Author: Valeria Fernández

Bio: Valeria Fernández is an independent journalist from Uruguay with more than a 14 years experience as a bilingual documentary producer and reporter on Arizona’s immigrant community and the US-Mexico borderlands. She co-directed and produced "Two Americans,” a documentary that parallels the stories of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a 9-year-old U.S. citizen whose parents were arrested by the sheriff’s deputies that aired in Al Jazeera America. Her work as reporter for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting on the economic and social impacts of a mine spill in Northern Mexico broadcast in PBS, San Diego and won an Arizona Press Club recognition for environmental reporting in 2016. She freelances for a number of print, digital and broadcast media outlets, including Feet in 2 Worlds, CNN Español, Radio Bilingue, PRI's Global Nation, Al Jazeera, and Discovery Spanish.

Contributions:

In Arizona, Immigrants Stage Hunger Strike to Protest Conditions in County Jails

Posted on: 08 May 2009

PHOENIX, Arizona – A movement to protest alleged mistreatment of immigrants being held in Maricopa County jails gathered momentum this week as jail detainees initiated a series of hunger strikes, and protests were held in various parts of the county. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) confirmed several instances of inmates refusing food over the […]

Influenza and Immigration: Keeping the “Anti-Immigrant Flu” Out of Newsrooms

Posted on: 04 May 2009

A pro-Sheriff Arpaio demonstrator in Phoenix on Saturday. (Photo: Nick Oza) PHOENIX, Arizona — Conservative talk-radio commentators were faster than a virus in spreading the idea that undocumented immigrants are a hazard to public health by bringing a new flu virus across the country’s “porous border.” But one national media organization is trying to keep […]

On May Day Week in Arizona, Aging Mexican Braceros Still Fighting for Dignity

Posted on: 30 Apr 2009

By Valeria Fernández, FI2W contributor PHOENIX, Arizona — While thousands across the nation plan to march for immigration reform this Friday, May 1, a handful of former immigrant farmworkers in their seventies are holding a different protest here. The men still call themselves braceros, the inheritors of a largely criticized guest-worker program agreement between the […]