What I Learned as a Venezuelan When Iran War Sent Me To Poland Instead of Israel |
WARSAW, Poland — Days before a planned media tour in Israel, Iranian rockets lit up the sky and forced a sudden change of course. Instead of reporting from Tel Aviv, I found myself in Auschwitz.
As a non-Jewish Venezuelan American, visiting Poland had never been high on my list. But as a journalist covering stories that stretch from Caracas to Tehran to college campuses across the United States, I now understand why it should have been.
I arrived in Poland with a group of Hispanic journalism students through Fuente Latina. We had signed up for a fellowship in Israel, eager to report on the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and pursue international bylines.
Then the war with Iran disrupted air travel and upended those plans. Fuente Latina rerouted our program and gave us something just as valuable: the historical context needed to understand the events unfolding today.
In Warsaw, the past is not buried. Buildings still bear the scars of bullets and explosions, yet life moves through........