Field Notes Archives

Field Notes: A DEA Agent Inspects a Drug-Smuggling Tunnel Under the U.S.-Mexico Border

San Luis, Arizona: A United States Drug Enforcement Administration official aims a flashlight down a 55-foot-deep drug-smuggling tunnel that spans a distance of nearly 240 yards under the U.S.-Mexico border. Drugs ran north, and weapons and cash ran south.

Pacific Standard Staff

A U.S. Border Patrol agent searches for tracks after a night of surveillance using night-vision equipment as agents carry out special operations near the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

Letter From Campo, California: Hiking the Route Border-Crossers Take From Mexico Into the U.S.

Twenty-four hours in rattlesnake country.

Caroline Benner

Field Notes: Outside a Soup Kitchen for Central American Immigrants

Hermosillo, Mexico: Central American immigrants walk to a soup kitchen for some much-needed sustenance after traveling by Mexican freight train—known among the caravaners as "the beast."

Pacific Standard Staff

Venezuelans wait in a queue in front of the Brazil Federal Police Office in the Venezuela-Brazil border, at Pacaraima, Roraima, Brazil, on February 28th, 2018. According to local authorities, around 1,000 refugees are crossing the Brazilian border each day from Venezuela.

Letter From Boa Vista, Brazil: Exodus From Venezuela

In the Brazilian state of Roraima, newcomers arrive every day by car, bus, and bicycle.

Chris Feliciano Arnold

Field Notes: Looking Out on the Gulf of Mexico After a Storm

Sarasota, Florida: A wedding guest takes a smoke break along the water after a late afternoon thunderstorm.

Pacific Standard Staff

Letter From Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Inside a Safe House for Ethiopian Women

Set off of one of Addis Ababa's main streets is a secret, self-enclosed village. In that village, girls like Raissa—some as young as 11 years old—fleeing bride abduction, early marriage, and other harmful practices have found a refuge.

Annie Hylton

Field Notes: Outside a Rally for Myanmar’s National League for Democracy

Yangon, Myanmar: In 2015, a week before general elections, people attend a rally for politician Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy.

Pacific Standard Staff

The Colorado River is seen at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on April 20th, 2018.

Letter From Phantom Ranch: Meet the Man Who Lives at the Bottom of the Grand Canyon

Sjors Horstman has spent the last 30 years of his life at the bottom of the Grand Canyon as a volunteer for the National Park Service—one of the longest-serving volunteers in NPS history.

Jessi Phillips

Field Notes: At the Scene of the Crime in Manila

Manila, Philippines: In 2016, police investigate an alley where a 37-year-old man was killed by two unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles.

Pacific Standard Staff

Sister Mildred Gross, provincial of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ convent, on October 31, 1992, during a news conference on the recent killing of five of their missionary sisters in Liberia.

Letter From Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Nuns vs. Big Gas

The Adorers of the Blood of Christ, an order of Catholic nuns that define themselves as advocates of Earth, square off against the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline.

Rachel Riederer