A Letter From Mexico City, Where We’re Still Supposed to Be on Lockdown

The Pandemic Might Peter Out Before It’s Taken More Seriously

What will happen first—the end of the pandemic, or the beginning of Mexico City taking the pandemic seriously?

COVID-19 hit our side of the world relatively late. That meant that Mexico City, where I live, had one month’s notice to prepare after seeing what was happening in Asia and Europe. Unfortunately, we did not use that advance warning well, and now we are still paying for it. Almost a year after COVID-19 hit us, we have reached approximately 600,000 confirmed cases and 30,000 deaths.

As the city continues to suffer under …

by Greta Ríos | March 18, 2021

To My Pen Pal in Hamburg, Germany, With Love From Watts, California

How a Transcontinental Correspondence Turned Into One of my Most Valuable Friendships

by Shanice Joseph | March 15, 2021

How can we celebrate the people we’ve never met who helped get us through the worst year of our life?

When I was a child, my grandmother often expressed the importance …

A Letter From Northern Michigan, Where Remote Is Not Remote Enough to Escape COVID

A Professor Who Finds a Home in the Upper Peninsula No Longer Has the Heart to Return to the Classroom

by James McCommons | September 3, 2020

Last winter, I felt pressure and spasms beneath my breastbone and went in for a cardiac stress test. Two days later, I left the hospital with a stent in the …

A Letter From Nigeria, Where Coping With COVID Entails Twitterstorms, Bullets, and Corruption | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

A Letter From Nigeria, Where Coping With COVID-19 Entails Twitterstorms, Bullets, and Corruption

Once Again Nigerians Will Adapt to Whatever Their New Normal Becomes

by Otosirieze Obi-Young | June 11, 2020

We wake up on a March morning that feels shaken, the air suddenly colder, drained of one energy and infused with another. The numbers from Lagos have increased again. “We …

A Letter From Beijing, Where There Is No Normal to Go Back to

During Months in Lockdown, a Family Grows Closer and Gets Better at Taking Disappointments in Stride

Interview by Peter Hong | May 19, 2020

In China, people have recently emerged after spending months in their homes. Ching-Ching Ni, editor-in-chief of the New York Times Chinese website, explained to Zócalo how being stuck at home …

A Letter From Quezon City, Where the Stars Have Come Back

In the Philippines, COVID-19 Has Made the Air Cleaner—And Revealed the Nation’s Deeper Challenges

by Ramon C. Casiple | May 7, 2020

It’s amazing how much more you’re able to see when you can’t go wherever you want.

We’re now more than six weeks into the “enhanced community quarantine” for Luzon. Just as …

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