The latest work from novelist Junot Díaz, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur “genius grant” and National Book Critics Circle Award, began with a plea from his goddaughters. They begged Díaz to create a book that reflected their reality, as “smart, young Dominican girls of African descent living in the Bronx.” “I always felt …
Hilda Ramirez never steps foot outside St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. When her 11-year-old son leaves for school, she holds her breath, praying that he will return. When sirens wail on the streets outside, her heart stops. For much of the past two years, the Austin church has provided sanctuary for Ramirez, a 30-year-old immigrant who …
For decades, immigrants in the country illegally started businesses, bolstered the work force, bought houses and raised families in Houston with little fear of being questioned about their legal status. They helped build the city into a metropolis. Now immigrants, both those here legally and illegally, are keeping a low profile. Laws such as Texas …
Mr. Vito, as his students call him, began class with his usual questions: “What do you want to know? What would you like to read?” The English as a Second Language instructor, whose full name is Vito Susca, sat at the head of a long conference table. By his elbow, a pile of dog-eared reference …
After the call to prayer and the sermon in three languages, after members of the Southwest Houston mosque hailed one another with the traditional greeting of Assalam Alaikum and the sort of warm embraces familiar to Latino gatherings, the imam beckoned to the new convert. Delmi Realegeño, a newly-arrived immigrant from El Salvador, walked to …
Be strong. Be good. Be kind. Those were my parting words to my two young daughters as I left for work this morning. I kissed them lightly on the foreheads, but really I wanted to grasp them in a tight embrace and never let go, to protect them against an onslaught of ugliness that I …
Laurenzo’s iconic restaurant credited with introducing fajitas to the restaurant world By Monica Rhor As Domenic Laurenzo sits in the shadowy morning light, his eyes scan the portraits and oversized photos lining the walls of his restaurant on Navigation Boulevard. Each contains a nugget of a family story that has become part of Houston lore. …
By now, you’ve most likely read, heard, watched and dissected almost everything there is to read, hear, watch and dissect about “Hamilton,” the Broadway leviathan widely referred to as a “hip-hop musical.” The show about Alexander Hamilton has broken records for ticket sales, box-office revenue, cast album downloads and Tony nominations. Its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, …
I am Latina 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. My identity doesn’t fit in a 30-day window designated by the government. It’s not something I can discard when convenient, or don on special occasions. It is who I am. It is an identity that fills me with pride, creates …
Some people you never forget. They stay with you long after the interview is over and your notebook is closed. Petra Guillen is one of those people. This is a story I wrote about the impact of gentrification on her family, and an essay I wrote later about her. _________________________________________ Change crept across North Saint …
These stories were part of a yearlong look at the growing immigrant community. About one in four residents of the Greater Houston were born in another country and they are changing the city. I spent time immersed in the communities and found stories of people who came from all corners of the world. Part 1: …
It was the exclamation point that got me. There, in the last paragraph of the flyer stuffed into my front door by a local lawn service trolling for new business. There, amid the grammatical errors, misplaced apostrophes and random capitalization. There, at the end of a phrase that left me simultaneously ice cold and boiling …
Back then, in the time of guerrilleros and civil war, of scampering barefoot and washing clothes by the river, she couldn’t have told you what Houston was. Back then, in her child’s mind, it was just another name for the United States. A dot on a map. A portal to a different world, 1,200 miles …
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s childhood in Laredo, Texas, was one of art and poetry and music, where Mexican boleros and the words of Octavio Paz filled the house. Spanish was the language of home, and the border separating the town from its Mexican sister city of Nuevo Laredo was a fluid concept. It was also a time of devouring movies — visits …
The case of Abigail Noel Fisher brought the issue of affirmative action in higher education to the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket for the first time since its 2003 ruling upholding the use of race in admissions. Fisher was a teenager in a Houston suburb when she first sued the University of Texas at Austin, claiming the school …