Volume 11 Issue 1 | Fall 2019
A Middle Eastern Story How major news outlets perpetuate stereotypes of Middle Eastern countries
Editorial
Multimedia
Editor-in-Chief Renata S. Geraldo
Multimedia Director Jassy McKinley
Managing Editor Marin Stuart
Engagement Editor Emma Moyers
Associate Editors Kiki James Abigail Winn
Multimedia Producers Sarah Miller Meg Matsuzaki Fallon Dunham Jassy McKinley Emily Cline Allyssa Ogaard
Creative Art Director Emma Nolan
Photography
Illustrators Eleanor Klock Garrett Dare
Photo Editor Payton Bruni
Designers Nicole Williams Samantha Nguyen Christina StaprĂŁns Grace Payne
Business
Writing Copy Editor
President and Publisher Bill Kunerth
Sophie Bange
VP of Operations Kathy Carbone
Writers Abigail Winn Allie Holt Molly Schwartz Jade Yamazaki Stewart Payton Bruni Julia Page
Director of Sales & Marketing Jamie Lanz Creative Director Cole Petroccione
2 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
Photographers Jade Yamazaki Stewart Julia Page
Letter from the
Editor avid Remnick, The New Yorker's editor; Ben Bradlee, former The Washington Post editor; and Graydon Carter, former Vanity Fair editor, are household names for any editor-in-chief. Under their leadership, their newsrooms created great journalism. But it's a misconception to think that the editor has full power over the newsroom and the journalism it produces. Indeed, editors do have a say over what gets published, but they are only a guide. The true power in a newsroom comes from the team – writers, photographers, designers, multimedia producers, illustrators and other editors. But something that editors can do that can lead to great journalism was introduced this year at Ethos: fact-checking. Editors must serve readers, not ourselves or writers. And there is nothing more important to Ethos readers than the truth. Just like we’re debunking untruths and half-truths by fact-checking our stories, we’ve also unexpectedly debunked misconceptions in this edition of Ethos Magazine. Our writers have tackled how migraines are wrongfully perceived as headaches, how the digital influencer world goes much beyond our phone screens, how tourism in Portugal can be good for the economy but also a source of gentrification, how the Middle East is often victim of a single story, how New
Zealand can go above people’s expectations and how a man who was wrongfully convicted can turn his life around. It’s part of human nature to label things and people around us, but it’s not part of the human experience to fit into these predetermined roles. Our writers went outside their comfort zone to get stories that reflect these raw human experiences and they did a great job at it. So here's an invitation to break down misconceptions. Read these stories, take them in with an open mind and hopefully you'll be able to see the world with a different lens. Ultimately, editors have succeeded if all the writers, designers, illustrators, photographers and other editors succeeded in putting together a magazine that gives readers the truth. The Ethos Magazine Fall Issue of 2019 is that magazine. So here's to new lens and deconstructing misconceptions. Enjoy,
Renata S. Geraldo Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 3
Contents
Chronic Migraines Young people battling invisible chronic pain in their teens share their story Focus
08 Social Media Dream
Chinese Italian inuencer speaks out about the pressure of the digital spotlight
4 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
14
Features
11 Wrongful Convictions Ruben Pinuelas spent 12 years in solitary conďŹ nement for a crime he did not commit. He is not an anomaly. Features
New Zealand A hidden travel destination offers tourists a new way to experience New Zealand Ethos World
22
Our Story Ethos is a nationally recognized, award-winning student publication. Since our inception as Korean Ducks magazine in 2005, we’ve worked hard to share a multicultural spirit with our readership throughout the university and Eugene community. Ethos is, after all, defined as the fundamental characteristic of a spirit, people or culture.
Middle East Stereotypes How major Western news outlets have shaped the way we see the Middle East
Throughout our pages and on our website you’ll find unique, multicultural stories ranging from Eugene restaurants to international human rights debates. Our readers pick up Ethos to explore ethical, journalistic storytelling, beautiful photography and illustrations and innovative designs. We embrace diversity in our stories, in our student staff and in our readership.
Ethos World
28 F*?! Tourism
Ethos recieves support from the ASUO. All content is legal property of Ethos except when noted. Permission is required to copy, reprint or use any content in Ethos. All views and opinions expressed are strictly those of the respective author or interviewee. Ethos is a publication of the Emerald Media Group.
The effects of tourism on housing affordability in Porto, Portugal Ethos World
36 Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 5
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Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 7
I
Written by Allie Holt Illustrations by Elenor Klock
wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring from my phone. I groggily turn it off and check the time: 6:30 a.m. My writing class starts at 8 a.m., and I need to get ready. As I sit up, I begin to feel a pulsating pain rush through the right side of my head. I squeeze my eyes shut as I clutch my head in my hands and lay back down. I can’t afford to miss class again, but I can’t physically move. I feel as though I’m going to throw up from the pain. It’s a pain that I’m all too familiar with: a migraine. My boyfriend wakes up next and sees the pain that I’m in. I give him a head nod, signaling that I can’t go to class again. He gets up out of bed quietly, leaving the lights off, and shortly returns with an ice pack. I place it on my forehead. I’m not supposed to take my prescription during the day, but I do it anyway. I wish Tylenol or ibuprofen worked, but I have nothing else to help take the edge off. I close my eyes, waiting for sleep to take the pain away, knowing that I’m bedridden the rest of the day. For the past six years, I’ve woken up not knowing how my day will be. Whether it will be a normal day or one filled with pain, the daily uncertainty is not new to me. I’ve been living with chronic migraines since I was 13 years old due to a concussion. This “mild” concussion happened when my brother accidentally dropped me on my head as we were wrestling outside. After it had happened I lost my vision for six months, and doctors could not figure out why.
8 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
After multiple MRI scans my neurologist discovered that I was born with Chiari Malformation, a growth where the brain tissue extends into the spinal cord. The growth intensified my concussion symptoms, and that was why I was left temporarily blind. After the concussion symptoms subsided and my vision came back, I noticed that my head was constantly hurting. That’s when I was diagnosed with chronic migraines and Chiari Malformation. Migraines are recurrent, throbbing headaches that typically affect one side of the head and are often accompanied by nausea and disturbed vision. In order to be diagnosed with chronic migraines you need to be getting them at least 15 times a month. For the past six years I have met these standards, getting migraines sometimes more often than that. As a college student trying to balance classes, work, social life and relationships, I have to remember that I’m spending most of my month in agonizing pain. The first way I can tell that I’m about to have a migraine is when my environment is no longer controlled. This can happen if I’m in a very noisy area, the lights are fluorescent or the smells are too intense. The scent-filled store Bath & Body Works is a great example; I have never been able to go near that store for more than 10 seconds without it triggering a migraine. If I’m shopping with friends or on a break from my retail job I avoid that store as if my life depends on it.
