One Year in Uvalde: A Story of Hope and Resilience

by John Quiñones, María Elena Salinas

Overview

From award-winning journalists John Quiñones and María Elena Salinas comes One Year in Uvalde, a narrative that builds on year-long ABC News reporting from Uvalde, Texas, chronicling how the community is forging on through grief with hope and activism in the shadow of tragedy.

Uvalde: 365 was a continuing ABC News series led by the network’s Investigative Unit. As part of the initiative, ABC News opened a local satellite news bureau in Uvalde, Texas, in the aftermath of the tragic mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, that hosted a rotating crew of correspondents, producers, writers, and technical staff. Their gripping, vital reporting has been featured across all programs and platforms, from Good Morning America to World News Tonight with David Muir.

Award-winning journalists John Quiñones and María Elena Salinas became immersed in the Uvalde community, as their field reporting brought them ever closer to the people of this Texas city. Quiñones, Salinas, and other ABC reporters and producers on the ground documented the lives of victims' families; covered local community events; followed city council, school board, and Texas Legislature meetings; and attended congressional hearings in Washington, D.C., where victims' families have been advocating for gun reform.

One Year in Uvalde synthesizes this year-long story into a timely, humane, and important look at a community’s activism and resiliency, as it follows several families and residents while events continue to unfold in the community. The intimate, sensitive reporting of Quiñones, Salinas, and the ABC News team examines a specific time and place in American life, thereby highlighting challenges that we face as a nation.

The authors have made donations to the following charities that serve the Uvalde community:
*The Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation (https://UvaldeCISDMovingForward.org/)
*The Uvalde Forever Fund of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country (www.CommunityFoundation.net)
*Uvalde High School Athletic Department (https://Athletics.UCISD.net)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368107013
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/07/2024
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	52,676
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

John Quiñones was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, just eighty miles from Uvalde. He is the creator and host of What Would You Do?, one of the highest-rated newsmagazine franchises in recent years. During his forty-year tenure as an ABC News correspondent, he has reported extensively for all programs and platforms and has also served as anchor for “20/20 Downtown” and “PrimeTime Live.” Among his hundreds of awards, he has been honored with seven national Emmys, the first of which he garnered for swimming across the Rio Grande, undercover, for a story on undocumented migrants. Quiñones is the proud father of three children—Andrea, Julian, and Nicco, all of whom work in media.

María Elena Salinas is an American broadcast journalist, news anchor, and author who joined ABC News as a contributor and consultant in 2022. Called the "Voice of Hispanic America" by The New York Times, Salinas is one of the most recognized Hispanic female journalists in the United States. For nearly four decades Salinas served as co-anchor of the evening nightly newscast in Spanish language network Univision. Salinas is a founding member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and for over two decades has provided dozens of students with a scholarship under her name. She also serves on the board of Hispanic Scholarship Fund. Salinas is mother to two daughters, Julia and Gabriela.

Editorial Reviews

This touching and beautiful book shines a light on a community in crisis while also showcasing their resiliency. As a mom and a native of Texas, I was moved by the sensitive reporting of John Quiñones, María Elena Salinas, and their team.”
—Eva Longoria, actress, producer, director, and activist
 
“Two of the best journalists in the country, and the ABC News Investigative Unit, tackle one of the most important events of our generation. It’s superb reporting with respect, precision, and a heart. . . . They stayed in Uvalde and it shows. This is necessary reading if you want to know who we are as a nation.”
—Jorge Ramos, anchor, Univision News

“A bold idea born out of tragedy. One Year in Uvalde shows us what journalism can achieve when journalists look like the people they cover and commit to staying to tell the stories that need to be told. John Quiñones, María Elena Salinas, and the entire team artfully give voice to a community, honor the lives lost, and hold authorities accountable, resulting in a powerful, damning, heartbreaking, and inspiring documentation of history.”
 —Cecilia Vega, Correspondent, 60 Minutes
 
“What happened in Uvalde didn’t just change that small town. It changed our country. I understand why María Elena and John needed to be there, to be present and to write this powerful book. There are deep and profound lessons about what happened in Uvalde. Now more than ever we need journalists to be telling this story, and to not turn away.”
—Maria Hinojosa, Pulitzer prize winner and president, Futuro Investigates

From the Publisher

2024-03-18
Two ABC News journalists report from a small town stricken by mass murder throughout its long aftermath.

“What happens when we leave?” write veteran reporters Quiñones and Salinas. “That’s a real part of the story, and we’re missing it simply by not being there.” Uvalde, Texas, is the site of a horrific school shooting on May 24, 2022. “The fact that the shooter was, in so many ways, one of them, a member of the community, a kid from town, a product of Robb Elementary, shocked many,” write the authors. Yet the facts remain: that the shooter was alienated from everyone, the product of a fatherless home with a mother with “a history of drug abuse”—in short, a walking warning sign. That nothing was done doomed 19 children and two adults. However, there were other warning signs that the investigative team turned up. For example, the chief of school police had been demoted from an earlier position, his former boss testifying that if anyone had ever called him, he would have warned the school system against hiring him. The authors’ comment is rather bland here: “Records show that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) might not have fully reviewed Arredondo’s records prior to hiring him.” Arredondo, who accrued authority and decision-making power to himself, seemed not to realize that he was in charge on the ground—nor, it seems, was anyone else. The better parts of the text are the sensitive, sometimes heartbreaking inquiries into the effects of the deaths of the children on families and the community as a whole. If there’s a little too much self-regard by the intrepid journalists, the book will be of interest to counselors and educators, among other readers.

Vivid testimony on how violence both tears a community apart and pulls it together.

Kirkus Reviews