Cuadros, Paul

PERSONAL:

Born in Ann Arbor, MI. Education: University of Michigan, B.A., 1985; Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism, M.A., 1991.

ADDRESSES:

Home—NC.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist. Chicago Reporter, Chicago, IL, former reporter; Center for Public Integrity, Washington, DC, former writer and researcher; freelance journalist and author, 1999—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship, 1999; Inland Press Association Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Pew Charitable Trust Award for health-care reporting; National Association of Hispanic Journalists award for online reporting.

WRITINGS:

A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America, Rayo/HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of articles to periodicals and online journals, including Time and Salon.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul Cuadros is a freelance journalist and author who focuses his writing on issues of race and poverty. In 1999 he won an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship to report and write about the migration of Latinos to rural towns in the South. He moved to a small town in North Carolina to study the effects of such an influx of immigration on the region. However, the resulting book, the 2006 A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America, was a much different one from what Cuadros had initially intended. As Maria Sanchez noted on Poynter Online: "Cuadros did not intend such a personal project when he moved near the small North Carolina town of Siler City. He went there to write ‘a wonky Washington journalist's book.’" Instead he wrote a story that included himself in the narrative, for he details how, growing bored with small-town life, he founded a high school soccer team made up largely of immigrant kids, coached them, and won a state championship in just three seasons. In the process, he helped those youths find a place in their new country. Sanchez found A Home on the Field "a nuanced story of immigration."

Other reviewers had similar praise for Cuadros's debut book. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly felt that Cuadros's singular approach to investigating Latino immigration to the American South provided "a sturdy framework for exploring meaty issues of class and ethnic conflict." The same contributor called A Home on the Field a "feel-good read." Similarly, Booklist writer Keir Graff felt Cuadros "offers genuine insight" into immigration issues through his study. Further praise came from a Kirkus Reviews critic, who called the work a "worthy social commentary and biographical portrait."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Cuadros, Paul, A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America, Rayo/HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2006, Keir Graff, review of A Home on the Field, p. 44.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2006, review of A Home on the Field, p. 708.

Publishers Weekly, July 31, 2006, review of A Home on the Field, p. 73.

ONLINE

HarperCollins Web site,http://www.harpercollins.com/ (March 3, 2007), "Paul Cuadros."

North Carolina Writers' Network,http://www.ncwriters.org/ (March 3, 2007), "Paul Cuadros."

North Carolina Public Radio WUNC Web site,http://www.wunc.org/ (March 3, 2007), "Paul Cuadros."

Paul Cuadros Home Page,http://www.ahomeonthefield.com (March 3, 2007).

Poynter Online,http://www.poynter.org/ (November 28, 2006), Mary Sanchez, "From an American Son to His Immigrant Father," review of A Home on the Field.