“I remember when I first went to Mexico when I was 11,” says Eder Ruiz Sánchez ’25. “I saw a purple maíz [corn], and also a blue one, and a pink one, and a black one, and it was unlike anything I had seen before. Since then, I’ve always been interested in maíz and how it was engineered by Indigenous peoples thousands of years ago.”

Ruiz Sánchez is currently a Pulitzer Reporting Fellow, working on a story about small-scale corn farmers in Mexico. He first developed an interest in journalism while taking Peace & Conflict in Latin America with Visiting Assistant Professor Michael Wilson Becerril.

“The class was centered on this culminating project, which was writing a journalism article that would be accessible,” says Ruiz Sánchez, “but also condense all the information that we've learned on this specific topic.”

Ruiz Sánchez chose the indigenous Mapuche people of Chile and their struggle for sovereignty to write his final paper on, then studied abroad there in Fall 2023.

Through his friend, Ramiro Hernandez ’23, Ruiz Sánchez learned about an opportunity to pursue his interest in journalism through the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility: the Pulitzer Reporting Fellowship.

“[Hernandez] really pushed this idea of writing and proposing something that you really care for. He wrote about undocumented veterans who had gotten deported after serving in the military,” says Ruiz Sánchez. “That was something that he really cared for because he saw it in his community in the Rio Grande Valley.”

“My family back home in Mexico are campesinos, small-scale farmers,” says Ruiz Sánchez, who grew up in San Rafael, Calif. “When we call home, one of the most common things we hear is like, ‘Oh, our maíz, it's not growing. It's not raining or anything.’ That's where my interest in the project came from, but it wasn't until I talked to [Hernandez] that I realized, ‘This is actually a very important issue.’"

To the Pulitzer Center, Ruiz Sánchez proposed writing a story about corn farmers in San Felipe del Progreso, his father’s hometown, about 2.5 hours outside Mexico City.

“I was really interested in investigating small-scale farmers who are descendants from Indigenous peoples or are actively practicing their Indigenous culture,” he says.

Almost 25% of San Felipe del Progreso’s residents speak an Indigenous language, mostly Mazahua. Small farmers there largely grow corn for themselves and their kin, rather than to sell. For years, they have been struggling with prolonged drought periods and early frosts, but because their crops are not grown to be sold, their stories have been largely overlooked.

For Ruiz Sánchez, taking Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Adrienne Benally’s class, Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States, drove home the idea that people’s ability to grow their own food is important, whether it’s for profit or not. His story focuses on how farmers there are adapting to and preparing for these and other climate change-related challenges.

The Pulitzer Center accepted his proposal, and has supported him throughout the research and writing processes. Pulitzer also paired him with journalist Wil Sands as a mentor, and provided a stipend, in addition to the one provided by the Lang Center, which Ruiz Sánchez used to travel to San Felipe del Progreso and interview farmers.

Ruiz Sánchez is in the process of pitching news outlets, with a focus on Mexican and other Spanish-language publications. His fellowship will be complete when his story is published, but the resources of the Pulitzer Center will continue to be available to him.

“The fellowship is centered around underreported stories,” says Ruiz Sánchez. “I've learned that journalism is one of the ways you can amplify the voices of people who have largely been left out.”