Together At A Distance: How One Doctor’s Family Is Navigating The Risk Of COVID-19

As the Director of Microbiology at a hospital in Rochester, New York, Dr. Roberto Vargas has been working long hours in the lab running COVID-19 tests.

Because of the risk of exposure, he’s been isolating himself from his wife, Susan, and their four young kids over the past two months. At first, he stayed at a hotel near his job, but more recently, he’s moved into the basement of their home.

That’s where Roberto was when he recorded a remote StoryCorps interview with Susan, and their 10-year-old son, Xavier, to talk about what it’s like having to keep their distance from him, even at home. 

Top Photo: Roberto Vargas (left), Xavier Vargas, and Susan Vargas at home in Stafford, New York on May 16, 2020. Courtesy of the Vargas Family.

Originally aired May 29, 2020, on NPR’s Morning Edition. 

Waving Goodbye: Remembering a Mom Who Was “Strong In Everything”

A lesser-known part of StoryCorps’ work happens in StoryCorps Legacy, which gives people with life-threatening illnesses the chance to record their story, and their loved ones a chance to remember. Over the past nine years, we’ve recorded over 2,000 interviews through the program. 

In this recording, we hear from Maria Rivas, who remembers her mom, Julia Medina. Julia was a single mom who raised ten children while working as a cleaning woman in Fresno, California. 

For the last six years of Julia’s life, Maria took care of her mother as her health deteriorated.

She came to StoryCorps to share her mom’s story with Caroline Dezan, a social worker at Hinds Hospice. 

Top photo: Caroline Dezan and Maria Rivas at their StoryCorps interview in Fresno, CA on April 4, 2014. Courtesy Caroline Dezan. 

Middle photo: Maria Rivas poses with her mom, Julia Medina, at a Christmas in the years before her mom got sick. Courtesy Maria Rivas. 

Bottom photo: Maria Rivas poses with a picture of herself and her mother, as well as the picture of her mother waving as she drives away. Caroline Dezan for StoryCorps.

This interview was recorded in partnership with Hinds Hospice as part of StoryCorps Legacy, which provides people of all ages with serious illness and their families the opportunity to record, preserve, and share their stories by partnering with organizations across the country, including hospitals and clinics, pediatric centers, hospice and palliative care departments, and disease-specific organizations. 

Originally aired September 20, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition. 

A Mother’s Fears as Her Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Expires

In 2000, Maria Rivas immigrated from El Salvador to the United States. A year later, Rivas received Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to stay and work legally in the U.S.

TPS is set to expire for people from El Salvador in September of 2019. But if Rivas is forced to leave the U.S., she won’t risk taking her American-born children with her — and her 15-year-old daughter Emily will stay behind to live with close family friends.

She sat down at StoryCorps with Emily to talk about their uncertain future, together or apart.

Top photo: Maria Rivas and her daughter Emily at their StoryCorps interview in December 2018. By Mia Warren for StoryCorps.

Bottom photo: Maria Rivas and her daughter Emily in 2007, when Emily was four years old. Courtesy of Maria Rivas.

Originally aired January 11, 2019, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

NYC Sanitation Workers on Lessons Learned While Picking Up Garbage

Sanitation workers Angelo Bruno (above left) and Eddie Nieves (above right) worked together for nearly 10 years on the same garbage route in Manhattan’s West Village and became fixtures in the community.

After 31 years on the job, Angelo retired in 2010. That same year, he came to StoryCorps with Eddie to share the unexpected lessons he learned along the way and what he still misses about the job. Eddie starts their conversation.

In 2016, Eddie joined Angelo in retirement from sanitation work, but occasionally walks their route to keep in touch with old friends.

Click here to watch “Clean Streets,” the StoryCorps animated short of Angelo and Eddie’s story.

Top Photo: Angelo Bruno and Eddie Nieves at their StoryCorps interview in 2010.

Originally aired September 3, 2010, on NPR’s Morning Edition. A rebroadcast aired on August 31, 2018 on the same program.

An Eyewitness Details the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

On June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy won California’s Democratic primary in his bid to become President of the United States. That night, after his victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Kennedy was shot in the head and neck in what turned out to be a successful assassination attempt. He died the following day.

In a famous photograph taken seconds after he was shot, Kennedy lies on the floor. A teenaged hotel busboy kneels beside him, cradling the Senator’s head. That busboy was Juan Romero, who came to the United States from Mexico as a child.

At StoryCorps, Romero remembered the night of the assassination — and how he met Senator Kennedy the day before, when Romero helped deliver his room service.

Top photo: Juan Romero at home in California holding a photo of himself and Senator Robert F. Kennedy that was taken the night Kennedy was assassinated. The photo he holds was taken by Boris Yaro of the Los Angeles Times.

Bottom photo: Hotel busboy Juan Romero cradling Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s head after Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California on June 5, 1968. Photo by Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

Originally aired June 1, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Jessi Silva and Maggie Marquez

Maggie Marquez and Jessi Silva grew up in the desert town of Marfa, Texas in the 1950s. At the time, segregation of Latino and white students was not legal. However, Marfa’s school system — like many others in the Southwest — practiced de facto segregation, in which Latino and white children attended different schools.

In Marfa, Latino children attended the Blackwell School. Many of the students spoke Spanish as their first language.

Both Maggie and Jessi were students at Blackwell. They came to StoryCorps to remember the day their school banned students from speaking Spanish in a ceremony called the “burial of Mr. Spanish.”

In 2007, a group of Blackwell alumni, including Maggie and Jessi, returned to the school grounds, where they buried a Spanish dictionary and dug it up in a symbolic ceremony to “unearth Mr. Spanish.”