Because of chronic migraines, I’ve had to avoid a lot of places, but I’ve learned how to make my own accommodations. Sunglasses and earplugs with noise reduction headphones over them are my go-to for concerts. I can still hear, see and feel the music without feeling like my head is getting nailed by a jackhammer. When I go to bed, I wear an eye mask that doubles as an ice pack to help release any tension before I sleep and hopefully prevent waking up with a migraine. But no matter how hard I try to avoid them, migraines are sometimes inevitable. One day I’m in bed trying to sleep it off, and the next I’m trying to pay attention in class while attempting to avoid the bright fluorescent lights. Kendall Culley is a sophomore at Southern Oregon University who started getting migraines earlier this year. She does not know yet what the underlying cause of her chronic pain is, but still maintains a positive attitude about it. “Some days aren’t the best and then having a migraine doesn’t make it better, but most of the time I can stay happy and positive, which also helps distract me from it and makes it a bit better,” she says. “It’s the best I can do sometimes, is to just push on and look at the positive, even though I’m not feeling that great.” While attending college and having a part-time job, Culley says she wishes the people in her life could understand how chronic migraines have affected her. There are days when you can’t do it all at once, but that doesn’t mean you can never do it all. “I have had many people discredit my migraines, and it’s hard to explain because some people don’t understand how bad it hurts but that I’m still there pushing through the pain,” she says. A normal day in my life with chronic migraine is
unpredictable. Although I am a full-time college student and have a part-time job, I still have to acknowledge that sometimes I can’t do both. There are days when I can’t go to class and days when I have to call out of work. According to the American Migraine Foundation, migraines might be linked to genetics, and one in five women suffer migraines, compared to one in 16 for men. Chronic migraines can also be caused by other factors, such as concussions, car accidents or a medical condition. One out of 11 adolescents get chronic migraines, but are often left undiagnosed. It’s difficult to know why migraines, especially in adolescents, are overlooked. Also according to the American Migraine Foundation, “Migraines in children and teens often goes untreated because, unlike adults, children have a more difficult time understanding the pain and disruption caused by their migraine.” Adolescents’ pain might also be overlooked because doctors and school officials see it as just a headache, or as an excuse to get out of school for a day. Last year I was referred to a doctor who was a migraine specialist. She said that the pain was all in my head and that my neurologist was purposely giving me the wrong dosage of medication. I never went back to that doctor again. Author and activist Charlotte Laws, who has had chronic migraines since she was a toddler, says doctors and practitioners often don’t acknowledge migraines as they should. In her case, this could have been because she was only a child or because they misunderstood her pain. Doctors will often downplay a migraine, making the sufferer feel as though their migraine is not as bad as it truly is. “The migraine sufferer usually knows way more than his Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 9
“You’re fine” “You’re just trying to get out of work”
“The pain is all in your head”
“Oh, it’s just a headache” “You’re being dramatic” or her doctor about migraines,” Laws says. “I always have to teach my doctor about a migraine as he or she desperately flips through medical books trying to keep up with me.” Despite suffering from migraines from a young age, Laws says she was only diagnosed when she was18 years old. She called her childhood migraines “eye aches” because she did not know what migraines were. “My adoptive parents called me a hypochondriac throughout my childhood because they thought I was exaggerating or inventing the pain. The migraine episodes lasted for three days nonstop during childhood,” she says. Her pain was so great that she occasionally considered taking her own life. “After days and days of nonstop pain, sometimes I thought about suicide. I remember this happening as an adolescent and teen,” she says. “I would get desperate to stop the pain. There were times that I actually beat my head or banged it against a wall — this did not make me feel better, by the way. I don’t have these suicidal thoughts anymore.” There is no cure for chronic migraines. There are many different medications out there that I have tried: Maxalt, Imitrex, Sumatriptan Injections, Topamax. But my body eventually gets used to certain medications, and they no longer work. Maybe someday scientists will create a medication that completely alleviate my migraines. Maybe they will release a special tool that will predict migraines for me days in advance. But Laws doesn’t see that happening soon, because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sometimes makes decisions for those who suffer from chronic pain. “I used to take the medicine Cafergot PB which worked really well for me, but at some point the FDA decided it was ‘not 10 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
necessary,’” she recalls. Not only does the FDA do this, but so do insurance companies. Insurance companies have a habit of denying coverage of necessary medications that migraine sufferers need. I’ve encountered this problem with my own insurance company; they denied certain medications simply because they felt as though I didn’t need it. It’s no secret that migraines can affect someone’s career, relationships and social life. I feel like my pain is treated as an inconvenience for everyone except me, and I’m glad I’m not the only one this happens to. Laws mentions that one of the ways migraines have affected her social life is when she was pregnant with her daughter, as the medicine’s possible side effects could harm the baby. “It was nine months of a total nightmare,” she says. Migraine sufferers have to deal with the stigma that migraines are overexaggerated headaches, and that our chronic pain is invalid. Sometimes we don’t feel heard or accepted because of it, and that can make life very difficult. Just because you can’t see that I’m having a migraine doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. My migraine episodes tend to last anywhere from six hours to two full days. When this happens all I can do is sleep, minimize my screen time and use any resources to make the pain minimal. It feels as though I have to put my life on pause whenever I get a migraine, and there isn’t anything I can do to change that. As I lay in bed waiting for the throbbing in my brain to end, I remember that I am not the only person suffering from this disabling pain. I hope that someday those who don’t suffer from chronic migraines understand that migraines are more than just a headache.
Chiara Cheng, a student at the University of Oregon with over 50,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, has a prospering presence online but faces unique stresses as a result. Photos by Payton Bruni
Beyond a Social Media Dream
Digital influencer Chiara Cheng talks embracing her Chinese Italian identity and the pressure of a spotlight
Written by Abigail Winn Illustrations by Christina Staprãns
C
hiara Cheng, for all intents and purposes, is a powerhouse for her age. At 21, the born-and-raised Italian is a deeply involved student as president of the University of Oregon’s International Student Union and a second-year Resident Assistant (RA), all the while studying accounting in the Lundquist School of Business. Ultimately, her goal is to work for Deloitte U.S., one of the nation’s top four accounting firms. She left her home country two years ago for college, speaks five languages fluently or with considerable proficiency and, based on her current outfit of a tied-waist beige dress over a black T-shirt and chunky shoes, her style game is major. If all that weren’t awe-inspiring enough, Cheng’s side gig is being a social media influencer. She has over 51,000 YouTube subscribers and nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram and holds affiliate deals with fashion retailers such as CupShe and Zaful. To further understand her high-achieving world as a digital influencer, Ethos sat down with Cheng and discussed her internet success, the pressure of being in the spotlight and her identity as a Chinese-Italian woman in the age of 24/7 performance online. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What inspired you to begin creating content on YouTube? I started by doing vlogs. It was a year during [which] I was a crazy fangirl and I used to go to a lot of concerts. I thought it was a good idea to record [them] those days, since they meant so much to me, and just have them somewhere that I could go back to and look when I wanted to. I never imagined getting to the point where I am right now. I was happy with my hundred subscribers and that was it. And then I started getting comments on my video saying, “I’m just like you, I’m a Chinese Italian girl, just seeing your videos and seeing you is really inspiring,” because we don’t have that many Chinese Italian YouTubers. Once I started gaining more followers, I realized that I could talk about things that are not really talked about on the platform and use my identity to actually represent a group that’s in Italy but is not represented.
