After the 1959 revolution, being gay in Cuba was considered counter-revolutionary. LGBT Cubans were jailed and harassed because of their sexual identity. Listen to the piece Fi2W reporter Von Diaz produced about Lesbian Cubans for our partner Latino USA.
The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has drawn clean up workers from near and far. Many of these workers are Latinos, so-called “disaster migrants” who go from catastrophe to catastrophe and aid in the repair efforts. Fi2W’s Annie Correal documented their lives in a radio piece for Latino USA.
Valeria Fernandez in Phoenix cuts through the rhetoric and finds there actually is common ground between opponents and supporters of Arizona’s new immigration law.
Two great radio pieces reflect the diversity of stories being produced by our reporters.
Fi2W’s Valeria Fernandez produced a radio feature for Latino USA on last week’s big protest in Phoenix against SB 1070.
Phoenix-based FI2W reporter Valeria Fernández produced a radio piece for NPR’s Latino USA on immigrants who work in the dairy industry and the farmers who hire them.
Here, Valeria narrates how she produced the piece, which airs this weekend on Latino USA. To listen to the piece, press “play” below.
[audio:http://latinousa.kut.org/wp-content/lusaaudio/859segAZdairies.mp3]
For almost two years now, one of my sources here in Arizona had insisted that I do a story about immigrants working in dairies. I finally started to work on this one about five months ago, before I even knew which direction it was going to take, or even that it was going to become a radio piece. I needed to become familiar with the universe of dairies at a time when Arizona was facing an intense crackdown on illegal immigration.
There was naturally going to be fear and resistance on the part of immigrant workers. For about two years now, the state has had a law in place that sanctions companies who knowingly hire undocumented labor.
Farmer Gerald Lunt says than “other than the economy and the price of milk,” finding workers is his biggest problem. (Photos: V. Fernández – Click to see more)
ALSO: Read a diary by the daughter of a Mexican immigrant dairy worker.
The law has been used mostly to conduct work-site raids in businesses, resulting in the arrest of a couple of hundred workers. The number is not large, but the chilling effect on local immigrant communities is much bigger.
In a couple of ways, this was unexplored territory for me. I was as nervous as the subjects of the story. Not only was I going to leave the comfort of print, but also, I was going to do it in English, my second language. I feared leaving my small notepad and using a microphone instead. Often times I would just tuck it away, and listen to people to help them relax.
There have been stories about workers in agriculture, but I wanted to do a story about what life was like in the dairies. I had all sorts of preconceptions.
This diary was written by the 12-year-old daughter of a Mexican immigrant dairy worker. Her name has been changed to protect her identity. Click here to go to the main story to read more about her family and to listen to a radio piece about immigrants and dairy farmers by FI2W‘s Valeria Fernández for NPR’s Latino USA.
Well, my name is Laura. I was born in Arizona and lived here for about a year or so when I moved to the dairy. So I’ve been living here for most of my life.
I live here with my mom, and dad, my two brothers and my little sister. It can be fun and boring living in a dairy.
For the first part, I don’t like living here ’cause the smell!! Yes, there’s times when it smells really awful. And times you can really smell nothing.
Also most the time there’s nothing to do! Well, like, there’s not much trailers here, only like 5! Also there’s not much kids my age around here.
Then sometimes I am really bored and can’t just walk to a friend’s house or something: it’s too far! So I might feel left out most of the time.
Now, the thing I do kinda like is that you can take a walk and see the cows; now I think that’s pretty fun to walk around. Also there’s a lot of open space here! In most houses there’s not a lot of space.
So here you can have a party and barbecue. Okay, so that’s partly most of my life. I’m mostly used to it, so I don’t mind much.
I hope my dad doesn’t lose his job and (we) live here for a couple more years or so. And I hope for those people that don’t want Mexicans here to think it over, ’cause Mexicans have done a big difference to this country to make it a better place.
FI2W reporter Aswini Anburajan produced a radio piece for NPR’s Latino USA on Father James Manship, a Roman Catholic priest in New Haven, Conn., who teaches his immigrant parishioners how to stand up for their civil rights, and who has been in the news in the past for being arrested in a confrontation with local police officers. Here, Aswini narrates how she managed to produce the piece, which aired on Latino USA and which you can listen to below.