In recent years, a local organization, the Blackwell School Alliance — in partnership with Marfa Public Radio — is collecting oral histories featuring the voices of former students. Listen to more of their stories.

Top photo: Jessi Silva and Maggie Marquez on the grounds of the Blackwell School. By Sarah Vasquez for StoryCorps.

Bottom photo: A group of students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance on the grounds of the original Blackwell School. Courtesy of the Marfa and Presidio County Museum.

Originally aired October 20, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Emily Addison

On June 12, 2016 a lone gunman killed 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Among those killed was Deonka Drayton. She was 32.

Deonka left behind a young son and her co-parent, Emily Addison. At StoryCorps, Emily sat down to remember her.

Originally aired June 9, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

There were hundreds of people at Pulse the night of the shooting, and some were able to escape in time. Christopher Hansen is among those who survived that night. It was the first time he’d ever visited Pulse, having just recently moved to Orlando. He came to StoryCorps to remember what happened that night.

These interviews were recorded in partnership with WMFE and the Family Equality Council. In March, StoryCorps recorded 14 conversations in Orlando, Florida about the Pulse nightclub shooting and the lives that have been deeply affected by the tragedy. The project welcomed survivors of the shooting, friends and family members of lost loved ones, and community organizations who have been vital in the aftermath to record their experiences, and focused on capturing stories from the LGBTQ community. In addition, WMFE used the StoryCorps app to collect stories from the broader Orlando community, in a project they called Taking Your Pulse.

Top photo: Deonka Drayton with her son, Diyari. (Photo courtesy Emily Addison)

Middle photo: Emily Addison and Deonka Drayton with their son, Diyari. (Photo courtesy Emily Addison)
Bottom photo: Christopher Hansen at StoryCorps

Chris López and Gabe López

Chris López always knew there was something different about her youngest child, Gabe. Assigned female at birth, Gabe felt like he was a boy.

Gabe was always more comfortable in clothing traditionally worn by little boys — cargo pants and superhero shirts — but switched back and forth between these outfits and those often worn by little girls. Just after his seventh birthday, he convinced his parents to let him cut off his long hair and get a mohawk — a haircut he had been wanting for years. Around this time period, Gabe started dressing only as a boy and answering exclusively to “he”.

At first, Chris was concerned that Gabe, being so young, might change his mind. She was scared of how people would treat him as he transitioned. But after seeing how Gabe responded to the changes in his hair and clothing, she felt confident that he had made the right decision.

Gabe, who’s nine years old now, has been attending the same school since kindergarten. In the fall of 2016, when he started third grade, he began having others refer to him by his preferred gender pronouns —”he” and “him” — for the first time.

In 2015, the López family attended a camp for transgender, gender creative, and gender non-conforming youth in Tucson, Arizona.

Gabe and his mother came to the StoryCorps MobileBooth to talk about how that camp transformed his life.

A version of this broadcast aired May 1, 2016, on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, and was rebroadcast on March 3, 2017, on NPR’s Morning Edition. 

Middle photo: Gabe López. Courtesy of Chris López.
Bottom photo: The López family.

Francisco Ortega and Kaya Ortega

Growing up in rural Tijuana, Mexico, Francisco Ortega was among the youngest of his family’s 10 children. In 1975, his parents made the difficult decision to leave him and his siblings in the care of his beloved aunt, Trinidad, and move to Los Angeles to find work. Once there, his father worked as a busboy and his mother as a seamstress in a clothing factory; each month they sent back money for food and clothing.

Only about 6 years old when his parents left, Francisco was an intuitive, energetic, and excitable boy. He spent hours playing in the hills and fruit orchards of Tijuana, and chasing rattlesnakes with his dogs. He also acted up a lot and often gave his aunt a hard time.

He didn’t see his parents for nearly three and a half years, and couldn’t understand why they left. He missed his mother terribly but through hard work his parents became more financially stable, and in 1978, 9-year-old Francisco joined them in Los Angeles.

At StoryCorps, Francisco—who works to strengthen relationships between the Los Angeles Police Department and the community—shares memories of his childhood in Tijuana with his 16-year-old daughter, Kaya, and tells her about the day he left Mexico to reunite with his parents in Los Angeles.

Originally aired December 16, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Above: Francisco and his younger sister Ana after arriving in Los Angeles in 1978. Photo courtesy of Francisco Ortega.

Fred Davie and Robert Sanchez

Robert Sanchez is a social worker who helps people coming out of prison find work and get the support they need. He has a unique understanding of his clients’ struggles because in 2001, Robert was released from New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility after serving 15 years for a nonviolent drug offense.

Robert has also recorded StoryCorps interviews with those who have helped him over the years. In March 2010, his conversation with Felix Aponte was broadcast on NPR. More recently, he sat down with Fred Davie, a long-time mentor and friend, to thank him for the spiritual support he has provided.

A Presbyterian minister who heads the Union Theological Seminary, Fred met Robert in 1998 when he was visiting Sing Sing and Robert was working towards his master’s degree in Theology. They struck up a conversation and made an instant connection, and after Robert’s release, Fred helped him navigate the difficult process of navigating work, interpersonal relationships, and fatherhood.

Both men have remained outspoken about the importance of providing guidance and support to individuals following their incarceration, and together they developed the Ready4Work reentry program, which provides mentoring and job counseling to former prisoners to help with their transition and avoid reincarceration.

At StoryCorps, Robert and Fred remember their first meeting, and discuss how their relationship has grown since.

Robert and Fred’s conversation was recorded through the StoryCorps Justice Project, which preserves and amplifies the stories of people who have been directly impacted by mass incarceration. The Justice Project is made possible, in part, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge, #RethinkJails and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

Originally aired December 2, 2016, on NPR’s Morning Edition.