When was the moment you realized, or felt, you had become’ an influencer? I still struggle to actually recognize myself as an influencer. But I would definitely say it was the end of my senior year of high school and one of my videos trended. And after that video trended, I saw an incredible amount of subscribers following me on Instagram and on YouTube, getting a lot of comments in a very short period of time, and in that moment I realized maybe I was actually stepping up a little bit. I wasn’t just an average YouTuber that has those 50 or 100 subscribers, but maybe I could actually become something more than just that. Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 11
“I FELT EMPOWERED ONCE I NOTICED THAT MORE AND MORE PEOPLE STARTED FOLLOWING ME. IT GAVE ME HOPE. FOR YEARS, I WAS SURROUNDED BY NEGATIVE AND CLOSE-MINDED PEOPLE THAT I ALMOST THOUGHT THAT EVERYONE WAS LIKE THAT” At any point when that was happening, did you ever want it to stop or, on the other hand, want it to continue? I did see the numbers of followers and subscribers as a way to validate myself. The more subscribers I had, the more followers I had, the more value I had. I was in high school at that time and I had a lot of self-esteem issues, so just seeing so many people following me and liking me gave me a lot of self-esteem. But then it got to a point where it started to actually grow. The love grows but also the hate grows as well. And I’m very sensitive and was affected a lot by negative comments. The more people started to follow me, the more hatred I would get. I had this anxiety and stress about having to keep up with my job as an RA, a full-time student also trying to get good grades and involved in clubs and then on top of that, I also had this [job].
With the negative comments, how often are those comments about your race or identity? It’s very common. That was one of the reasons that spurred me to do content but also really affected me. Sometimes people just don’t take me seriously because they just say, “You look Chinese, you can’t talk about Italy because you don’t know anything about Italy, because you’re not Italian.” I’ve always struggled with my identity because nobody ever considers me as Italian even though I was born and raised there. I consider myself as full Italian, although I do recognize my Chinese origins and do appreciate them. But it was very hard to be in an environment where I was the minority. I was one of the two or four girls during my first two or three years in high school that were Chinese or coming from a Chinese background. So I constantly see people mocking my physical appearance because I look Asian. They do get offended sometimes when I talk about some of the negative things about Italy, and they just think that I have no right to talk about them because I am “not Italian” even though I am.
How has being an influencer affected the way that you understand the multiplicity of your identity? From what I understand, you’re full Italian, with origins in China, and if I’m not mistaken from your LinkedIn profile, you speak five languages at varying degrees of fluency. My social media presence and my college experience really influence the way I see my identity and my approach. I used to be very, very insecure about my identity. If you asked me this question a couple of years ago, or even at the beginning of high school, I would say, “I wish I wasn’t Chinese” because I was literally the minority. Every time I wasn’t taken seriously, it was mainly because I looked Asian and I wasn’t the stereotypical Caucasian Italian person. Coming here to a much, much more diverse environment than the one that I was used to just made me really appreciate my Chinese background. But during my 12 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
years in Italy, I really just didn’t want to even talk about my Chinese background. Yes, I have hate comments, but then I have many more people supporting me and just really appreciating me and that really just helped me accept my identity and be proud of it for the first time.
How has it affected the way you connect with people offline? I try to be as understanding as I can. And I try to be understanding because I recognize that some people are just brought up in a culture where they’re not used to recognizing people with different identities and different backgrounds. I actually felt much more accepted here in the [United] States because I suffered so much in Italy. But even if I went back to Italy now and I had to talk to someone, I would just try to be more understanding. And if they say something that is problematic, I would try to think, “Their intentions are not necessarily bad intentions, they’re just ignorant in the sense that they don’t know.” So it’s almost my job. I do want to be the one to help them understand more. And with other Americans, what I really appreciate and that just made me feel very accepted was that I never felt anyone here [was] arguing the fact that I was Italian.
And that wasn’t the case in Italy? Italy sees sometimes minorities as worse; [they] are not as educated and polite. So I always tried very, very hard in school. Also in the way I dressed, I always tried to really fit in, but no matter what, because I looked Asian to them, I was always the Chinese girl. I want to use my platform to start initiating the process of educating people that minorities do exist and they are just as important as the majority of Caucasian Italians.
What got you through when you were feeling particularly isolated or sad? In high school, I didn’t really have a good support system, and even [now] I still struggle to have a good support system. Because of all the experiences that I had to deal with during my time in Italy, I just started building up walls, not wanting to talk about my feelings to anyone, because I just felt like nobody actually understands me. I saw YouTube as an escape, as a way to actually start talking about it. At first I started using YouTube privately, so the people that I knew didn’t know about my YouTube channel. I was okay with it because the people who were watching my YouTube videos were strangers, but strangers that appreciated me. But as I said, I still struggle a lot. Even here in college. I started going to therapy and that helped me ... I’ve realized that trying to let the people around me, my friends in, and just be vulnerable with them. And definitely faith has helped me a lot. I don’t want to appear as the stereotype “religious person,” but during my lowest times I always had this connection with God and have always felt the need to talk to him, you know?
How does your mental health come into play with your identity? How do they affect each other? I’ve always struggled a lot to define my identity and that really affected my mental health negatively. It really hurts when you are not taken seriously just because your skin color is different. For years, I questioned my identity. I started to doubt my authenticity as an Italian person because everyone around me doubted it. It caused trauma that I struggle to deal with even now. It made me feel incredibly insecure and worthless.
In what ways does your social media presence help you escape from the frustrations of racism and prejudice you experience? I felt empowered once I noticed that more and more people started following me. It gave me hope. For years, I was surrounded by negative and close-minded people that I almost thought that everyone was like that, and yet once I noticed that I started to gain more followers I recognized that it wasn’t true. For every bad side, there is always a positive one. I wouldn’t say that social media is a complete escape from racism and prejudice. On the contrary, I would actually say that often times people feel more empowered behind a screen and say the worst things without hesitation. But I would definitely say it helped me a lot to appreciate my identity and it really gave me the confidence that I was lacking during my high school years.
