Eileen Truax, the established journalist well-known for her journalistic work on Dreamers in the United States and author of the newly-published, critically-acclaimed book, “We Built the Wall,” will be in Philadelphia, visiting Temple University and the Al DÍA newsroom from Jan. 30 - Feb. 3.

Truax’s lectures will focus on her latest book, “We Built the Wall: How the U.S. Keeps Out Asylum Seekers from Mexico, Central America and Beyond,” published in July 2018. In the book, Truax turns her investigative skills, as well as her eye for detail and keen perception of the individual struggles and challenges of those she speaks with, in order to tell the stories of a few of the many individuals caught up in the complex machinery of U.S. immigration and its design to keep out many of the asylum seekers from south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

As the country is literally held at a standstill now due to the insistence on the part of President Trump to demand $5.7 billion from Congress to build a border wall with Mexico, Truax’s insight into the issue, stemming from years of research and reporting on immigration at the border, couldn’t come at a better time.

Temple University and AL DÍA News are teaming up to host Truax as the inaugural speaker in a new, multi-year speaker series collaboration. A book talk on Jan. 31, from 5-6:30 p.m., is open to all members of the public and will be held at the Atrium of Annenberg Hall on the Temple University campus. Truax will then join AL DÍA Publisher Hernán Guaracao for an AL DÍA Talk and reception, also open for registration, at the AL DÍA newsroom at 1835 Market Street on Feb. 1, from 4 - 6:30 p.m.

Truax’s previously published books include Dreamers, an Immigrant Generation’s Fight for Their American Dream, another deep-dive into a timely topic that expertly incorporates the intertwinings of the personal and the political, as well as Mexicanos al grito de Trump: Histories de triunfo y resistencia en Estados Unidos.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Truax got her start in journalism as a political reporter in Mexico, later moving to the U.S. in 2004 to work for La Opinión in Los Angeles, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S. Truax has published her work in U.S., Mexican, and international publications. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and she also co-founded a journalist network called Cuadernos. Colectivo de Cronistas iberoamericanos.

Truax has also received numerous grants and fellowships for her reporting, including some from the International Center for Journalists, the Knight Digital Media Center, the Immigration in the Heartland program, the Inter-American Development Bank Training for Latin-American journalists, and the International Women Media Foundation. In 2010 and 2015 she was awarded the José Martí Publishing Award from the National Association of Hispanic Publications, and in 2010 she was named Media Woman of the Year by the California State Legislature.