This article was produced as a project for USC Annenberg’s Center for Climate Journalism and Communication and Center for Health Journalism 2025 Health and Climate Change Reporting Fellowship.
Jesus Reyes has been a day laborer in Tucson for about 30 years. The 53-year-old mostly does landscaping work, so he has spent a lot of time under the scorching Arizona sun. But one afternoon in June 2021, the heat really caught up with him.
“It started with a severe headache, a lot of vomiting, and a lot of dizziness,” Reyes said in Spanish, during a recent interview in Tucson…