What do you think it means for other people like you to see you be successful on social media?
which there’s this “cancel culture.” On my side I think that it gives me personally a lot of anxiety because I’m constantly scared of doing something wrong, not because I have bad intentions but maybe because I simply just didn’t think about it thoroughly. So I’m constantly scared and I feel like I always have to calculate every single thing that I have to do because I’m scared that if I mess up everybody’s just going to be against me, and that has a very bad effect on my mental health. We’re all human beings, we are allowed to make mistakes but we also want to learn from our mistakes. That goes both ways. I try to be more understanding from my followers when they criticize me but they’re not necessarily insulting me or offending me.
So, ultimately, what do you want your followers to know/understand/take away from your content about your identity? It’s very important for me to just let my followers know that I am a human being. I have feelings and I have a normal life. Because sometimes you see the posts and you think, “Oh, that person has a perfect life, I wish I was them,” but it’s not, because at the end of the day, I have my own problems too and I’m just as human as they are.
Would you want to continue being an influencer and growing your following? I don’t know. I’ve thought about it. I do know for sure that I want to be a successful woman in business, and being an influencer would mean that, too.
Most of the people that follow me see it as an inspiration. I often get direct messages about how me going to the [United] States to study by myself [inspired] them to be more ambitious and determined. It’s nice to know I motivated someone else. My goal really is to spur people to become better people and better selves, especially minority women. I really want to give them the hope to believe that they can be successful, too.
What do you want people to know about working as an influencer that they either don’t understand or have preconceived notions about? I don’t want to sound entitled or spoiled or ignorant, but I feel like sometimes people really think that being an influencer is a dream. I’m not even close to being a professional influencer that does that as their only job, but even in my small situation, I feel really stressed about having to do content, having to post, because I know that it is what is expected of me. I also don’t want to let people down, nor do I want to lose that presence that I have because I’m very proud of my online presence, and that is a big part of my life. I want to keep that up, but I wish people understood that it’s much more than just posting a picture online. And even just posting a picture, sometimes I don’t want to put my makeup on, I don’t want to wear something cute, I don’t want to go out and take pictures or ask people to take pictures of me.
Where do you want to see the ‘influencer’ community go in terms of inclusion? I just always hope that there’s going to be more understanding from the influencers’ part but also from the followers’ part. Sometimes there’s a very toxic environment in Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 13
14 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
The Aftermath An Exoneree’s Fight for Freedom
A
Written by Molly Schwartz Illustrations by Garrett Dare
t 40 years old, Ruben Pinuelas is having the best five years of his life. He graduated from high school and his community college within six days of each other. Since beginning college in 2016, he was a 4.0 psychology student at Pierce Community College in Los Angeles, California, where he won almost every academic award possible. He was a legal intern at the Loyola Project for the Innocent and a judicial intern at the Van Nuys Superior Court. In the fall, Pinuelas is transferring with a full-ride scholarship to Pomona College and his ultimate goal is to become a criminal defense lawyer. He has accomplished all of this after spending almost 12 years in solitary confinement while in prison for a crime he did not commit. I met Pinuelas at Pierce Community College. He greeted me with a smile. He was wearing a blue buttoned up shirt; his hair was dark and he was well groomed. We made our way to the college library, where he
said he spends hours studying. He greeted all the faculty with a handshake, and all the staff members knew him. We entered a small sterile room with a big window overlooking the campus. We sat down. Pinuelas took a deep breath. “I’ve always been known as just this story. The wrongful conviction took a chapter of my life, but it does not define me,” he said. “That’s just part of my story. But I’ve been in such a whirlwind and doing so much since I got out that I really haven’t taken the time to appreciate who I am now, because I’m not the same person.” Pinuelas is one of many exonerees of the criminal justice system. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, from 1989 to 2018 there have been 2,372 exonerations in the United States. In total, innocent people have spent 20,000 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. In 2018 alone, there were 151 exonerations, 45% being wrongful convictions for homicides.
Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 15
Age 10 Moves to El Centro to live with his grandparents
Age 13 Runs away from home and gets involved with drug and gang activity
Age 19 Returns back to Los Angeles to turn his life around
Age 22 Goes to prison for minor drug charges and charged eight months to two years in prison
Age 24 Wrongfully convicted of murder two days before his release
Age 28 Goes to trial for wrongful conviction and is charged with conspiracy to commit muder.
Age 35 Gets released from prison after spending almost 12 years in solitary confinement for a crime he did not commit.
Age 40 Currently going to Pomona College to finish his bachelor’s degree in psychology 16 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
Before Pinuelas was two years old when his parents divorced. He spent time between two different cities, his mother living in Los Angeles and his father living in El Centro. When he was in fourth grade, Pinuelas’s parents decided he needed more stability, so he moved in with his grandparents in El Centro, at the border of California and Mexico. When he was still young, he was in magnet programs such as Upward Bound, a federal program that helps students from lowincome families prepare for pre-college education. But despite his academic success, Pinuelas ran away from home when he was 13 and started getting involved with drugs and gangs. “I don’t know what I was looking for. It was a like a need to belong. I don’t know what it was,” he said. Years passed by, and at 18, he said he was done with being a gang member and ready to leave his criminal lifestyle behind him. But in the border-town environment of Imperial Valley surrounded by drugs and gangs in El Centro, he felt the only way he could escape that lifestyle was by leaving town. He decided to move back to Los Angeles to be with his mother, but she told him that if he wanted to live with her, he had to first turn himself in to the police. He spent a year in county jail in El Centro for his runaway warrant. At 19, he got out and moved to Los Angeles, ready to turn his life around. He lived with his mother and stepfather for three weeks until he earned enough money working at a warehouse to get his own apartment.
was then transferred to King’s County Jail, 25 miles north from Corcoran. While most exonerees are falsely accused outside of the prison system, this was not the case for Pinuelas. He was already in the prison system when he was wrongfully convicted. He was looking at a possible sentence of 60 years to life for a crime he did not commit. Unaware of the accusations and that he would be transferred to another facility, Pinuelas’ mother left to pick him up from Corcoran Prison for his release. Pinuelas said he tried warning her through a letter that he would be transferred, but it did not reach her in time. When she arrived at Corcoran, prison guards told her that her son was no longer there. Pinuelas said that she had a mental breakdown and checked herself into a psychiatric hospital. At 28, Pinuelas was now going to trial for a crime he did not commit. His family raised $250,000 to bail him out for the trial. He spent two years on parole, which he described as “living hell.” He said he was constantly harassed by state officials and they tried to offer him a four year plea bargain, but he refused to accept punishment for a crime he did not commit.
IN MANY CASES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTION, THE STATE WILL NEGOTIATE PLEA BARGAINS SO PEOPLE WILL ADMIT TO CRIMES, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT GUILTY
Periodically, his mother would drop dinner off for him at his apartment. But one day, a police officer saw his mother dropping off dinner and interpreted the exchange as a drug deal. Police officers later searched Pinuelas’ apartment and found, as Pinuelas puts it, “sticks and stems” of marijuana. He was sentenced from eight months to two years at Delano Modified Community Correctional Facility.
