A Home on the Field by Paul Cuadros

Selection
Academic Year: 
2007
A Home on the Field

"A Home on the Field" is published by HarperCollins. Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book was, "A worthy social commentary and biographical portrait. . . . the author's description of (the team's) victories is nicely balanced with a broad overview of Latinos' relatively recent migration to the American South, with a conclusion infused with cautious optimism."

Publisher's Weekly wrote, "The team's struggles bring the town conflicts into sharp relief and give Cuadros a sturdy framework for exploring meaty issues of class and ethnic conflict. In alternating terse and tender prose, he delves into his players' backstories and captures their buoyant camaraderie to shape an inspiring underdog's tale without romanticizing the team's painful immigrant realities."

Cuadros has written about issues of race and poverty for more than 15 years. He worked for The Chicago Reporter, where he won several awards for his reporting on housing, health care for the poor, and immigration issues. While working for the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., he helped write the books "The Buying of the Congress" and "The Cheating of America, How the Rich Cheat on their Taxes."

In 1999, Cuadros won an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship and moved to Pittsboro to write about the impact of the large numbers of Latino poultry workers in rural towns in the South.

Following his fellowship, Cuadros joined TIME magazine as a freelance reporter. In 2002, he won the National Association of Hispanic Journalist's online award for his special series for Time.com on an unaccompanied minor who had crossed the U.S. and Mexico border and had been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for more than a year. The series helped to get the minor released from detention.

Cuadros also was a member of a team of radio journalists from North Carolina Public Radio WUNC-FM that won the Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Award in 2005 for the series "Understanding Poverty."

He has received the Inland Press Association Award sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Pew Charitable Trust Award for health care reporting and the National Association of Hispanic Journalist award for on-line reporting.

Cuadros is a freelance writer for TIME, and he continues to write and track the lives of the high school players as they grow up and enter the greater society. He is currently working on a new project involving Latinos in the South and the justice system.

He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Appalachian's summer reading program began in 1997 to help freshmen establish a common experience with other new students and develop a sense of community in their new environment. The program also introduces new students to the academic life and expectations at Appalachian.

For more information about Cuadros or the book, visit www.ahomeonthefield.com.

About the Author
Paul Cuadros

The book by award-winning investigative reporter Paul Cuadros follows the lives of members of a Latino soccer team in Siler City. As the young students struggle to achieve academic and athletic success, the town must contend with its attitudes and perceptions of Latino immigrants.

Cuadros coached the team, which won North Carolina's state soccer championship in 2004.

Cuadros has written about issues of race and poverty for more than 15 years. He worked for The Chicago Reporter, where he won several awards for his reporting on housing, health care for the poor, and immigration issues. While working for the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., he helped write the books "The Buying of the Congress" and "The Cheating of America, How the Rich Cheat on their Taxes."

In 1999, Cuadros won an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship and moved to Pittsboro to write about the impact of the large numbers of Latino poultry workers in rural towns in the South.

Following his fellowship, Cuadros joined TIME magazine as a freelance reporter. In 2002, he won the National Association of Hispanic Journalist's online award for his special series for Time.com on an unaccompanied minor who had crossed the U.S. and Mexico border and had been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for more than a year. The series helped to get the minor released from detention.

Cuadros also was a member of a team of radio journalists from North Carolina Public Radio WUNC-FM that won the Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Award in 2005 for the series "Understanding Poverty."

He has received the Inland Press Association Award sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Pew Charitable Trust Award for health care reporting and the National Association of Hispanic Journalist award for on-line reporting.

Cuadros is a freelance writer for TIME, and he continues to write and track the lives of the high school players as they grow up and enter the greater society. He is currently working on a new project involving Latinos in the South and the justice system.

He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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