Featured work
Radio Ambulante Estudios and VICE News
El hilo
A weekly, Spanish-language narrative news podcast I co-host, executive produce and edit. Listen here.
Radio Ambulante
J. vs United States
The word of two Guatemalan migrant women versus that of the largest and one of the most secretive law enforcement agencies in the United States. What does it take to believe women who decide to come forward?
Radio Ambulante
It was the State
Since 2000, more than a hundred journalists have been killed in Mexico. 2017 set a record, with 12 deaths. Journalist Anabel Hernández knows firsthand how dangerous this work can be. She lives with bodyguards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, due to her investigations about drug trafficking and government corruption. Why does she do it? And what does her story tell us about the state of journalism in Mexico?
Radio Ambulante
Behind the Wall
Sodalitium Christiane Vitae, an ultraconservative Catholic organization also known as the Sodalicio, was founded in 1971, in Peru. Its mission was to train disciplined young people, with military rigor, almost monks. But the order, discipline and ideology of Sodalico hid many secrets. What happened inside its walls?
Radio Ambulante
Newly Arrived
In this story we go inside Oakland International High School, a school for foreign students who have recently arrived to the United States. We meet three unaccompanied minors from Central America and learn about their struggles adapting to a new life in Oakland, California.
Radio Ambulante
The Rebellious Student
In December 2012, Benjamín González broke all the rules during his graduation speech. He criticized his school, one of the most prestigious in Chile, el Instituto Nacional. His controversial speech went viral on social networks, and soon Benjamín found himself at the center of a media storm he hadn’t foreseen.
Listen here.
Other stories I produced for Radio Ambulante
In late 2004, the rock band Callejeros were wrapping an incredibly successful year. They’d had several hits, and were selling out stadiums all over Argentina. Then, on December 30th, they played a show at a Buenos Aires night club called Cromañón. What happened that evening at Cromañón would change the rock scene —and the entire country— forever.
Many migrants awaiting asylum hearings in the US have a difficult choice: they can stay in detention as their case makes its way through the system, or they can pay an impossibly expensive bond. For those who choose to pay, many use the services of a company which promotes itself as pro-immigrant, but the truth is much more complicated.
After her parents divorced, and her father moved from Mexico to Arizona, Fernanda began thinking of living in the United States. When she was thirteen, she started a diary –in her own idiosyncratic, imperfect English, so her family wouldn’t be able to read it– to document her plan to move away. It was never her goal for the move to be permanent, but it was, and Fernanda hasn’t lived in Mexico since. Last spring, she discovered the diary again; along with it, some unresolved tensions.
On Tuesday, September 19, 2017, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake devastated Mexico. At press time, there are reports of 363 deaths and significant damage in more than five Mexican states. In this episode, we take a trip through a Mexico City neighborhood, one of the areas most affected by the quake, where thousands of people have come together to aid in the recovery. It’s a story that shows how fragile we are, and at the same time, how strong.
Correa vs. Crudo (English description and transcript)
The strange story of a virtual fight between the creator of a Facebook page and the President of Ecuador –a fight that became too real.
Salvador Alvarenga pulled off the impossible.
El corresponsal – The Correspondent
For two years Alberto Arce was the only international correspondent based in Honduras. He says that’s where he became a journalist. Alberto tells us his story from Mexico City, where he is currently based.
Sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time can cost you a 55-year jail sentence.
Series and other audio work
All Being Well: Introduction to the World of Wellness, Audible UK: A 6-episode series about the history behind the concept of “wellness” and what it has become today. Listen here.
Immigrant Detainees Say They Were Sexually Abused In CBP Custody, Weekend Edition, NPR. Several dozen immigrant detainees have alleged they were sexually abused in Customs and Border Protection holding facilities. This is the story of two young women who say they were victims. Listen here.
Radio Ambulante: Unscripted, PRI: A 20-episode interview series with Latin American and Latino thinkers, artists and innovators. Listen here.
silviavinas.com 