About Me

There is an intensity to life here. The adventures don't stop and I don't know if it's because I walk like a chela or because I wear a foreign press pass or because I smile when I talk to strangers.

My name is Melissa Sanchez. When my stories are published in Spanish an accent appears on my last name: Sánchez.

I was born and raised in a Latin American household in the United States. My parents are immigrants, from El Salvador and from Mexico. They taught me to care about the history of this part of the world, and about the people who live here. I have two brothers.

I'm living the dream.

And I'm living it outside of the United States. After graduating from Michigan State University in August 2007 (with a journalism degree and specialization in Latin American and Caribbean studies), I left Detroit for Central America on a grant from the Inter American Press Association.

I am based in Managua, Nicaragua.