Contributors

A | B | C | D | e | F | G | H | I-J | K | L | M | N | O | P-Q | R | S | T-U | V-Z

 A

Vicki Adame

Vicki Adame is an award-winning multimedia journalist who has focused on the lives and struggles of immigrants and communities of color. Her work has appeared in CTLatinoNews.com, Latino Rebels and Latino USA, among other publications, and she has translated articles for El Faro in El Salvador. Since 2018 she has split her time between Mexico City and California.

María Aguilar

is an award-winning visual storyteller focused on social justice, currently based in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She is executive editor of the collegiate newspaper The Threefold Advocate at John Brown University in Arkansas, and graphics editor of Reportar Sin Miedo, an independent publication in Honduras.

Jasmine Aguilera

Jasmine Aguilera is the senior reporter and editor at El Tímpano, based in Oakland, California. She is originally from El Paso, Texas and a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso. Most recently she covered Congress and immigration at TIME Magazine, working from New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, NowThis, Latino Rebels, YES! Magazine and more.

ANGELIKA ALBALADEJO

Angelika Albaladejo is an award-winning investigative journalist based in Los Angeles. She is a staff reporter with Capital & Main, and her reporting on immigration, criminal justice and gender issues has been published by the Guardian, Univision, CNN and the Miami Herald.

TATIANA ALEJANDRA

Tatiana Alejandra is a graduate student in the Reporting The Nation & New York program at New York University. As a freelance multimedia journalist, she sheds light on issues affecting communities of color. Aside from her current work, Tatiana hopes to follow her dreams of entering the entertainment industry to become an on-air entertainment reporter. She is based out of her hometown in Queens, New York.

KAEL ALFORD

Kael Alford is a photographer, journalist and educator whose work spans issues of political violence, the human relationship to the natural environment, the social roles of women, and the tenuous personal relationship to others. Her photographs have been exhibited in at High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the De Young Museum in San Francisco. She continues to work as a freelance journalist and teaches photography at Eastfield College in Dallas, Texas.

NATHALIE ALONSO

Nathalie Alonso is a Cuban American journalist based in Queens, New York, where she was born and raised. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, Outside, Refinery29, AFAR, and TIME for Kids. She is also the author of several forthcoming books for children, including “Hispanic Star: Sonia Sotomayor” and “Hispanic Star: Ellen Ochoa” (Roaring Book Press, 2023); “Old Clothes for Dinner?!” (Barefoot Books, 2024); and “Call Me Roberto!” (Calkins Creek, 2024). She is on the faculty for the Highlights Foundation. Since 2006, Nathalie has worked as an editorial producer, translator and reporter for LasMayores.com, the official Spanish language website of Major League Baseball. She received a B.A. in American studies from Columbia University.

FRANCISCO ALVARADO

Francisco Alvarado is based in Miami and writes for national news outlets and wire services, including The Guardian, The Daily Beast and Reuters.

GENESIS ALVARADO

Genesis Alvarado graduated from Arizona State University in May 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication. Alvarado, who was a photojournalist for The Arizona Western Voice in Yuma and for the Cronkite News Phoenix news bureau, is now a freelance photojournalist.

ROSY ALVAREZ

Rosy Alvarez is a freelance writer based in New York City who focuses on music, entertainment, and lifestyle stories.

ANA ARANA

Ana Arana is veteran investigative journalist who lived and worked in Mexico City from 2007 to 2016.

MARISA ARBONA-RUIZ

Marisa Arbona-Ruiz is a bilingual Emmy and Telly Award-winning producer, journalist and voiceover artist working in long-form storytelling for news magazines, documentaries and educational media. She is a contributor on NPR Music and NBC and a contributing co-host of NPR's Alt.Latino podcast. Marisa is a former Vice President of Women In Film & Video of Washington, DC and a former Communications Co-Chair of Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI).

LAURA CARMEN ARENA

Laura Carmen Arena is an Argentinian American writer and photographer. Her photography has appeared in local and international outlets. A porteña and New York transplant to Cambridge, Mass., she specializes in outdoor and documentary photography and writes fiction and nonfiction on culture and the environment. She studied literature at New York University and visual arts and creative writing at Harvard University.

ALEJANDRA AREVALO

Alejandra Arevalo is a Peruvian multimedia journalist and artist who graduated from New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She currently works as senior editor for Mi Voce y La Tuya, a BIPOC-focused media site, and as audio producer for news analysis podcast News from a Boring Dystopia. Originally from Peru, she has studied in Lima, New York and Shanghai but now calls Los Angeles home.

STEF ARREAGA

Stef Arreaga is an investigative journalist living in exile in the U.S. She was born in Guatemala during the bloodiest period of a war that lasted almost four decades. She then carried out investigative journalism for the alternative media, where she has worked on issues related to historical memory, mining, extractivism, megaprojects, monocultures, land dispossession, criminalization and malnutrition, especially communities that have historically been oppressed.

NOAH ARROYO

Noah Arroyo is an investigative journalist who covers housing, evictions and environmental justice in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

ANDREA ARZABA

Andrea Arzaba is a freelance journalist currently based in D.C. She holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University. She’s reported from throughout Latin America for Transparency International, 100Reporters and palabra.

