Author

Dulce Torres Guzman

Dulce Torres Guzman

Dulce has written for the Nashville Scene and Crucero News. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, she received the John Seigenthaler Award for Outstanding Graduate in Print Journalism in 2016. Torres Guzman is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She enjoys the outdoors and is passionate about preserving the environment and environmental issues.

Saddler Funeral Home in Lebanon, where Reid Van Ness stored bodies for months at a time. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Director de funerarias hizo promesas a familias inmigrantes y no cumplió

By: - February 11, 2021

Ramy Jadiel Ajualip Primero, el bebé de su familia, murió inesperadamente con solo 18 meses de edad. Fue trasladado de urgencia al hospital después de sufrir convulsiones. Se produjo un pronóstico sombrío. Sin esperanza de recuperación, el niño fue retirado del soporte vital 15 días después. En estado de shock, los padres de Ramy estaban […]

Katie Beckett healthcare program reports successful enrollment

By: - February 2, 2021

An initiative to bridge the gap in Medicaid for parents with disabled children is already showing success after opening for applications in November.  On Monday, the Division of TennCare and the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD) announced that more than 290 children have been enrolled in the Katie Beckett Program with nearly 900 […]

Hand holding cell phone with emergency number 911 on black background

Fear of law enforcement, communication issues hamper use of 911

By: - February 1, 2021

For many members of Tennessee’s immigrant communities, calling 911 in an emergency situation is not a viable option, and advocates are working to remove fear of the system and make it more user-friendly. Last year’s police brutality protests and years of anti-immigration policies have strained relations between New Americans and law enforcement officials, and while […]

Epidemiologist Leslie Waller, from the Nashville Board of Health, speaks at a recent COVID-19 briefing. (Photo: Nashville.gov)

Nashville officials to push vaccine waiting list in immigrant communities

By: - January 29, 2021

Metro Nashville officials may soon be traveling to reach and add qualifying members from hard-hit communities onto the COVID vaccine waiting list.  At Fabian Bedne’s weekly Spanish-speaking press conference, guest speaker Leslie Waller, epidemiologist with the Metro Health Department,  announced that they will now begin signing up people for the COVID vaccine waiting list at […]

Joyce Christian of Somerville, Tennessee holds a photo of her father Freddie Lee Tyson. She is a retired nurse who wants to encourage people in the African American community to take the Covid-19 vaccine. Her father, was unknowingly a part of the Tuskegee syphilis study. What happened to her father, led to the establishment of biomedical ethics committees. These committees were established to set ethical criteria to ensure what happened to her fathers would not happen again. (Photo by © Karen Pulfer Focht)

Tuskegee study haunts vaccination efforts in Black community

By: - January 28, 2021

This story has been updated. Once a year, Joyce Christian, 72, travels from her home in Fayette County to Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. Upon arrival at the school, she meets at the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care with descendants of the Black men who, like her father, were experimented upon by […]

A member of a group called "Let Nashville Parents Choose" speaks vehemently at a Dec. 9 rally outside the offices of Metro Nashville Public Schools. Members of the group urged MNPS to fully reopen in January. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Metro Nashville Schools get ultimatum from parent group on reopening

By: - January 26, 2021

A group of Nashville parents has given Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) officials an ultimatum for releasing plans to reopen schools and allowing Metro Public School families the choice of in-person learning.  The MNPS Board will meet on Jan. 26. and the group, Let Nashville Parents Choose (LNPC), is asking school officials to discuss the […]

Protesters in front of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexanders offices on West End in 2017. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Biden immigration reform bill gives faster path to citizenship

By: - January 21, 2021

President Joe Biden sent a sweeping immigration reform bill to Congress on his first day in office, and immigrant-advocacy groups have been preparing individuals for a faster path to citizenship.   “Today ushers in a brighter, more hopeful future for immigrants and refugees. After four years of harsh immigration policy under Trump, President Joe Biden and […]

Cinco de Mayo on Woodland Street in East Nashville. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Curbside booze sales save restaurants and retailers in 2020

By: - January 20, 2021

Curbside alcohol sales were the saving grace in an otherwise dismal year for many restaurants and beer retailers, as Tennesseans drowned their sorrows during a socially-distanced pandemic year. In Nashville, the Metro Beer Board was the first entity to pass rules allowing for curbside beer pickup, with the support of its board members and Mayor […]

Gov. Bill Lee addressing legislator's during the January 2021 special education session. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Education reform advocates weigh in on Lee’s education plans

By: - January 20, 2021

Leaders of Better Student Outcomes Now, including a Metro Nashville Schools Board member and advocates of school reform, used the opening of Gov. Bill Lee’s special legislative session on education to say the COVID-19 pandemic gives an opportunity to reset education goals.  “Not so long ago, Tennessee made national headlines for rapid education improvement, but […]

Tory Watson of Memphis Police Department gets his vaccine. First responders Memphis and Shelby County police officers, firefighters and EMTs get COVID-19 vaccines Tuesday Dec. 29, 2020. The Shelby County Health Department is administering the shots in a process that will go on for several weeks. (© Karen Pulfer Focht)

Shelby County officials vaccine plan to address racial disparities

By: - January 15, 2021

Shelby County Health Department officials say they have long term COVID vaccination plans to address any potential racial disparities, a particular concern in Memphis, a majority minority city.  According to the Tennessee Department of Health, current data shows less than 4% percent of Tennesseans who have received the COVID-19 vaccine identify as Black – and […]

Recent graduates of the Metro Police Academy are sworn in August 12 2020. (Photo: Nashville.gov)

First Latino MNPD captain to head diversity efforts

By: - December 31, 2020

The Metro Nashville Police Department’s new Chief Diversity Officer, Captain Carlos Lara, plans on spending 2021 improving relationships between the police and minority communities. “There are communities with which we have had a good relationship, communities that we have not gotten in contact with, and communities that we used to have a good relationship with […]

Rev. Edward Thompson, Chair of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, leads a 'public lamentation' for Tennessee's COVID-19 victims. (Photo: NOAH)

Nashville community group holds ‘public lamentation,’ calls on Lee for COVID-19 relief

By: - December 30, 2020

Faith leaders and physicians called on Gov. Bill Lee to institute a mask mandate and to use Tennessee’s $741 million earmarked for families to assist Tennesseans on the verge of eviction from COVID-19-related financial losses.  Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH) organized the Tuesday event, which was held at St. John AME Church in […]