Open-uri20131231-2-1ma5v8p_thumb

Samuel Gilbert

Journalist

Santa Fe, NM

Samuel Gilbert

31 years old. Degrees in Anthropology and American Studies.

Featured

Open-uri20180725-4-sepxf9_profile

'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
Open-uri20180725-4-b341yy_profile

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
Open-uri20180606-4-3zy3gk_profile

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
Open-uri20180606-4-swj6bq_profile

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
Open-uri20170622-4-1beqcxs_profile

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
Open-uri20170619-4-1tbsq62_profile

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
Open-uri20170328-4-1wvibvy_profile

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
Open-uri20170322-4-1v7ph22_profile

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
Open-uri20170215-4-lk5l8k_profile

Families Are Reuniting with Their Deported Loved Ones in the Middle of the Rio Grande

Vice Link to Story
Open-uri20170211-4-158x6jx_profile

Voices from the border: Opposing Trump's wall

Al Jazeera Link to Story
Open-uri20170619-4-13c4xff_profile

Native Superheroes Battle Old Stereotypes at the First Ever Indigenous Comic Con

The recent event, the first of its kind in the world, represents the growth of the subcultural vanguard of indigenous-created media that is slowly working its way into the multibillion dollar comic industry. For decades Native Americans have been wholly misrepresented in the world of comic books, stripped down to a series of caricatured, homogenized tropes of the American Indian.
Vice Link to Story
Open-uri20161130-4-1gmfoza_profile

Native Superheroes Battle Old Stereotypes at the First Ever Indigenous Comic Con

For decades Native Americans have been wholly misrepresented in the world of comic books, stripped down to a series of caricatured, homogenized tropes of the American Indian. "We have been prostituted and raped in the story world," said Jonathan Proudstar, creator of 'Tribal Force'—America's first all Native American superhero comic.
Vice 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

Open-uri20131231-2-1ma5v8p_profile_large