An N.C. delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Raleigh’s John Verdejo sees similarities between his personal history and Barack Obama’s. Originally published in Indy Week. UNTIL HIS PLANE TOUCHED DOWN in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, John Verdejo had never in his life reset his watch. The 29-year-old’s personal history was contained entirely within the Eastern time […]
Growing evangelical movement finding new ways to proselytize
Part 1 of the three-part “Messianics Rising” series. Originally published by JTA. NEW YORK, N.Y.—A WINTER BLAST HAS EMPTIED the streets of the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, yet inside the Living Springs Family Center, a storefront Pentecostal church with stamped-tin ceilings, the space heaters are cranked up. So is the music, an upbeat gospel […]
Return to Loves Creek
Originally published in Indy Week. IT’S A WARM FRIDAY AFTERNOON, and I’m driving down Silk Hope Road through Alamance and Chatham counties. It’s a familiar route that I used to take several times a week, when I was reporting on the life of Siler City’s Loves Creek Hispanic Baptist Mission. For eight months in 1999 I threw […]
Silence in the Fields
The U.S. government is allowing farmers to fill thousands of jobs with foreign ‘guestworkers.’ The conditions are hardly hospitable—and those who speak out can be sent straight back home. Originally published in Mother Jones. THE GREYHOUND PULLS UP TO A TWO-STORY METAL WAREHOUSE in the tiny town of Vass, North Carolina. Efrain Madrigal gets off the bus. […]
Hispanic Diaspora
Drawn by jobs, Latino immigrants are moving to small towns like Siler City, North Carolina, bringing with them new diversity—and new tensions. Originally published in Mother Jones. THE DAY OF THE RALLY, Ruth Tapia awakes with a feeling of disgust. It’s a drizzly, overcast morning in February, and all is quiet on the street outside her small, […]
Walking Home
In the Triangle’s Hispanic heart, a Baptist mission learns the joys and trials of building a community. Photos by M.J. Sharp. Originally published as a two-part series in Indy Week. (Click here for Part 2.) Part 1: Soul and Skin SOMETIME THIS SPRING, when the weather gets warm, the members of Loves Creek Hispanic Baptist […]
Good Story, Bad Result
A profile puts the subject at risk. Originally published in Columbia Journalism Review. IN EARLY MARCH, THE RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER published a front-page profile of Julio Granados, 21, who was working at a local grocery store to support his family back in Guadalajara, Mexico. North Carolina’s Latino population is burgeoning, and Granados represented “Everyhombre,” as writer Gigi […]
