Southern Exposure is an award-winning print journal and magazine published by the Institute for Southern Studies, publisher of Facing South, from 1973 until 2011. Southern Exposure earned a national reputation and won several awards, including a National Magazine Award and two George Polk Awards, for its writing and investigative reporting on a broad range of political, economic, and cultural issues in the South.

Vol. 16 No. 4 - Winter 1988
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Magazine cover with small child holding yellow flowers, reading "Flowers in the Desert Die"

Flowers in the Desert Die

  • Dateline: The South

    Compiled by Tatia Davis

    2

  • Southern News Roundup

    4

  • The Golden Circle

    From slaves to bananas, the South has sought to build a tropical empire in Central America. By Karl Bermann.

    10

  • Valley So Low

    The Border Patrol has turned South Texas into a vast prison camp for refugees. By Jane Juffer.

    18

  • Invisible City

    More than 100,000 Salvadorans live in Houston, but you might miss them unless you know where to look. By Louis Dubose.

    24

  • La Victoria en Virginia

    How Central American women organized low-income tenants of all races to fight suburban developers. By Dee Reid.

    27

  • The Dictator's Tomb

    Somoza is buried in Miami, but his followers live on. The first English translation of a series from the Nicaraguan newspaper Barricada. By Guillermo Cortes Dominguez.

    29

  • The Death Squads in Houston

    The Salvadoran death squads are now operating inside the United States—with a little help from the FBI. By Ross Gelbspan.

    32

  • The War at Home

    A behind-the-scenes investigation of how the White House waged a secret psychological war in the South. By Peter Kornbluh.

    36

  • Fiction: White Baby

    by Jill McCorkle

    40

  • Southern Voices: A Long Way to Walk

    by Susan Tucker

    46

  • The Best of the Press

    Introduction

    49

  • Winning at Any Cost

    How money is poisoning Kentucky's elections. By R. G. Dunlop and Richard Whitt.

    50

  • Clashing Philosophies

    Behind the rhetoric in the West Virginia Supreme Court race. By Norman Oder.

    53

  • The Color of Money

    Race—not property value—determines who gets home loans in Atlanta. By Bill Dedman.

    56

  • The Big Thirst

    El Paso could run out of water by the year 2032. Here's why. By Peter Brock.

    59

  • A Death in the Family

    Alabama has the highest infant death rate in the nation. Is Medicaid making it worse? By Peggy Roberts.

    61

  • The Last Word

    64
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