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Samuel Gilbert

Journalist

Santa Fe, NM

Samuel Gilbert

31 years old. Degrees in Anthropology and American Studies.

Featured

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'Death sentence': butterfly sanctuary to be bulldozed for Trump's border wall

On any given day at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, visitors can to see more than 60 varieties of butterflies. In the spring and fall, monarchs and other species can blanket the center’s 100 acres of subtropical bushlands that extend from the visitor center to to the banks of the Rio Grande river, where their property, and US sovereignty, end.
The Guardian Link to Story
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‘Juárez in a bottle’: Mexican moonshine made with snakes resurfaces in US

When the US banned alcohol production and importation in 1920, spirits from Mexico began illegally crossing the border. Alongside mass quantities of tequila was the lesser-known sotol: a north Mexican moonshine with a similar flavor profile. “We exported 300,000 liters during prohibition,” said Ricardo Pico, of the Chihuahua-based distillery Sotol Clande, who has spent years studying the drink.
The Guardian Link to Story
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'He relives it all again': the lasting impact of detention on immigrant children

The first memory Hilda Ramírez has of the United States is the sound of helicopters. Four years ago, she, her eight-year-old son, Iván, and five other migrants from Central America piled into a small raft on the southern bank of the Rio Grande, the final step in a perilous trip through Mexico that she had begun one week before.
The Guardian Link to Story
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The treasure hunters on a deadly quest for an eccentric's $2m bounty

Sacha Johnston was inching along a dirt road in a narrow canyon in northern New Mexico. “Just guide me,” Johnston said to her search partner, Cory Napier, who directed Johnston and her white Toyota 4Runner. “This road can be brutal.”. The pair had come to this starkly beautiful place, at the base of the Sangre De Cristo mountains, to hunt for a treasure rumored to be worth upwards of $2m.
The Guardian Link to Story
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The Man Who Helped Design a 10,000-Year Nuclear Waste Site Marker

Astro-artist Jon Lomberg, a longtime friend and colleague of Carl Sagan, on protecting future humans from America’s atomic past. This story appears in VICE magazine's Dystopia and Utopia Issue. Click HERE to subscribe to VICE magazine. At first, Jon Lomberg thought it was a joke. When the late Carl Sagan, his friend and mentor, told him about a US Department of Energy plan to future-proof an atomic waste site for 10,000 years, he wasn’t sure it could be real.
VICE Magazine Link to Story
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Frito Pie-Eyed

On a quest to taste every version of a fabled dish that’s both lowbrow and beloved, you just might discover New Mexico in a bag. IT ARRIVED IN A SMALL yellow bag, cut open lengthwise, with piping-hot red chile, ground beef, and beans poured directly over the corn chips inside, all topped with diced onions, yellow cheese, and lettuce.
New Mexico Magazine Link to Story
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One Widow's Quest to Make Border Patrol Pay for Killing Her Husband

Her husband died after being beaten and tased by border agents, and now Maria Puga gets a chance to shame the United States in an international tribunal.
Vice Link to Story
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The Immigrant Crackdown Is a Cash Cow for Private Prisons

Detaining immigrants has turned into a very lucrative growth industry. Earlier this month, Daniel Ragsdale, the second-in-command at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), confirmed he will be leaving his position to work at GEO Group, the nation's second-largest private prison company.
Vice Link to Story
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Oaxaca's revolutionary street art

"The simple act of sticking something out on the street means now you are a criminal," said Ivan Michel, one of the artists. "Our art counters and is subversive. [It is] social and, in some cases, it's political," added Mario Guzman, another ASARO artist, speaking about the collective's mission to provide alternative commentary to the state-driven narrative which permeates Oaxacan society and silences dissent, often violently.
Al Jazeera Link to Story
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This Formerly Undocumented Woman Is Teaching Her Fellow Immigrants to Know Their Rights

After her husband was jailed for entering the United States without papers, Gabriela Casteñeda vowed to help her peers live without fear. On a Wednesday morning in February, 25 undocumented immigrants sat in a crowded Sunday school classroom at the Holy Spirit Catholic church in Horizon City, a neighborhood on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas.
Narratively Link to Story
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Families Are Reuniting with Their Deported Loved Ones in the Middle of the Rio Grande

Vice Link to Story
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Voices from the border: Opposing Trump's wall

Al Jazeera Link to Story

About

Samuel Gilbert

Began my career in the Ramallah, Palestine. Freelanced in the region for 2 years before being accepted to the Investigative program at Columbia University. Currently based in New Mexico

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