Before his eight months were done, a prison riot broke out at Delano. In order to survive, Pinuelas said he had to fight off other prisoners. The incident led to his sentence being extended to two years, and he was put in solitary confinement for the first time, though it wouldn’t be the last. After the prison riot, Pinuelas was then transferred to California State Prison, Corcoran, to finish his two year sentence in solitary confinement. Pinuelas did not want to make prison guards or state officials upset, so he said he complied and patiently awaited his freedom. When he finished the two years in Corcoran, it seemed freedom was near. But two days before his release, on his birthday, he was falsely accused of conspiracy to commit murder against a fellow prisoner. He would not be released. Pinuelas
The state argued that a toilet plunger Pinuelas had used in his cell was a “deadly weapon” and charged him with another 25 years to life or another $250,000 bail, besides the amount the family had already raised. In many cases of wrongful conviction, the state will negotiate plea bargains so people will admit to crimes, even if they are not guilty, says Laurie Levenson, a professor and founder of the Loyola Project for the Innocent at the Loyola Law School.
The Loyola Project for the Innocent is a chapter of the Innocence Project Network, a nationwide organization that works to exonerate those who are wrongfully convicted. Law students work in teams to exonerate innocent individuals. In eight years of being active, the Loyola Project for the Innocent has exonerated nine people. The Innocence Project receives hundreds of letters a day from prisoners and family members, hoping that they will be able to overturn wrongful convictions. “There are false confessions,” Levenson says. “We’ve had egregious cases where the police and prosecutors and their experts have backed up the evidence. I never thought I would see something as blatant as that.” The jury deemed Pinuelas guilty based solely on expert opinion, according to Judge Cornell from the Court of Appeals of California. “This is a case in which a jury accepted opinion as fact. While in many respects expert testimony was necessary, much of the
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During expert testimony was based on nothing more than speculation and conjecture,” reads the Court of Appeals’ People v. Pinuelas. The District Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles declined to comment on the case. The prosecutors worked with the expert witnesses to try and frame evidence to fit the trial. The key witness was Ryan Couch, the correctional officer at Corcoran State Prison. He argued that Pinuelas was one of the leaders of the prison yard and that the conversations Pinuelas had with his mother were code for murder. They then charged Pinuelas’s mother with 25 years to life as an accessory to commit murder. However, Couch had no concrete proof of that, according to People v. Pinuelas. During his time awaiting trial, Pinuelas said he was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity building homes and going to night school at Pierce College. He was trying to leave this case behind him in hopes of being able to move on from his criminal history. He was balancing all of these activities while traveling to King’s County periodically for a murder trial. Eventually his parole was revoked. According to People v. Pinuelas, Pinuelas “had in his possession two notebooks that contained evidence of drug transactions,” but he said the allegations were untrue. His family did not have the money to bail him out again. He was in jail while he awaited the jury’s decision. He thought he would be determined innocent. But he was found guilty based on expert witness testimony. Pinuelas was then sent to Pelican Bay State Prison, the only supermax prison in California, where he spent the rest of his 12 years in solitary confinement. 18 | ETHOS | Fall 2019
Pinuelas was in an 8x10 cell, which he said was meant to dehumanize and desensitize individuals. Everything in the room is the same color of white and the only source of light is artificial. Pinuelas said that solitary confinement is meant to make people go insane. The environment got to his head at times, making him feel depressed. When he was first put into his cell, the correctional officers asked him if he wanted to kill himself. Then, no one checked on him for three weeks. During this time in solitary, Pinuelas said he reached out to different Innocence Projects and lawyers in hopes of achieving justice. He told them he was innocent and his appeal was still pending. Attorneys told him to sit tight. There was still hope. Though he reached out to different people that could help him, Pinuelas decided to become his own attorney. He and his mother saved up money to buy law books. The answer to his freedom was somewhere in those pages. He kept the attention of the appeal alive by filing five Habeas corpuses, which are petitions that he filed in order to force the state of California to address the mishandling of justice that led to his incarceration, from the lack of concrete evidence, such as the toilet plunger, to the wrongful allegations that led to his parole violation. While fighting all Habeas corpuses, his conviction was overturned on grounds of insufficient evidence. After almost 15 years of incarceration, he said, justice was finally served. “I still have the [appeal] letter on the wall,” Pinuelas said with a grin.
After After four months of awaiting his release, Pinuelas was picked up by his mother. He had no clothes except a black paper jumpsuit, but he was free. Pinuelas went into prison at the age of 20 and got out when he was 35 years old. The first year and a half after being released was not easy, he said. Pinuelas still felt alone. He could not find anyone to help him and he had no resources to transition back into everyday life. He said therapists declined to work with him because they did not have the experience to help a person under his circumstances. But during this period of loneliness, Pinuelas began a relationship. He told his girlfriend that the only experience he could relate to was that of a Holocaust survivor because they faced punishment even though they were innocent. She told Pinuelas that if he felt that way, he should seek out a survivor. He went to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles hoping to hear a Holocaust survivor speak. There he met a little old lady who was talking about her experience. “When does the pain stop?” he asked. “It never does,” she said. Pinuelas said he started sobbing uncontrollably.
Pinuelas then returned to school. He excelled at Pierce College, which led him to the opportunity to intern at the Loyola Project for the Innocent. Suddenly, Pinuelas switched roles. He was no longer the person writing the letters and begging for help. He was now an intern, answering letters from inmates who had been in his position. Now, he is about to continue his undergraduate education at Pomona College, where he will obtain his degree in psychology. He plans to pursue law school and become an attorney. “Education is freedom,” Pinuelas said. “Education is what helped me survive solitary confinement. Education is what allowed me to get myself out of the system, out of prison and education is now opening up this whole world. Eventually, I’m literally going to be able to go anywhere in the world because of education.” Despite the thousands of exonerations that have happened over the years, Levenson says that wrongful convictions can be avoided. “We have to stop treating people as disposable,” Levenson says. “Many of our clients are people of color from lower income households, maybe even have lived on the streets or [have had] powerful gang involvement. And we just treat these people as the lesser. And that’s a huge problem.”
“And at that very moment,” he said, “I realized I’m going to be like this for the rest of my life. There’s no healing, There’s no justice, I’m not going to ever find peace.”
Pinuelas was a victim of the criminal justice system for 12 years while in solitary confinement, but he said he still has faith that the system works.
The Holocaust survivor then added, “But it’s not what’s done to us, it’s what you choose to do [about it].”
“When I meet people like Laurie, people at the Innocence Project, future attorneys, I have faith in us and I have faith in myself to make change in the legal system,” said Pinuelas. “It’s a difference of sitting here complaining and bickering about stuff. It’s another thing when we can actually go out and do something about it and we can all make a difference.”