[audio:http://latinousa.kut.org/wp-content/lusaaudio/856seg01.mp3]If you think that ethnic reporting isn’t critical to knowing a community, read on. This is the first piece I’ve done for Feet in 2 Worlds that hasn’t been on Indian Americans. The basis of FI2W is to get reporters to write about their own communities, but even I didn’t realize why this is so important until I delved into a project for Latino USA.
My piece was originally supposed to be on the economic life of a day laborer or someone new to the country, undocumented and trying to establish a life in the U.S. That piece remains undone. Being an Indian American with some high school Spanish under my belt, I thought it would be a cake walk. Call some social service agencies, reach out to immigrant coalitions, and I could “break in.”
Manship in 2008 visited with family and friends of his Connecticut parishioners, in the province of Morena Santiago, in the rainforest regions of Ecuador. (Photo: Courtesy J. Manship - Click for more images)
Four months later, I had to think again. Without truly knowing a community, or having cultural or language associations with them, I found it impossible to get through and talk to individuals who were undocumented. It wasn’t that every door I knock on was slammed in my face. Most of the time, people pretended they weren’t home. This ranged from individuals I knew with ties to the Latino community to social service agencies.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s Polish neighborhood. (Photos: E. Kern-Jedrychowska)
A New Generation of Polish-Americans, a story by Feet in 2 Worlds and Polish Daily News reporter Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, is the main feature on this week’s NPR show Latino USA (find your NPR station here).
From the Latino USA website:
The history of Poland hasn’t always been pretty.
While historians would say the country was born in 966 when its ruler became Christianized, it’s territorial boundaries haven’t been well-defined throughout the ages. In fact, from 1795 to 1918, Poland didn’t exist as a nation and the territory was divided among the kingdoms of Prussia, Austria, and Russia.
Constantly invaded, partitioned, borders redrawn, and territory occupied, the Poles themselves led a workers’ revolution in the 1980s that threw off the shackles of Soviet-led communism and inspired the world with the word: “Solidarity.”
Throughout most of the 20th Century, however, many Poles yearned for the freedom and security of America. But for the younger generation who grew up after the fall of Communism, those yearnings of their parents and grandparents just aren’t resonating.
You can listen to the story below:
[audio:http://latinousa.kut.org/wp-content/lusaaudio/838_seg01.mp3]Or you can listen to the story while watching a photo slideshow at the Latino USA website.
You can read more of Ewa’s Feet In 2 Worlds pieces on Polish-Americans here.
Mexican Town, Detroit (Photo: Girl.in.the.D/flickr)
Nationally-syndicated radio show Latino USA featured one of FI2W reporter Martina Guzmán’s recent pieces this weekend.
You can listen to it here:
[audio:http://www.utexas.edu/coc/kut/latinousa/stationservices/podcast/2009/02/0206_01_lusa_podcast.mp3]
From Latino USA‘s website:
“The numbers are bad, and they just keep coming. Home Depot reports 7,000 jobs lost, and as Circuit City closes its doors, 4,000 more disappear. Car sales haven’t been this low in 27 years, and everywhere we look there are more signs of the times. In south Boston, Esther’s Country Kitchen leaves a note on the door reading, ‘Due to budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel is being turned off.’ Still, Americans continue to look for a bright spot. Some are finding a glimmer in what might seem to be a surprising place: immigrant neighborhoods.
“As part of Latino USA’s ongoing series focused on immigrants, New American Voices, we take a look at Detroit, and the dynamics of immigrant businesses inside their communities and beyond. Though Michigan’s unemployment rate is hovering at 10%, and people are leaving the state in droves, there is also an influx of immigrants. Martina Guzman reports on one community in Detroit that is holding the torch for Michigan with energy and undeniable growth.”
You can also listen to a conversation between Latino USA anchor María Hinojosa and John Austin of the New Economy Initiative For South East Michigan about how immigrant businesses help the city’s economy.
The interview is on this page, where you can also listen to the whole show.
