Permission to listen: How I spent a year reporting in Imperial County

There is one word that has been at the center of my mind over the last several months that I spent trying to be present among the many communities of Imperial Valley – intimacy.

It’s not something you can expect from anyone, let alone demand. And maybe in some kinds of journalism, it’s not even necessary. But it was in this case: People who live and work in the Imperial Valley are busy with their lives, and some reporter calling from San Diego most likely won’t get noticed. But that reporter showing up repeatedly just might. 

What’s more, I am drawn to this work because I believe that if you listen to others in a way that creates a fabric of trust, and let yourself rethink what journalism could be for, something new can appear for everyone involved.

Since I joined the inewsource team last September, I have been attending community meetings and events in Imperial Valley, often just to listen – from Salton City to Bombay Beach, from Calipatria to Calexico, from Brawley to El Centro, Imperial to Holtville, and back and forth across the border to Mexicali where I would stay. I walked the streets for hours getting a taste of what it means to spend time in the valley in a year when extreme heat days might break records. 

I walked into businesses at random, I definitely lingered in the library, I even frequented the Imperial splash pad and talked with community members who also needed a refresher. Of course, I got in the water, too. 

It’s reporting by hanging out, as an investigative reporter dear to me once told me.

In March that work became more concrete when I became a California Health Equity and Engagement Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. The center took my very open-ended reporting proposal under its wing: While local leaders in Imperial Valley look to lithium as a potential revenue stream that could transform the region, community members are asking what will come back to them, especially when its rural health care system faces challenges and disparities.

With the help of three community organizations (The Becoming Project, Imperial Valley Equity and Justice and Los Amigos de la Comunidad) and with the support of the fellowship and my leadership team at inewsource, we organized three community listening sessions in Calipatria, Calexico and Brawley. 

Dozens of community members came and shared with us their stories and told us what we need to pay attention to.

I am extremely grateful to everyone who came, let alone to all the folks from the groups I just mentioned who are deeply involved in their communities, working triple time and on top of that said yes to working with us.

I will say this, it’s not the easiest way to go about this job, because, in some sense, you actually have to suspend your “occupational duties.” Reporting like this takes time, and reminding yourself that before you are a journalist you are a person, and that people are not your “sources” but people living and facing the conditions in their own community.

Why should they speak to you at all? I think it’s worth asking that question constantly.

The stories we published this summer on Imperial County health care came from this work. And the approach is one I aim to continue. 

Thank you to all those who said yes, Philip, hang around.