Martina Guzmán

Urban farms have flourished in the city's vacant lots. Two nonprofits are using their harvest for a line of jams honoring the history and old family recipes of the local African-American community.

Reed Kroloff is no stranger to cities that are in need of a rebirth. As dean of architecture at Tulane University, he was responsible for bringing back 97 percent of the school's stud...

According to a report released earlier this year, Latino and Arab communities who live along the border between Canada and the United States are experiencing an increase in instances ...

In the rest of America, vinyl may be a dying breed, but it’s alive and kicking in Detroit. Archer Records, one of the few companies left in the world that continues to press records, ...

In Jim Crow America, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Through laws and social norms, racism was legitimized and the practice operated as a way ...

When people think of Michigan's economy, they generally think of places like Detroit and Flint, and of the state's once great automobile manufacturing sites. But Martina Guzmán of WDE...

Detroit and Berlin both know something about abandoned buildings. After the fall of the wall when the former east opened up, parts of Berlin looked a lot like Detroit today, where scores of buildings stood unclaimed, their purpose unclear. While officials worked on a city’s future, Germans like Dimitri Hegemann, relished in exploring the relics of Berlin’s industrial past. 

"We were very curious...so when I could go in… I was curious like a young boy," he says. "What is this building? Oh, it’s empty? Let’s look inside. And this happened 1,000 times. We just invaded. This was, you must understand, the frame of these days. The atmosphere was burning. It was an amazing situation." 

You don't have to be an urban planner to know that cheap quality space can mean artists, and artists can mean revitalization. With a video slide show, Martina Guzman of WDET tells the stories of artists who have moved or even returned to Detroit and Berlin, not only for the cheap space, but for businesses and manufacturing infrastructure open to their needs. 

Detroit has long been called the birthplace of techno, and helped bring house music to a global stage in the 1980s — the kind of impact that still resonates around the world today, in the form of tens of thousands of auditory permutations. Berlin, which gave rise to "The Berlin School" of electronic music in the 1970s, has been equally influential — and is still a pilgrimage destination for DJs and electronic music aficionados from all over the world. So it's no surprise that DJ Rolando, internationally-known techno DJ from Detroit, is also a favorite in Berlin. 

 

WDET's Martina Guzman spent six weeks in the German city of Berlin, exploring a long-recognized but underreported connection between that former manufacturing giant and the Motor City. In this post, which you can hear from the radio here, she gives a first-person account of visiting Berlin and talking with several people that recognize the connection between the two cities, especially their diminished but still "sexy" industrial prowess. 

Two cities, both alike in industry: Detroit, U.S.A. and Berlin, Germany. In a recent series for WDET, Martina Guzman explored the similarities and differences between the two iconic hubs of industry that came into their own in the 20th century. 

According to a 2010 study by Global Detroit, an economic development initiative, immigrants in southeastern Michigan are starting businesses at almost three times the rate of non-immigrants. Recent immigrant business ventures range from high-tech and manufacturing firms to restaurants and boutique import companies.  

The national media frequently paints Detroit as a near constant subject of sad stories during this ailing economy. But there are outliers in every struggling economy, and in this city there is a bright and beautiful outlier: The Detroit Opera House is not struggling at all.  It is thriving, thanks in part to the leadership of its director, David Dichiera.

While the economy decays, there's no shortage of work for belly dancers in Detroit. The city has one of the largest Arab populations outside of the Middle East and a vast network of dancers. Martina Guzman explores the belly dance scene and the conflicts the community ...

New York, NY —

In an election year when Latinos are being recognized for their voting power, candidates are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their outreach and marketing. As part of our occasional series, Feet in Two Worlds, Martina Guzman reports on how candidates are crafting their messaging toward Latinos ...

New York, NY —

In the 2008 democratic primaries so far, the percentage of the vote that is Latino has risen dramatically. In California, for example, Latino voter participation in the primary doubled over 2004, and in Texas it increased by 50 percent. Now, candidates are getting increasingly sophisticated ...