This is part of what inspired Pinuelas to pursue a career in law. The first two and a half years after being released he worked in construction. He said he made good money, but he knew that he was not meant to do construction for the rest of his life.
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Independent Student Media The Emerald has served the University of Oregon with news and information since 1900. 100% of our content is produced by University of Oregon students. We are a non-profit organization, located in the Erb Memorial Union.
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Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 21
A Hidden Gem Exploring Wellington, New Zealand: an unknown destination Written by Julia Page
Colorful houses looking out to Houghton Bay that can be found throughout New Zealand. Photos by Julia Page
“
Y
ou can’t beat Wellington on a good day” is considered a common saying throughout New Zealand’s capital. With rolling green hills, beautiful blue bays and colorful houses scattered high and low, the sights alone can help you understand why. The country of New Zealand consists of two main islands, the North Island and the South Island, and a small island at the very bottom called Stewart Island. The one most traveled to, however, is the North Island, where Wellington is located; a coastal city nestled in on its southern tip.
The Wellington International Airport is located right along the coast, next to a quaint little beach within the suburb of Lyall Bay. The descent into the city reveals an unobstructed view of the city skyline and the ant-sized surfers and dogs playing on the nearby shoreline. The strong northerly and southerly winds that pass through the city yearround help to solidify this capital’s nickname of ‘Windy Wellington.’ Usually these winds makes a visitor’s descent a very bumpy one, but upon my arrival to this coastal city I was met with beautiful sunshine and only a slight wisp of wind. The weather often resembled Oregon’s
during my stay; bright, sunny and cloudless one minute, and stormy and windy the next. Despite visiting during New Zealand’s winter months, the hustle and bustle within Wellington was always present. The wind and rain had no effect on the spirits of the people on the streets or in the pubs. New Zealand is somewhat hidden to the eyes of the world. Its known presence among us is sometimes so limited that it’s often left off of world maps – IKEA made this mistake as recently as February 2019. A little more than half the size of California, its small size causes it to be lost in the looming shadow of its
neighboring country of Australia.
populated cities throughout the country.
But don’t let its size fool you – the city of Wellington alone shows how much the country has to offer (and it’s much more than the filming site of Lord of the Rings).
The reason for this misconception might have been due to New Zealand’s rural atmosphere and isolation. Almost 14% of New Zealand is considered to be rural and remote according to World Development Indicators’ survey in 2016 of comparable statistics. These areas still don’t have reliable phone coverage or internet connection today. Because of its size and distance from most countries, new and developing technologies didn’t tend to reach the country until years had already passed. However, in comparison to other countries in today’s modern world, the percentage of the rural
Although New Zealand is tucked away in the corner of the world map, it isn’t cut off from the rest of the world. Despite not being as up-to-date with technology as the U.S. and other developed countries, the small islands of New Zealand are not completely behind with modern technologies, either. Motor vehicles, cellphones, internet, medical equipment, smart watches and even electric scooters all exist in Wellington and many other
population is quite average and even lower than most; the United Kingdom, for example, had a rural population percentage of a little more than 17% in 2016. Now that modern technologies have firmly taken ahold of the world, new technologies such as computers and televisions as well as everyday popular culture like musical artists and films make it to the populated parts New Zealand almost instantly. Local theaters within larger cities like Wellington provide an easy avenue for the performing arts to be open to the public. Wandering throughout the city’s Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 23
Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, has its own version of the famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California, with a nod to Wellington’s infamous windy weather. Photos by Julia Page
Central Business District (CBD), or downtown area, it feels as though you have stumbled upon a weird combination of old, Victorian architecture mixed with new, contemporary buildings that sit upon slopes, hills and shores. One building that stood out in particular was a Burger King that resided within an old Bank of New Zealand. The red, blue and yellow Burger King sign clashes with the building it is attached to – a white, Victorian-style building built over a hundred years ago. This building sat within the epicenter of an area locally known as the Golden Mile, a popular section of the CBD that’s known for its abundance of shops, restaurants, cafes and pubs. The Golden Mile is visibly more fast-paced than the rest of Wellington. Its nickname is likely due to how much money and time are spent throughout these streets. Office workers, students and tourists alike fill the streets and shops during all hours of the day. Global companies and brands such as Starbucks and Lululemon intermingle with New Zealand-based ones like Mirrou, a clothing store, and Mecca, a high-end makeup shop.
Although I had been to this area as a child visiting my father’s home country, I was still surprised by how much life and energy radiated from this one section of the city. Many students often come here with friends after school to grab a quick after-school snack or a drink at one of the many pubs for those attending university. The bus system in Wellington proved itself to be a reliable source of transportation. Bus lines linking every suburb to the CBD meant access to its shops and restaurants were available to everyone. Having such open access to the city’s center allows the energy of the area to always remain high. Whether it is 7 a.m. or midnight, the Golden Mile is full of lively chatter and exchanges. Even with cloudy nights and rain-filled streets, the energy was surprisingly amplified. The radiant street lights and signs managed to pop out even more within the streets’ shimmering reflections. One of the greatest things about this city is how you can go from a modern, business atmosphere full of busy people and streets to a completely tranquil environment filled with beautiful wildlife and coastal, hilly views; both can be
reached within a 15-minute drive. Throughout the hills of Wellington are thousands of colorful homes. The little dots of blue, yellow and red stand out from the hills’ beautiful greenery. Driving throughout the hills and flatlands, the variety of homes and architecture differ greatly. Homes built within the last couple of decades reflect the contemporary style with many appearing to be uniform and sleek in appearance. In contrast, houses that were built in the 20th century reflect the style of architecture at the time: simple, practical and quaint. Many homes that were built in the early 1900s are reminiscent of English cottages, a glimpse of the United Kingdom’s influence that began with New Zealand’s official founding in 1840 and ended in 1907. The streets of these neighborhood areas are usually narrow, only allowing one car to pass through at a time. These narrows roads were due to limited space between each property; when the original land was sold to its owner, the only space they planned for was for footpaths, since cars had yet to be a common possession. Because the property was privately owned by its citizens, the government had no power to create wider roads. Nevertheless,
these skinny roads have no effect on the atmosphere of any neighborhood. Every resident seems to have learned and adapted to their streets’ condition, continuing to live their everyday life and activities throughout their neighborhood streets. The most common establishment to find on the corner of many of these streets are the neighborhood dairy shops: corner stores known for their delicious ice cream. These beloved dairies usually display the iconic advert for “Tip Top Ice Cream.” One of their most popular flavors is “Hokey Pokey,” a vanilla ice cream with pieces of honeycomb toffee, a classic for many locals. Although these local dairies aren’t as popular as they were back in the 20th century, locals still cherish these markets for their convenience and their childhood memories.
