The tiny News Virginian of Waynesboro, Va. — circulation 6,031 — inserted a very interesting — not to mention very well-designed — special section today.
Reporter Chase Purdy was kind enough to send me the entire section to share with you.
Chase writes:
The photos and stories were all taken and written by myself and long-time friend, colleague and college roommate, Tony Gonzalez. Tony’s wife, Katie, was the brains behind the designs (though Tony and I offered conceptual suggestions).
Tony (left) and Chase in the News Virginian newsroom.
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Click any page today for a larger look:
Chase explains:
This project started because Tony and I were curious about what small town life is like in Hispanic communities. We’ve read about communities in large to mid-sized cities, but never about their lives in small, rural (southern) cities. The centerpiece story for the section examines Waynesboro’s 25-year-old Hispanic community and — more specifically — the first and second generations.
Simply put: life expectations, the language barrier, familial role reversal and many other things are totally different for families living in small towns. We explored those differences while highlighting the fact that the second generation is charged with carrying out the dreams their parents had years ago, as they traveled north and into America.
Chase is also quick to point out that this PDF copy was pulled before the final corrections were made. For example, he says:
The front page spelling of “Mormom” was fixed to “Mormon.”
Here are pages two and three:
I saw an earlier version of the pages and mentioned to Chase that I was intrigued with the big blank hole and the little green map in the middle. Apparently, they were working on this infographic up until the last minute.
Chase writes:
I hope you like what we ended up doing with the page-two map. We were really geeked about how neat it ended up looking.
Oh, yeah. I love it. A closer look:
Chase writes:
You’ll find interesting pieces on a local court/hospital interpreter, a piece on how Mormons are really ramping up their numbers in Virginia to specifically target Spanish speakers for conversion and a story about a local organization getting a sizable grant.
I love the way the infographic squares off across the bottom third of the page. Each of the factoids you see down there pertain to story elements. Chase, Tony and Katie resisted the temptation to get fancy with them. They played it straight and concentrated on telling the story simply:
The “about this section” story on page two sums up the project pretty well:
This project first arose in fall 2009, but it might not have started without an unsolicited call and a soft threat.
The caller told us to feature Kim Romero’s struggle to bring her husband Rigo back from Mexico, where he’d become mired in immigration bureacracy. If we wouldn’t write the story, some other reporter would, the caller said.
The Romeros’ story turned from one chapter to the next just after midnight Sept. 10, when Rigo came legally into Kim’s arms at Dulles International Airport. We were there.
Rigo has since gained residency card through 2020.
Their story isn’t over. Nor is our work.
The back page focuses on the increased Mormon outreach in the area:
Chase tells us:
Our series of Hispanic stories snagged us a first-place APME award earlier this year in the “international perspectives” category. We hope the stories serve well as an historical record of the beginnings of the Hispanic community here. No reporters in this area, until now, have aggressively sought to tell their stories, or tried to figure out what their lives are like and where they came from.
Ultimately, we hope this work will help paint a picture of what life can be like for Hispanics when they live in a small, rural town.
Go here to find the online version of The Borders Within.
Tony Gonzalez is a 2008 graduate of Hillsdale (Mich.) College, where he was a merit scholar and editor-in-chief of the student paper. He interned at the Toledo Free Press, the Detroit News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Tony was part of my 2008 roundup of college journalists. He’s been with the News Virginian since September 2008.
Chase Purdy also graduated from Hillsdale College, but a year after Tony. He, too, interned at the Toledo Free Press as well as the the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier and the Arizona Republic of Phoenix. Chase has been with the News Virginian for about 15 months. I’ve been following his career since this little brainstorm.
I don’t know Katie Gonzalez at all. But if this is an example of the kind of work she does, then we might be wise to keep an eye on her. She’s a 2008 graduate of the University of Georgia. Find her online design portfolio here.
