reporter
and journalist *
Here's a small showcase of my work as an investigative reporter, writer and producer.
I've written for print outlets
big and small and have reported for national tv and local radio. Non-fiction
has long been my medium – it's literature to me. "You
can't make this stuff up," they say, and they're
right.
I
spent four years reporting and co-producing an
hour-long PBS documentary on one of California's most powerful organized crime families, the Nuestra Familia. For seven years, I've covered the NF and other gangs for radio and daily newspapers. I've
investigated international arms smugglers, lots
of con men and I've spent more than a few hours in small-town saloons. Then
there are the tomato festivals, the rib-eating contests, prisons, the Pentagon and
backyard meth labs... don't get me started!
The world is fascinating and I'm here to cover it.
I'm currently working on a nonfiction book about gangs, crime and love in Steinbeck Country. Oh, and I
recently took a foray into fiction with a just-finished novel.
* “A
journalist is a reporter out of a job.”
–Mark Twain
She has reported extensively on gangs, youth crime and prisons in California, where she co-produced the PBS documentary Nuestra Familia, Our Family. Previously, she was editor of the national Latino magazine el Andar. She was a 2009 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.