Category: Social change

.
Boggan found that exercising his right to a jury tial resulted in years more imprisonment than most of his fellow inmates who committed crimes where victims were injured or killed. He is scheduled to remain in Illinois prisons until 2025. Photo by John Sundlof

Using Your Rights Means Extra Years in Prison

Vincent Boggan is among the few inmates in the Pontiac Correctional Center–a maximum-security prison in Pontiac, Illinois–who avail themselves of the free classes offered. He has already earned an “Associate of Applied Science”–a vocational degree–and now is working on an “Associate in General Studies”–a college-level

Post Featured Image APF Icon

Traveling for a family: The Remittance Economy

According to the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, immigrants are the “tired… poor… the huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore… the homeless, tempest-tossed.” Unfortunately, those words did not fit when Emma Lazarus wrote them in 1883, and

An open-air flea market in Houston is frequented by Central American immigrants. Photo by APF Fellow Roberto Suro

Houston Dollars Fuel The Human Traffic from Guatemala

One morning in September, 1978 Juan L. Chanax set out from his village in the Guatemalan highlands of Totonicapan and began a voyage with consequences still unfolding in unimaginable ways. A weaver’s son and a good weaver himself, Juan made one of the few decisions

More than a year after the Los Angeles riots, street vendors ply their wares in the shadow of the city's downtown. Photo by APF Fellow Roberto Suro

Immigration to the Burn Zone: The Changing Face of the American City

Photos and article by APF Fellow Roberto Suro   LOS ANGELES — During Los Angeles’ days of fury in spring,1992, the sounds of gun fire and helicopters reminded Elsa Flores why she had left El Salvador more than a decade earlier and made her wonder

Free classes in Houston prepare immigrants for the US. citizenship test and build loyalty to politicians who sponsor them. Latino politicians in the U. S. have often ignored immigrants, but in Houston, city councilman Ben Reyes set up an aggressive citizenship program after narrowly losing a Congressional race last year. Photo BY APF Fellow Roberto Suro. (Photo By APF Fellow Roberto Suro.

Adding Up The Latino Fractions

Alice Salazar worries about the changes that newcomers are bringing to the Houston neighborhood her family has called home since the turn of the century when her grandparents immigrated from Mexico. “This place is full of fly-by-night people now,” she said speaking English with a