Making a difference one story at a time

Nelsy Rodriguez

By Nelsy Rodriguez
Summer 2003 Scholar

Posted: June 20, 2003

I returned to the intern-designated desk at the Statesman Journal to see my voice-mail button flashing red.

I dialed my extension and password, heard my name and away-from-my-desk greeting and listened to the three messages from the weekend.

Two men were calling to say they were appalled that an American newspaper would print the 1A article I wrote about the death of an undocumented alien. The fact that the story was translated into Spanish on 2A further enraged them. They said they were canceling their subscriptions to this “journalistic piece of crap” newspaper.

Flustered, I erased the messages from the anonymous callers and dialed “2” to listen to the final message.

A woman, whose voice trembled, said she read my story. She had met the girl who had been murdered. She said she would not have known that the girl was dead had it not been for the Spanish version on 2A. She thanked me. The heinous crime would have gone unnoticed had it not been written about it, she said. She left no name or number.

I replaced the receiver, sat back in the swivel chair and exhaled.

Just then the phone rang again, startling my moment of reflection. I quickly grabbed the receiver. A man from a local market was calling to say that he wanted to make a donation to the family of the victim. He asked if her bank accounts mentioned in the article were still open. I said I believed they were. He said he would make a $500 donation to help move the young woman's body home to Mexico to be buried near her family.

He thanked me for writing the story. He said it was good to know that someone was watching out for those who generally don’t get much of a voice.

That's when I realized what we had been discussing in the week the 74 students of the 2003 Summer class were in Virginia: We can make a difference, no matter how some might fight the change.

Thank you, Chips Quinn Scholars, for giving me the confidence to pursue that story.

Nelsy Rodriguez, a California State University-Chico grad, is a Summer 2003 Scholar at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore. Reach her at ncr210@hotmail.com.

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