Vanessa Rancaño

For the past two years, Joseph Richardson has been trying to figure out how to keep young black men with knife and gunshot wounds from turning up again with similar injuries at Prince George's Hospital Trauma Center outside Washington, D.C.

You may have heard some of the fashion industry horror stories.

Models eating tissues or cotton balls to stave off hunger. Models collapsing from malnutrition-induced heart attacks just seconds after they step off the runway. Even models growing a layer of downy fuzz as their bodies try to keep warm.

On the northern Virginia farm where Helen Downs spent her childhood, Christmas meant a freshly butchered hog and an epic family meal. When she had her own children, Helen brought this spirit of abundance to their home.

A week after protests over racism at their school became the biggest story in the country, 300 students, faculty and community members marched through the University of Missouri, Columbia campus behind a banner that read "Mizzou United, Columbia United." Their goal: to keep talking about what's been going on here, and why.

The six horsewomen of the Castro clan are gathered in the center of the rodeo ring. They sit high on their imported sidesaddles, their ruffled skirts tucked neatly beneath them. These women are bound by blood or marriage. During the week, one works as a hairdresser, another is a nanny, two are students, and the others clean houses. But when the northern Virginia weather allows, they spend their Saturday afternoons on horseback.

They sit high on their imported sidesaddles, their ruffled skirts tucked neatly beneath them at a ranch in northern Virginia. Las Amazonas del Dorado — this riding group slated to perform — are preparing for their next ride.

These six women are engaging in the sport of escaramuza, a group riding event performed only by women at Mexican rodeos.