A change of scene: 6 stories about life on the move in our weekly reader

Boston Calling
Three sisters form the band The Warning

A gay men's chorus tried to join a Pride march in Istanbul. Halal BBQ explodes outside Houston. Heavy-metal sisters move Metallica northward from Monterrey. These recent stories, chosen for our latest weekly Boston Calling compilation, show a world on the move.

Jason Bones (left) and Robert West are co-owners of Chopped n Smoked halal Texas BBQ, a food truck business based in Sugar Land, Texas.

Jason Bones (left) and Robert West are co-owners of Chopped n Smoked halal Texas BBQ, a food truck business based in Sugar Land, Texas. 

Credit:

Matthew Bell 

1. Halal BBQ: It’s what’s for iftar in this suburb of Houston

Everybody is working a grill or a BBQ this weekend. In a busy food truck in Sugerland, Texas, two men are serving up something pretty unique. They call it authentic Halal-Texas barbacue, and it's particularly popular this month as Muslims are celebrating Ramadan, the month-long holiday where Muslims fast during daylight hours. It's an end-of-the-day meal, known as Iftar, that all could love.

Trainees work on a dummy body.

Trainees work on a dummy body. 

Credit:

KCRW/Evan George

2. Combat medics train for war in an LA emergency room

Such a headline would lead to a dispatch from Army Basic Training, a weapons factory or maybe the White House Situation Room. But this week's lead off story takes us to a much different scene — An emergency room, of a hospital in Los Angeles, where hundreds of patients pass through each day. And, every day those patients are helping the US Navy prepare for the battlefield.

The Boston Gay Men's Chorus

The Boston Gay Men's Chorus.

Credit:

Courtesy of the The Boston Gay Men's Chorus.

3. Pride and prejudice in Turkey

An American choir that has just returned from a 10-day tour of the Middle East. Now, perhaps you're thinking ... why is this newsworthy?

Well, this isn't just any choir. The Boston Gay Men's Chorus is considered controversial — in some parts of the world. The first venue where the choir was set to perform in Istanbul  canceled under pressure from anti-gay opponents. But a new venue was offered, and the trip to Turkey was back on track.

As it happens, the group's time in Istanbul coincided with a landmark moment in America. The US Supreme Court ruling last week legalizing same-sex marriage. Quite a lot for the choir members to take in.

A Salvadoran father carries his son while running next to another immigrant as they try to board a train heading to the Mexican-U.S. border, in Huehuetoca, near of Mexico City, June 1, 2015.

A Salvadoran father carries his son while running next to another immigrant as they try to board a train heading to the Mexican-U.S. border, in Huehuetoca, near of Mexico City, June 1, 2015.

Credit:

Reuters/Edgard Garrido

4. Is Mexico doing the US’s dirty work on Central American migrants?

Recall this scene? Waves of undocumented kids from Central America, arriving at the US border. That was the big crisis our Border Patrol was facing last summer. Well, good news, now:  the waves are smaller — by half.

But the Central American kids — sometimes unaccompanied, sometimes with their families — they're still coming. It's just that now they're being intercepted in southern Mexico, well before they reach the US border.

maya

Fernando Buenfil Góngora owns the Hotel Clásico in Oxkutzcab, Mexico. He built the hotel with 15 years worth of remittance money he earned working in San Francisco.

Credit:

Mónica Ortiz Uribe

5. How returning home to Mexico gets complicated after years in the US

While we hear a lot about the migrants who try and make it to the US, we hear far less about those who leave the States to return to their home countries.

This next story takes a look at this kind of reverse migration. And it actually keeps us in Southern Mexico. We head to the Yucatan Peninsula to a small city where there's been plenty of back and forth with the San Francisco Bay area.

Three sisters form the band The Warning

Three sisters form the metal band The Warning

Credit:

thewarningband.com

6. These Mexican sisters give Metallica a run for their money

And that brings us to our final story. How about we go out with a little metal — HEAVY metal — that is, courtesy of three young sisters from Mexico.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.