In a Raucous Country, Our Sense of Unity Has Often Emerged Through Conflict
Americans of wildly disparate backgrounds have managed to find common ground over the course of the country’s history. But the process of cohering has been haphazard, raucous, messy and cruel, said...
View ArticleProfoundly Shaped by Immigration, Today’s Hawai‘i Chafes Under Federal...
Hawai‘i has a mixed record of welcoming migrants, but even its best efforts are now being stymied by a federal government that is working against those who wish to come to the state, said panelists at...
View ArticleHow Three Texas Newspapers Manufactured Three Competing Images of Immigrants
In August 1930, an editorial writer for the largest newspaper chain on Earth proclaimed: “THE FARMER rids his barn of rats, his hen-house of weasels … the government of the United States should clean...
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Citizenship Is Useful for a Very Ugly Reason
Why do we still cling to citizenship? Certainly, it’s not required to protect your rights. We live in a world of human rights, where slavery is outlawed, gay people can marry, and thinking for yourself...
View ArticleAnnouncing the 10th Annual Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize
Zócalo is delighted to announce that we will begin accepting submissions for the 10th annual Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize on November 1, 2020. The deadline for entries will close on January 29,...
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Our Search for Human Connection Continues in 2020
Since 2011, Zócalo Public Square’s annual book prize has recognized the nonfiction book, published in the U.S., that best enhances our understanding of community and the forces that strengthen or...
View ArticleWhy States Can Lead America Forward
American states, conventionally seen as threats to Americans’ constitutional rights, also can be powerful forces for protecting and extending rights in ways that benefit the whole country, said...
View ArticleJournalist Jia Lynn Yang Wins the 11th Annual Zócalo Book Prize
Jia Lynn Yang, national editor at the New York Times, is the winner of the 11th annual Zócalo Book Prize for her debut book, One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American...
View ArticleThis Radical, Revolutionary Nation of Immigrants
The 2021 Zócalo Public Square Book and Poetry Prize winners, Jia Lynn Yang and Angelica Esquivel, are creators of works that find the humanity in two of Zócalo’s favorite subjects: community and place....
View ArticleThe 2022 Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize Explores Place
Since 2012, the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize has recognized the U.S. writer of a poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo is now accepting submissions for our 2022 competition. The...
View ArticleThe 2022 Zócalo Book Prize Celebrates Human Connectedness
Since 2011, Zócalo Public Square’s annual book prize has recognized the U.S.-published nonfiction book that best enhances our understanding of community and the forces that strengthen or undermine...
View ArticleWhat Does the U.S. Owe Climate Refugees?
Last fall, back-to-back major hurricanes, Eta and Iota, slammed into the Caribbean coast of Central America, creating storm surges and flooding from Belize to Panama. In parts of Honduras and Guatemala...
View ArticleWe’re Telling the Wrong Border Stories
Borders are meant to create order and security. But around the world, authoritarians seeking to enhance their power are pushing dangerous border narratives to sow chaos and exploit insecurity....
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How Does Culture Immigrate?
Home can be physical or imagined—a point of departure and return but also a memory or feeling. When migrants and immigrants move across borders, they bring along the places they leave behind through...
View ArticleTo Solve America’s Immigration Woes, We Need to Think, Act, and Work Locally
The Zócalo event “Could Immigration Unite Americans?” comes at a time when much of the world has actually come together in support of one group of immigrants. But, as New York Times national...
View ArticleThe Exiled Musicians Who Escaped Fascism for La La Land
Generations ago, in the parenthesis of years between Hitler’s 1933 rise to power and the end of World War II, a deluge of European artists and intellectuals came to the U.S., seeking refuge from the...
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Looking Deportation in the Face
Completing the mural. Photo by Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. The border between Playas de Tijuana and San Diego. Photo by Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. Painting the mural. Photo by Lizbeth De La Cruz...
View ArticleHow Latin America Built L.A.
Los Angeles is just the second U.S. city to host the Summit of the Americas, which brings together political leaders, civil society organizations, and business executives from North, South, and Central...
View ArticleWhy Migrant Butterflies Are Dying
In July, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus plexippus, to its Red List of Threatened Species, a recognition that the insect’s...
View ArticleThe 2023 Zócalo Poetry Prize Celebrates Poems of Place
Since 2012, the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize has recognized the U.S. writer of a poem that best evokes a connection to place. Zócalo will begin accepting submissions for our 2023 competition on...
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