P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans

Mariano Castillo is an editor at the Associated Press and writer covering Latin America. His most recent project, Faces of a Divided Island, examines the immigration crisis in the Dominican Republic and the lessons it holds for US policymakers. He was born in Peru and his family moved to Texas when he was six. They are naturalized US citizens. Prior to the AP, Mariano was a writer and editor at CNN, where he pushed for mainstream coverage of under-reported stories such as the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt. As a newspaper correspondent along the US-Mexico border in the mid-2000s, his reporting focused on the drug war. Mariano received his master's in international affairs program at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) in 2009. In 2002, he graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in journalism and international studies. At Texas A&M University, Mariano worked on the university newspaper, The Battalion, rising to be its editor-in-chief. Mariano was born in Lima, Peru. The family moved to Texas when he was six. They are naturalized US citizens.

Mariano also served as an intern at two South American newspapers, El Comercio in Lima, Peru and The Daily Journal in Caracas, Venezuela. Mariano was appointed chief of a one-man Rio Grande Bureau, where he covered three South Texas counties and Mexico. He then served as Criminal Justice Enterprise Reporter, before becoming chief of another one-man bureau in Laredo, Texas, this time responsible for the US-Mexican border and issues relating to the drug war.