Tracy L. Barnett

Tracy L. Barnett is an independent writer, editor and photographer specializing in environmental issues, indigenous rights and sustainable travel. As a bilingual author and journalist, she has written in English and Spanish for a wide range of magazines and newspapers including the Washington Post, BBC, USA Today, National Geographic Traveler en Español, Esquire Latin America, Thomson Reuters and Huffington Post. More details can be found here.

By this Author

Sex workers in their skin-tight dresses and high heels leaning on the green sidewalk barriers are a common sight along Circunvalación, one of the main thoroughfares through La Merced. (GSR photo/Tracy Barnett)

Nov 24, 2022

For 'sacred' women in the sex trade, Mexican sisters offer a healing space

In Mexico City's La Merced district, the Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer and helpers, wearing the blue vest of Casa Madre Antonia, walk the streets to offer a hand and encouragement to women in prostitution.

The sisters and their helpers pose in the patio of La Palmita for a photo after a recent abordaje, or outreach session in the streets of La Merced. From left are Novice Sister Isaura, Sr. Manuela Rodríguez, Mariana Gutierrez, Cecilia Martínez, Sr. María Rosas, Sr. Carmen Paz and journalist Tracy Barnett. (Courtesy of Tracy Barnett)

Nov 24, 2022

Reporter's notebook: At home and on the streets with Mexico City's sisters

The sisters of Casa Madre Antonia in Mexico City dedicate their lives to helping women break free from the chains of prostitution. With active listening and deep empathy, they weave a unique story with each woman, valuing their cultural heritage and helping them find new ways to make a living. Join our reporter on this journey that will show you the hope and humanity that arise from a complex reality.

In the Matamoros camp on the Mexican side of the U.S. border, Esmeralda, a community leader from Honduras, pauses in wielding a pickaxe, digging a ditch to keep water runoff from her improvised kitchen from muddying the path below. (GSR/Tracy L. Barnett)

Mar 02, 2020

In a village of tents, refugees make a life as they wait on US asylum

Among hundreds of U.S. sisters serving at the border, Sr. Mary Alice McCabe helps with asylum applications in the Matamoros refugee camp, where some 2,500 have been stalled by the "Remain in Mexico" policy.

Oct 07, 2019

A time of hope for social leaders of Oaxaca Archdiocese

With Pope Francis' appointment of Archbishop Pedro Vázquez Villalobos last year and the early success of the diocesan Social Pastoral School that Fr. Martín García Ortiz helped found, things seem to be turning around for Oaxaca.

Oct 07, 2019

Oaxaca Archdiocese's new Social Pastoral School goes beyond charity toward community change

There is a new wave of social pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Antequera, Oaxaca, where food sovereignty and community ecological empowerment is taking place through a new Social Pastoral School. About 34 parishes have organized new social pastoral groups or reactivated or reorganized old ones, and 100 people have been through the school's first course.

Sep 10, 2019

Q & A with Sr. Pilar Chagoya, rebuilding the social pastoral mission in Oaxaca

Feb 18, 2019

Panama: Catholic sister considers dam a violation of indigenous people's right to religion

The Barro Blanco hydroelectric project submerged the ancestral cemeteries of the Ngäbe-Buglé nation and damaged their sacred petroglyphs, around which healing ceremonies were performed and where nearly 40 communities paid tribute to Chief Tabasará.