A saxophonist performs at the Meow Cafe for an event curated by the Wellington Jazz Club along with his fellow members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Jazz Orchestra. Photos by Julia Page
Over the years, the dairy shops have become weathered from their year-round beatings by the northerly and southerly winds. The northerly winds tend to come during the summers and springs of Wellington, bringing warmer breezes from the equator. In contrast, the southerly winds blow up from the colder regions, tending to come up during the fall and winter seasons. Both of these winds combined results in a year-round assault on anything it touches, aiding this windy city’s reputation and showing which buildings, like the dairy shops, have been around the longest due to their rough appearances. During the small amount of time there was to explore this city, I visited art museums, saw an opera, competed in an axe-throwing competition, attended a jazz concert, went on a shopping spree, visited a bird sanctuary, befriended a sheep, discovered a board game cafe and ate a seemingly unprecedented amount of meat pies (one of New Zealand’s specialties). It would be quite an understatement to say there is a lot to do in Wellington. Wellington exceeds expectations. Its public transportation made traveling a breeze, its genuinely friendly locals gave a sense of belonging and the laidback culture created a well-balanced atmosphere. From the wide array of local foods and drinks to the beautiful scenery and wildlife that inhabited the land, it’s easy to see the appeal of this little big country. It was a bittersweet goodbye boarding my return flight to California, but I knew that the windy city of Wellington would always be there to welcome me home. Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 25
N
“ I knew that the windy city of Wellington would always be there to welcome me home. “
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ew
N
ew Zealand
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A Single Middle Eastern Story How major news outlets perpetuate stereotypes of Middle Eastern countries Written by Payton Bruni
Houses sprawled out across al-Amarat, Oman, just outside the country’s capital city Muscat. Oman, located in the Arabian Gulf, is an Arabic-speaking country but is home to a diverse population with at least 12 commonly spoken languages in addition to numerous Arabic dialects. Large populations of people hailing from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Baluchistan reside throughout Oman. Photos by Payton Bruni
M
ahfoudha al-Balushi knew about Middle Eastern stereotypes, but she wasn’t sure what questions to expect from people when she came to the University of Oregon from her home country in Oman.
So when a stranger approached al-Balushi on the street and asked how her camels were, she didn’t quite know how to respond. “She thought that I had camels. Imagine. I had no answer for her,” al-Balushi says. “Maybe she was a kind lady, I don’t know what she meant exactly, or maybe she decided from the media that all people from the Middle East are riding camels.” For some people who have never traveled to the Middle East,
when they hear about the region they think about what they’ve seen in the media.They imagine sprawling deserts filled with roaming camels or their minds jump to more grim ideas about ISIS and war. When it comes to the perceived ideas that all Middle Eastern countries are plagued by conflict, the reaction is arguably warranted. News coverage of the Middle East widely fixates on violence. Browse the stories in any major news outlet that has a “Middle East” section like The New York Times and there’s no shortage of headlines such as “Saudi-Led Airstrikes in Yemen Kill More Than 60 in Prison, Rebels say” or “Suicide Bombers Hit Hamas Police Checkpoints in Gaza.” Body counts and bombs are a staple of Middle East news sections.
A rental home located on top of Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain). Housing in Oman follows a similar architecture style reliant on stone and brick to withstand exposure from the sun. In northern Oman where Jebel Akhdar is located, it rarely rains and average temperatures during the summer hover around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Photos by Payton Bruni
Family relatives in Oman eating dates and drinking Omani coffee on the porch of their rental home in Jebel Akhdar. Jebel Akhdar is a popular weekend getaway for families looking to escape from the stresses of work and life in the city. Hotels, rental homes and camping sites are available across the mountain. Photos by Payton Bruni
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dar sa ck rn ns mer eit.
The news can be a helpful, easily accessible source of information to better understand a region and its complexities, but issues start to arise when the news is the sole source of information someone has on a region and its people. Stereotypes start to take shape that may be accurate in some cases but widely fail to reflect reality. Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns of this problem in her TED speech, “The danger of a single story.” “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story,” she says. This issue of the single story has a tendency to plague countries within the Middle East. Oman – a quiet, peaceful country located in the Arabian Gulf – is no exception. Mohamed al-Bulushi, Mahfoudha al-Balushi’s brother who lived in Louisiana for five years while studying for his bachelor’s degree, had many American friends and classmates who believed in a single story about the Middle East.
“When they asked me where I was from and I said I’m from Oman. First of all, they don’t know Oman. They don’t know if it’s a country, a name or something like that,” he says. “When I told them Oman is near Dubai or Saudi Arabia, or that Oman is in the Middle East, they think that, like, ISIS is over there.” Mohamed al-Bulushi was disheartened when he heard this initial belief in the single story, but he says that once he explained Oman is perfectly safe – and ISIS-free – his friends in Louisiana were quick to understand the reality of the situation. “I kept telling them the truth and the facts about what’s happening. That these wars are happening in other parts of the Middle East,” he says. “And it’s not the Middle East actually, it’s just in Syria and a couple of other countries.” Mahfoudha al-Balushi says the single story, reinforced by the media, is precisely to blame for spreading these stereotypes of the Middle East, but the people who believe it are not necessarily at fault. “In one way, you cannot blame them because media is the only source they have. They cannot travel, they cannot see the world, so how would they know what is happening there?” she
uni
Abdulaziz al-Balushi, left, and Fahad al-Balushi, right, laugh during a conversation with one of their relatives. Abdulaziz al-Balushi and Fahad alBalushi speak English, Balushi and Arabic. Photos by Payton Bruni
Fall 2019 | ETHOS | 31
says. Chloe Simmons, a master’s student at the UO who spent eight weeks studying abroad in Amman, Jordan, says she had friends and family who knew little to nothing about the Middle East beyond what they heard from the news. “A lot of my friends and family just think of the Middle East as like a blanket statement of a country and they don’t know specific countries within it except for the big ones we hear about in the news like Syria or Yemen,” Simmons says. When Simmons finally returned to the United States from her studies in Jordan, she says the people who were initially against her travel plans were surprised to see her return unharmed. “There was genuine shock that nothing happened to me and that Amman was a safer place than they expected it to be,” she says. Simmons says she used her experiences in Jordan to educate her concerned friends and family to the realities of traveling to the Middle East. “The biggest thing I keep saying to my family is that it is just like here,” she says. “They have a huge idea that it’s all very Bedouin still or that the Middle East is still in the desert and people are traveling by camel. People there still drive cars.”
