Amnesty International Magazine - Spare the Child
/Over the past 15 years the world has made major strides toward ending the execution of juvenile offenders.
Online editor focused on digital media and global affairs.
Explore samples of published writing, interviews, photography, and infographics.
Over the past 15 years the world has made major strides toward ending the execution of juvenile offenders.
When the Taliban was in power, most of the women who filmed Afghanistan Unveiled could barely leave their homes, let alone study or work. But in 2002, the young documentarians - some still teenagers - traveled across mountains, rivers, and deserts to make the first film by and about Afghan women.
”Welcome to California,” says an undocumented Mexican lab worker after showing how to make the drug methamphetamine by mixing toxic chemicals over a burner in a dim, windowless shack.
The scene is from ”The Gatekeeper,” a drama tracing the experiences of a group of Mexicans who illegally cross the Tijuana-San Diego border. After arriving in the United States, the migrants are forced to work making the highly addictive street drug, also known as ”speed” or ”meth”, to pay off their passage.
"Shake your booty!" shouts Los Amigos Invisibles' lead singer Julio Briceño over the band's tight rhythms. "You're going to forget that it's raining out there."
It's a rainy, cold Monday night in the West Village, and Los Amigos have taken the S.O.B.'s stage with plaid pants on and shirt collars unbuttoned. While the Venezuelan sextet time-travels through a universe of disco, funk, and Latin styles, conjuring images of an intergalactic Love Boat -- just imagine George Clinton on board, playing maracas -- the blend of beats on songs like "Ponerte en Cuatro" keeps the crowd dancing.
A delivery that traveled 3,133 miles arrived at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Jackson Heights, giving special meaning to the area’s large Mexican community.
About 6,000 runners between Mexico City and New York formed a symbolic chain known as the Carrera Antorcha Guadalupana, crossing the border to carry a torch and two paintings from the Mexican capital’s Basilica de Guadalupe.
On a sunny winter afternoon in Exeter, N.H., the fading daylight illuminates blues and greens in the new stained-glass window of the Phillips Churs. The colors give the window a three-dimensional effect as they swirl into a dramatic red that bursts across the 15-by-20-foot piece.
How to get food stamps to the people who need them?
Massachusetts, with its liberal reputation, is the third worst in the country at getting the message out, with only 40 percent of qualifying people getting food stamps, according to a federal study.
That's why a Web site, gettingfoodstamps.org, moved into Spanish last month.
"If you wish to have any standing in society," wrote French novelist Stendhal in 1832, "it is necessary that 20 people should be interested in speaking well of you. Remember you will get promotions only by means of the salons."
The Laconda Room in the Prudential Center's Marché restaurant doesn't exactly bring a 19th-century French drawing room - from which the salon tradition drew its name - to mind.
Copies of "Wuthering Heights" and "Othello" recently began a lengthy journey, along with "Essentials of Internal Medicine" and "Principles of Economics."
They are among 9,000 books from Boston and Cambridge bound for Afghanista, via Belgium, Uzbekistan, and bumpy rides across the Afghan border.
The 91-degree August morning doesn't alter Rafael Torres's energy level. Squinting in the bright sun, he calls out, "Yours in Spanish?" while offering brochures to Boston Harbor Tourists."
"I love doing tours," he said. "If I have 40 people it's even better."
The 51-year-old native of Colombia developed an interest in tourism after 20 years of working for organizations such as La Alianza Hispana and the YMCA. He started asking local tour companies if they wanted a biligual guide, but, "They weren't interested," he said.
"We did this to claim back this park," said David Ramos, parent support coordinator of the Hyde Square Task Force and organizer of the second annual "Evenings in Mozart Park" series every Thursday in August.
Los Angeles, Miami, and San Diego have held Latino film festivals for years, attracting big-name stars as speakers. Even Providence celebrated its tenth in April, with Antonio Banderas in attendance at the festival's $125-per-person gala dinner. It takes a little longer for such high-powered events for Boston and Cambridge...
"I love their pants," said Greg Burk, referring to the suits worn by Mariachi Mexamerica band members. "I want to get a pair."
Two things haven't changed in the 40 years since the Jamaica Theatre became a supermarket. One is the '60s-style storefront, which overlooks a sloping parking lot. The other is Bill Jordan.
Jose Moreira has prepared for the Boston Marathon by rising at 6 a.m. every morning to run a 14-mile course on the Minuteman Trail in Somerville. Tomorrow's race will be his fourth marathon. He is focused on two ambitious goals.
One is to finish the race in two and a half hours. The second is to raise $15,000 from sponsors to build a training camp for youths in Marcolino Moura, Brazil, the small mountain village where he was born.
Moreira decided to build the camp after working as a volunteer coach at an orphanage in São Paulo eight years ago. While working there he saw how running built the confidence of youths in his care. He organized a race and awarded the young runners trophies and some ribbons he'd won himself. He also made himself a promise.
"Pupusas are the fast food of choice."
"it's a long ride. In four hours a lot can happen," says drive P. Tineo, who says passengers have met boyfriends and girlfriends during the trip. "They get on at different houses and don't know each other. The next time you see them, they're riding the bus together."
Danny Peña solemnly pulls a greeting card with a picture of Snoopy from a stationery box...
Download a PDF of this article published in The Boston Globe.
Online editor focused on digital media and global affairs with over a decade of journalism and communications experience.
Americas Quarterly
Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Amnesty International Magazine
The Boston Globe
The Christian Science Monitor
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR.org)
IPS News
Latin America Advisor
Letras Libres
La Nación
El Mercurio
Foreign Policy
Newsday
The New York Times / NYTimes.com
ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America
El Universal
Univision Noticias
U.S. News & World Report
washingtonpost.com
Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars
World Politics Review
Articles & Analysis
Commentary
Multimedia, infographics, and interactives
Interviews and podcasts
Photography