Diego Graglia is documenting the lives of Latinos during this presidential election year as he travels from New York City to Mexico City. For more on La Ruta del Voto Latino-The Road to the Latino Vote, visit www.newyorktomexico.com.

Last week, Diego visited small towns in North Carolina to find out what Latinos in rural areas think about the presidential elections and what issues affect them the most. In the South, some of these towns have been changed radically by the arrival of Mexicans and Central Americans -from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador- who work in agriculture, manufacturing and construction.

In Siler City, North Carolina, Diego spoke with Marcia Espínola, associate director of El Vínculo Hispano-The Hispanic Liaison. She talked about what happened in that rural county after a poultry processing plant closed in June and left over 800 people out of a job. Listen to their conversation in this podcast:

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To see photos of Diego Graglia’s road trip, visit the NY-DF Flickr page, and visit his web-page at www.newyorktomexico.com.

Diego Graglia is documenting the lives of Latinos during this presidential election year as he travels from New York City to Mexico City. For more on La Ruta del Voto Latino-The Road to the Latino Vote visit www.newyorktomexico.com.

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On our first day on the road we arrived in Manassas, Virginia, not far from Washington D.C. Our goal was to revisit the intense and controversial debate on immigration that has been taking place there.

A year ago the Prince William County supervisors launched a crackdown on undocumented immigrants. They passed a resolution whose outstanding feature allows local law enforcement to inquire about the immigration status of people they suspect of committing a crime or misdemeanor (even jaywalking.) Officers can also report undocumented immigrants to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation processing.

Since then, the Latino population in the county appears to have plummeted.

As soon as we arrived, I met Teresita Jacinto, a spokeswoman for Mexicanos Sin Fronteras/Mexicans Without Borders. Listen here to a Podcast of my interview with Jacinto.

 

I interviewed her in front of what people in Manassas call The Wall — and those supporting immigrants regardless of their status call El Muro de la Calle Libertad (Liberty Street wall). It’s painted on the side of a burnt-down house by Mexican-born owner Gaudencio Fernández. In the wall’s strong message, he calls Prince William County, “the national capital of intolerance.” [Read the full text in this photo.] Unfortunately when we arrived Fernández was on vacation in Mexico.

The wall has been the subject of controversy and the target of attacks. As you’ll read in this story, Fernández has to go to court after his vacation. But I was more concerned with understanding its message.

(more…)

Feet in Two Worlds reporter Martina Guzmán profiled Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American candidate running for state representative in a primarily Latino district in southwest Detroit, for WDET, Detroit Public Radio.

Martina’s story aired yesterday. You can listen to it by pressing play here:

[audio:http://wdet.org/audio/articles/Tlaib.mp3]

This is the first collaboration between Feet in Two Worlds and WDET, our newest radio partner.

At last Sunday’s Ecuadoran Independence Day Parade in Queens, NY representatives of Ecuadoran political parties drew lots of attention, not all of it positive. But at least one community leader at the parade was trying to get people to focus on the US presidential election. As part of our special series La Ruta del Voto Latino – The Road to the Latino Vote, journalist Diego Graglia spoke to Francisco Moya, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In fact, he’s the first Ecuadoran to be a delegate to a major party convention in the US. In this Podcast, Moya talks about the challenge of getting Ecuadoran immigrants, including those who a US citizens, to pay attention to US politics.

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Ecuadorans are one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the New York area. The city’s Department of City Planning says Ecuador is third among the, “largest sources of the foreign-born,” in the borough of Queens, and it is second in The Bronx. There are also large Ecuadoran communities in Somerset and Essex counties in New Jersey and Westchester, NY. Despite their numbers Ecuadorans don’t have much political power, compared to other immigrant groups that have been in New York for decades, like Puerto Ricans and Dominicans.

Diego Graglia is on the road from New York City to Mexico City, talking to Latinos about the issues and the candidates in this year’s presidential election.

To see photos of the parade and Diego Graglia’s road trip, visit the NY-DF Flickr page, and visit his web-page at http://www.newyorktomexico.com/.

Today, Feet in Two Worlds blog editor Aswini Anburajan appeared on the morning radio show, The Takeaway with hosts Adaora Udoji and John Hockenberry. Aswini talked about her recent article on undocumented immigrants in Connecticut receiving I.D. cards.

You can listen to the segment here.

Feet in Two Worlds reporter and blogger, Pilar Marrero, was featured on WNYC Radio’s Brian Lehrer Show today, where she discussed her recent Feet in Two Worlds blog post and the mixed responses of Latino voters and activists to the McCain and Obama campaigns’ Spanish-language outreach efforts.

Click here to listen to the interview on the WNYC Web site.

Hundreds of bodies and tons of debris are left behind in the southern Arizona desert each year. They are the remains and former possessions of immigrants who have entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico. Journalist Karla Escamilla is documenting this littered landscape in a series of reports for Univision, KUVE-TV in Tucson, Arizona. She is a fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Insitute for Justice and Journalism. In this podcast, Karla speaks with Feet in Two Worlds executive producer John Rudolph.

With this podcast we also introduce a new feature: political news briefs from around the country. Find out what’s being reported in La Opinion, New America Media, and New England Ethnic Newswire, as well as at the recent Immigration, Justice and Crime conference hosted by the John Jay College Center on Media, Crime and Justice and New York Community Media Alliance.

[audio:http://www.xrew.com/joceimgs/FI2W/fi2w_pod_0617.mp3]

From the Society of Profesional Journalists:

Indianapolis — The Society of Professional Journalists announced today the recipients of its New America Award. First-place recipients are Karen Frillmann from WNYC, New York Public Radio and Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska of the Polish Daily News for the series, “Polish Immigrants in a Changing City.” No other places were awarded in the contest.

This is the fourth year for the award, which honors public service journalism collaborations that include ethnic media in order to explore and expose an issue of importance to immigrant or ethnic communities in the United States. The award will be presented at the society’s annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards banquet July 11 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The winning work was a two-part series about New York’s Polish immigrant community produced for WNYC, New York Public Radio by Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, a reporter for the Polish Daily News. The first part of the series, “Feet in Two Worlds: Greenpoint, Brooklyn,” examined the impact of gentrification on the residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood that is the hub of New York’s Polish Community. Through the piece, broadcast on May 23, 2007, Kern-Jedrychowska was able to bring a fresh perspective on the story of old-age neighborhood transformation to public radio listeners.

Read more about Ewa’s win here:

http://www.spj.org/news.asp?REF=801#801

Hispanic women are emerging as a sought-after voting bloc in the 2008 campaign. Like soccer moms, blue-collar workers, and union members, Latinas are increasingly being courted by the Democratic presidential candidates. New York Senator Hillary Clinton, in particular, is making a significant effort to reach out to Latina voters, and a non-partisan group, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, is conducting a voter registration drive aimed specifically at Latinas.

The growing importance of Hispanic women comes at a time when Latino voters – both men and women – have already demonstrated their pivotal role in primary elections in states including California, Texas, and New Mexico. Latinas are especially important because Hispanic women vote in greater numbers than Hispanic men and their decisions about which candidate to support have considerable influence among their family members, friends, and neighbors.

Feet in Two Worlds reporter Martina Guzmán recently visited Allentown, Pennsylvania, to report on grass-roots efforts to reach out to Latina voters before the Pennsylvania primary. In this Podcast Martina speaks with FI2W executive producer John Rudolph.

[audio:http://www.xrew.com/joceimgs/FI2W/fi2w_martina_0414.mp3]

Check out the great profile of Ewa!:

“In New York, I rarely feel like an immigrant…”