Best magazine reporting from abroad
AWARD DATE: 2010
AWARD NAME: The Ed Cunningham Award 2010
AWARD RECIPIENT: Alma Guillermopreito and Shaul Schwarz
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: National Geographic
AWARD HONORED WORK: “Troubled Spirits”
In “Troubled Spirits,” Alma Guillermoprieto is working at top form and with enough length to show what she can do in this piece about how gruesome drug violence and economic decline in Mexico underlie an expansion of cults devoted to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of desperate causes, and La Santa Muerte (Holy Death), guardian of the most defenseless, the worst of sinners and also honored by convicts and killers, or celebrating the mythical bandit Jesus Malverde, now a “narco-saint.” The reporting from within Mexico’s prisons and shrines is outstanding, the topic fresh and vital. The judges found the care and intelligence of her work a thrill to read.
Citation for Excellence:
Raffi Khatchadourian
The New Yorker
“No Secrets: Julian Assange’s Mission For Total Transparency”