This article was published in partnership with The 19th* News. Maria Garcia couldn’t bear to attend the nightly meals near Triangle Lake, where for several weeks, the smell of pinto beans, turkey necks, and other soul food staples filled the air outside a federal children’s detention facility in
In Samantha Casiano’s house, Sundays are for family. And for the last two years, that’s included a trip to the cemetery. Every week, they visit her daughter Halo’s gravesite. It sits in the middle of their small East Texas hometown. A gray placard lies on the ground
I still remember my last high school football game on the Red Oak Hawkette drill team. I was 17, and our dance group had spent hours rehearsing in our maroon leotards and bright white ankle boots with mini silver bolo ties on the side. We wore nude dance tights and
In El Paso on Sunday, the Trump Administration opened the doors to Camp East Montana, the largest ICE detention facility in the country’s history. It reportedly cost $1.2 billion under a U.S. Defense Department contract. The new facility is at Fort Bliss, one of five sites where
Eighteen-year-old Jonatan Pech sat in the passenger seat of his family’s sedan as their headlights pierced the morning darkness. His older brother, Cristian, gripped the steering wheel. The music shuffled between Houston rap to salsa and then R&B, lullabies for his sister Esme who slept
Last month, my mom sent me a video of a little girl named Galilea from Dallas. She’s sitting on her gray couch, clutching a brown plush dog, remembering her mom’s voice, her clothes, and the way she would say goodnight. “My mom is supposed to be with us,
While federal authorities crack down on immigration across the country, Texas has emerged as an epicenter, as federal officials snatch up immigrants and protesters organize in response. Across the state in the past month, ICE has detained a mother of five outside of a San Antonio immigration court. Outside an
In 2009, 27-year-old Melissa Rojas left Texas. She moved from Dallas to California to pursue a dream career in fashion. At first, she worked as an unpaid intern, then she landed jobs as a stylist for Gina Rodriguez and a personal assistant for Lindsey Lohan. One year later,
For nearly thirty years, husband-and-wife duo Gerardo “Jerry” Diaz and Staci Diaz have traveled the country showcasing their skill on horseback. Through their touring performances and tightly-choreographed Mexican Rodeo Extravaganzas, they bring audiences a blend of the two different cultures of riding they were raised in. A
Well, that didn’t take long. After running another campaign fueled by anti-immigrant rhetoric and racist fear-mongering, Donald Trump began his second term as president last week and promptly made good on his threats of an immigration crackdown. Just moments after being sworn in, the CBP One app
After the CIA released historical documents proving that the agency surveilled Mexican American and Puerto Rican civil rights activists during the civil rights era, Rep. Joaquin Castro and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have requested the FBI do the same. The letter, dated Jan. 8, asked President Joe
EXCLUSIVE For most of her life, Lulu Francois believed her family history was a mystery lost to time. That changed when, during a Christmas gathering seven years ago, an aunt revealed she sometimes visited a small, unkempt cemetery in Comal County. There, migrants of Mexican descent are buried on a