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Mahfoudha al-Balushi had to dispel stereotypes in many of the conversations she had with Eugenians as well, but she says she was not discouraged by the interactions. “You have to be very patient and explain what’s happening in your country,” she says. “You cannot just say, ‘No, my country is peaceful,’ you have to show them pictures and chitchat with them. You cannot change everything, but at least teach them something about your country.” When it comes to really addressing the issue of the Middle East single story, Mahfoudha al-Balushi and Mohamed al-Bulushi agreed that the key is for people to travel and experience the different Middle Eastern countries for themselves. “Don’t judge a book by its cover. You have to go. If you come to Oman and we know, we take it as our responsibility to take care of you. We invite you to our home, we host you, we give you some coffee and fruit, this is a traditional thing,” Mohamed al-Bulushi says. Mahfoudha al-Balushi explained that this practice of welcoming visitors is grounded in Omani culture. “We welcome people from any part of the world. We don’t mind inviting people over for coffee or food. It’s the culture. It’s how we were raised,” she says. “As a person and as a human being, you really need to experience it for yourself. You need to travel.”
Abdualziz al-Balushi sits with his relatives over breakfast. In Oman and the Middle East, sitting on the floor for a meal is common practice. A thin sheet of plastic is rolled out over the carpet before people sit down to eat and food is placed on top of the plastic for easy cleanup. Photos by Payton Bruni
“We welcome people from any part of the world. We don’t mind inviting people over for coffee or food. It’s the culture. It’s how we were raised.”
Abdulaziz al-Balushi wearing traditional Omani clothing. The hat al-Balushi is wearing is called a kuma and his robe is called a dishdasha. Omanis and Balushi people wear a kuma and dishdasha for just about every occasion. Photos by Payton Bruni
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“ As a person and as a human being, you really need to experience it for yourself. “
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“But this money he makes from travelers wouldn’t be enough to pay for housing inside the tourist-filled confines of the city”
m s i r u o T F*?! ortugal P , to or P in is is r c dability or f f a g in s ou h a e s Travelers cau
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“
Written by Jade Yamazaki Stewart
uck Tourism” is scrawled in white cursive letters across a Pizza Hut advertisement pasted to a dirty white wall next to the south bank of the Douro River in Porto, Portugal. The words run across a blown-up photo of the pictureperfect pizza pie, the letters a finishing garnish for the pepperoni, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and cheese on dough. A two-minute walk downstream, Sandra Baul, an olive-skinned Porto local with smile wrinkles next to her eyes, sells jewelry at an outdoor market on a July afternoon. She is wearing a loose blue dress and the sunlight glinted off her dangly gold earrings and the five bracelets on her right wrist. “I love tourists,” Baul says. The people who wander up to her white pop-up tent where she sells her hand-crafted turquoise and amethyst rings, necklaces and bracelets are all visitors from outside of Portugal. She says that the riverfront market where she works opened ten years ago to appeal to tourists, and that it grows larger every year. It now houses a few dozen booths lined up on either side of a pedestrian street. Most of the vendors sell cork notebooks, lighters and keychains printed with images of Porto. Baul enjoys talking to people from other countries, and she enjoys taking their money. But she admits that tourism in Porto has made life difficult for many locals. Close to 12 million people flew through Porto’s Sá Carneiro Airport in 2018, according to the Airports of Portugal website. That’s a lot of visitors for a city that doesn’t even have 300,000 permanent residents. Invading travelers thirsty for the city’s famous port wine, hungry for its exquisite seafood and eager for photo opportunities with ancient architecture have brought money into Porto. But these tourists, who need places to rest after long days of sightseeing, have caused rents to rise. Baul says that homeowners can charge higher rates for short-term rentals than
for long-term leases, so they frequently choose to rent to visitors over locals. Many Porto natives can no longer afford to live in their own city. The minimum wage in Porto is 700 euros, around $790, per month. Baul said that the least expensive one-bedroom apartments in the city cost 400 euros; estimates from online cost-of-living calculators are even higher. José Maia is an Uber driver and the owner of Port Outside, a company that leads tours in the countryside around the city. He’s a broad-shouldered man with a tightly-trimmed, dark brown beard and short, neatly-styled hair. Like Baul, Maia makes his money from tourism. Many of his Uber passengers are travelers, and he takes tourists to vineyards and farms around Porto through his tour guide company. But the money he makes from travelers wouldn’t be enough to pay for housing inside the tourist-filled confines of the city. He says that the money he used to buy a piece of property and build a large house 30 minutes from the city center would only get him a one-bedroom apartment inside Porto. “It’s too expensive for locals to live in the city now,” Maia says. “They need to live far away.” He has to commute over 30 minutes to the city center, where he picks up most of his Uber passengers. Baul also lives around half an hour from her market booth. Maia worries that if millions of people keep visiting his city every year, Porto’s character will be changed forever and most locals will be driven out. He said that he’s seen other cities that have been destroyed by their own tourism booms. “I studied in Barcelona 20 years ago, and it was a fantastic place with wonderful people,” Maia says “Now you don’t find people like that there.”
Restaurants and bars line the north bank of the Douro river in Porto, Portugal, near the Dom Luis I Bridge. Boat tours for tourists are available at docks along the river. Photos by Jade Yamazaki Stewart
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He said that one reason he takes tourists on tours in the countryside is to reduce the crowds in the city that he worries will ruin Porto. Maia and Baul both agree that tourism benefits their city significantly. They say that because of the tourism boom, historic buildings are better maintained and public transport has improved. “Before the tourists came, the city was dirty,” Maia says. “Now it’s clean.” But they also agree that tourism is gentrifying Porto. They say locals’ apartments are often run-down compared to vacation rentals for tourists. “We need to think about places to live for Porto locals,” Baul says. “We can’t just focus on tourism.”
Across the river from her jewelry booth and the graffitied Pizza Hut advertisement, a four-star hotel is sandwiched between two run-down apartment buildings. The pristine glass doors of the hotel lobby sparkle at sunset. Inside, tourists from around the world can relax on plush black leather armchairs. T-shirts, bras and underwear hang on clotheslines strung from the dirty concrete railings of the balconies of each apartment. Dull, beige paint peels off the wall of the apartment building facing the street, revealing the white undercoat below. At a restaurant a couple of blocks away, people drank local vinho verde wine, ate whole-roasted sea bass and chatted in Portuguese. A group of college students and a professor wearing a straw panama hat sat at a large table in the middle of the restaurant, swilling gin and tonics and yelling in American English.
A wall of the Chapel of Souls stands next to the busy Santa Catarina street in Porto, Portugal. The mosaic depicts scenes from the lives of various saints using the blue and white azulejo tile style. People from all over the world come to Porto to see these mosaics. Photos by Jade Yamazaki Stewart
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Porto Airport Passenger Numbers Francisco SĂĄ Carneiro Airport | Source: portoairport.net
10.767 million
That’s a 275% increase From 2004
Passengers to pass through the Porto airport in 2017
6.372 million Passengers to pass through the Porto airport in 2013
Port o
2.87 million Passengers to pass through the Porto airport in 2004
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