Emanuel Rodrigues is at the bottom of the narrow wooden staircase in his apartment building in Newark. His wheelchair and his wife, Anna, and I are at his side as he struggles to pull himself up the first step.
Beads of sweat are streaming down his face as he grips the railing with one arm and uses a crutch to support himself with the other.
“I can’t, I just can’t,” he says to me, out of breath. “My legs, hermana, my legs feel like they’re on fire … It’s too painful, I have to stop.”…