Jose A. Del Real

In my latest story, I explore how water infrastructure in California's Central Valley remains tainted by the legacy of Jim Crow. This story is about water, but it's also about the enduring legacy of racism. Please give it a read.nn"Amid a vast migration during the early 20th century, tens of thousands of black people like Ms. Beavers came to California’s farm country from far-off states in the Cotton Belt and the Dust Bowl. And as in other parts of the United States, black migrants were met with Jim Crow-style racism: 'Whites Only' signs, curfews and discriminatory practices by banks. Often, the only places black families could settle were on arid acres on the outskirts of cultivated farmland — places like Teviston, the all-black colony where Ms. Beavers raised 12 children in 'a two-bedroom shack' with no bathrooms or running water.nToday, the legacy of segregation in the Central Valley reverberates underground, through old pipes, dry wells and soil tainted by shoddy septic systems."nnhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/us/water-racism-california.html

My latest:

I traveled up to the California-Oregon border for my latest piece. Ecological strain on the Klamath River has stirred a cultural crisis among Native American tribes. At the same time, a surge of opioid addiction has swept the area. Can cultural restoration efforts help the tribes beat heroin and history?

If the scale of the Carr Fire in Northern California is hard to comprehend, so too is the anguish it has caused for those on the front lines, who have faced tragedy within their city, within their ranks, and very often within their families. My dispatch from Redding:

I spoke at length with Central American trans women for my latest piece, about what LGBT migrants endure to request political asylum in the United States. They face horrific persecution at home, and then encounter more abuse and exploitation as they journey through Mexico. Once they get to the United States, they are often held in detention by ICE, where they face discrimination and assault all over again. And there’s no guarantee they’ll receive asylum; often they’re deported back home, a possible death sentence. Please give it a read.

I spent the last few days in Nogales, Mexico, talking with migrant families about their journeys to cross into the United States. Family after family told me and my colleague Julie Turkewitz, on each side of the border, that they’d rather be separated than go back to the violence in their home country. Photos by the wonderful Ryan C. Jones. nnRead the story below, or on today's NYT front page. If you're interested in hearing more about some of the migrants I interviewed, click through to read this thread: https://twitter.com/jdelreal/status/1010316489088364544

My latest, from Visalia, California. n"Amid neat rows of orchards, on cattle ranches and dairy farms across the southern territory of California’s San Joaquin Valley, the churn of daily life offers few hints of an imminent political spectacle. This is another California, where conservative values are often taken for granted, and where the tide of liberal “resistance” runs as dry as its unirrigated dirt."

For my latest story I traveled to Eureka, Calif., a remote town in the state's North Coast, where a surge of heroin use is stirring fear and frustration. nnOpioid addiction has converged there with a significant homelessness problem and persistent meth use to form a frightening public health crisis. One man told me that he and other homeless people in the area use heroin during the day to feed cravings, and then use meth at night to stay awake because they don't have anywhere to sleep. nnIf you have a few minutes, give the story a read.

Read my dispatch from Sacramento on the unrest over the shooting death of Stephon Clark. On today's NYT front page and online below.