Why It’s Newsworthy: Maria Fernandez, out of Athens, Georgia, has built a life off of selling pupusas. An El Salvadorian savory meat/bean/cheese/vegetable/really anything pocket enabled her to escape domestic abuse and provide for her family. Fernandez moved to Georgia knowing she had no family to receive her and without speaking English. But she came anyway. As a single-mother, she struggled to support her kids and has since built her own family within the community. Watch her story above. 

 

Billy Wright, Mara Nelms, Phillip Hubbard and Matthew Couper are all seniors majoring in journalism in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.