.
But Homeland Security authorities acknowledged that a complete overhaul of the U.S. immigration detention system could take years. In the meantime, tens of thousand of undocumented immigrants remain in detention, their fates as uncertain as León’s.
August 9, 2009 at 8:51 pm · Filed under community reporting that matters, immigrant journeys
How do we tell stories about immigrants that are new and that still touch us? We tell them as humanely as possible. We tell them so that they reach deep down to values that cement our eyes and souls to what we are reading and hearing.
This is THE story for the news media today that speaks to today’s immigrants and it has always been the story.
I was thinking about this when I paused and read over the beginning to a wonderful piece by Margaret Ramirez in today’s Chicago Tribune about two elderly nuns and their dedication to immigrants facing deportation here in the Chicago area.
As I read on, I was struck by the humanity, by the massing of information about changes in the way that immigrant detainees are being treated and the story’s moving journey in words and images through the meaning of these two nuns.
It is a wonderful example of how to tell a story that matters again and again and this is what the ethnic news media does well when it works at it.
Here is a link to the story:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sisters-immigration-aug09,0,6741430.story
April 3, 2009 at 10:36 am · Filed under immigrant journeys, story telling
They were sitting under the tree to keep out of the heat. They were hungry. They hadn’t eaten anything in days except the fruit they found on trees. They were terrified and they were wildly hopeful.
They were five men and a woman. They were from Belize and I came across them in a small town in southwest Mexico, just across from Tecun Uman in Guatemala. They were waiting their chances to jump aboard the train – la Bestia – the horrible train that immigrants would take from the border northward through Mexico on the way to the U.S.
I was walking along the tracks with a middle-aged Mexican priest who was new to the community and wanted to see what was happening to the immigrants victimized by the gangs and corrupt police and crooks and the brothels in town. I remember them asking him to pray for them and the way they stood and bowed in stunning silence as he did so for them.
The arrival of a new movie – Sin Nombre - here brought this suddenly back to me. But it also reminded me how many immigrants have powerful stories to tell about their crossing, their terrible frontiers, their days of hunger and doubt. And I wonder how these stories can be told, as in this movie, by ethnic newspapers and radio stations here.
Some suggestions for print, radio and television
Wouldn’t it be stirring if there were a regular feature where people could record their passage?
This is the soul of reporting, and story telling.
I imagine it could be a digital audio box on a website, or a three-minute program on the radio. I can see pictures and possibly videos recounting these stories. Not all of them of the horrors, but some of the joys of the journeys. It could be a project involving interviews for youth radio or articles written by young reporters or a long open invitation on a community blog for others to share their histories, and their legacies. Think crowd-sourcing and social media.
This is what the ethnic news media did 100 years before and now and what it will most likely continue to do. We cannot turn our faces away from what we left behind. Whether from Honduras or Senegal or Bosnia or Vietnam. The passage will never leave us.
Here’s a trailer for the movie:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/60270/movie-trailers-sin-nombre
And here is an article from Hoy (the headline is above) that tells about the movie:
http://www.vivelohoy.com/entretenimiento/vlh-vh-portada-0403apr03,0,6197374.story
And here is an interview with the movie’s director.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6U8xMDN0kg&feature=related