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BRYANA ANDREA BALDERRAMA

is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso in May 2021, majoring in multimedia journalism, with a minor in marketing. Her immediate career plan is to write and produce multimedia stories from the U.S.-Mexico border.

YESICA BALDERRAMA

Yesica Balderrama is a journalist and writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared on Latino USA and WNYC, and in PEN America, Guernica, Mental Floss and others.

HUGO BALTA

is the Owner/Publisher of the Latino News Network and a two-term president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).

CECILIA BALLÍ

Cecilia Ballí is a cultural anthropologist and a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly. She is the founder of Culture Concepts, a research consultancy.

SCOTT BARKER

Scott Barker is an award-winning filmmaker who works on human rights documentaries, as well as television commercials for clients like Disney, CNN, and Nickelodeon. His work has appeared at film festivals such as Sundance and the One World Human Rights Film Festival, and viewed by millions nationally and internationally on television.

MARIE BARONNET

Marie Baronnet studied art and photography in France where she grew up. She worked as a photojournalist for international magazines, along with a series of investigative photos and video from the Borderlands to East Los Angeles. In 2020, her first documentary feature, AMEXICA, was broadcasted on Arte channel, produced by Academy Award nominee Raoul Peck (I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO). This documentary film portrays the "Amexican" border spanning 10 years. She's currently working on her second documentary film in Los Angeles where she resides with her 7-year-old daughter.

YESENIA BARRIOS

Yesenia Barrios is a freelance writer in New York City who specializes in immigration and mental health issues.

Johanna Bejarano

Johanna Bejarano is a bilingual journalist based in Washington state. She has worked for regional newspapers, broadcasting, and digital media in the U.S. and Colombia. She produces stories for Northwest Public Broadcasting, where she covers issues affecting Hispanic and Latino/x/e communities and other underrepresented groups. Her stories have also been published in Radio Bilingüe and Crosscut. Johanna has written about racial and gender disparities, farmworker labor, missing and murdered Indigenous women and people, and voting rights issues.

Rocío Benavides

Rocío Benavides is an industrial designer with solid experience in the field of visual design. She has collaborated in creative projects for prominent organizations such as King County Metro, Seattle Police, La Sportiva, and T-Mobile. She excels at telling stories through visual elements, to connect with a variety of audiences and engage them through creativity and innovation.

Charles Bennett

Charles Bennett is a writer and Los Angeles native whose work focuses on social issues, housing, real estate, and sports.

ESMERALDA BERMUDEZ

Esmeralda Bermudez writes narrative stories about the lives of Latinos for the Los Angeles Times. She was born in El Salvador, raised in the Los Angeles area and graduated from the University of Southern California. Before joining The Times in 2008, Bermudez worked at the Oregonian in Portland, covering city government and immigration. She has reported from Mexico and Guatemala where her coverage in 2006 won her the Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Latin American Reporting. Bermudez was also a finalist for Livingston Award for International Reporting. In 2016, she was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

CARLOS BERNATE

Carlos Bernate, born and raised in Bucaramanga, Colombia, is a gender-fluid photographer, videographer, communications specialist and writer. Their work is focused on human rights, identity and social humanitarian-related issues. In 2016, Bernate completed a four-year degree in Photography & Film from the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá, Colombia. Carlos’ work has been published internationally, notably in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek, among many others. They have also been recognized with several honors and awards. For example, AI-AP American Photography selected Carlos as both a 2021 and 2022 winner and three awards by The Virginia Press Association in 2019. Their stories have also been exhibited worldwide in Portugal, Argentina, Colombia and the USA. Currently, they're dedicated to documenting their community in Richmond, Virginia, where they have been based since 2017. Additionally, Carlos works as a communications coordinator for a Latin American non-profit organization called Sacred Heart Center in Richmond.

QUETZALLI BLANCO

Quetzalli Blanco is a freelance photographer and visual journalist working in Mexico. Alongside psychology, she specializes in issues related to the victimization and re-traumatization of people in vulnerable situations, mainly women, children and the transgender community. Her research projects come from decolonial and humanist perspectives. Her photographs have been published in agencies such as AFP, Xinhua and Notimex.

GUS BOVA

Gus Bova is a senior staff writer and assistant editor at the Texas Observer. He covers labor, politics, and other major Texas stories. He has written extensively on topics ranging from the border wall to homelessness. Before coming to the Observer, he worked at a shelter for recently arrived immigrants and asylum-seekers. He studied Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas.

CORI BROSNAHAN

Cori Brosnahan is a writer and video producer living in San Francisco. She has worked at KQED, WBUR, and WGBH, where she produced digital content for the series American Experience. Her writing has appeared in the San Francisco Public Press and Northeastern's Experience Magazine. She is the winner of two New England Emmys and a Shorty Award.

Michelle Bruzzese

Michelle Bruzzese (she/her) is a photographer specializing in portraits and human-interest stories. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including People Magazine, Time Magazine, Bloomberg, NPR the FT Weekend and others. She is a 1st generation American; her parents immigrated from Italy and Ecuador. She graduated from Parsons School of Design in NYC with a BFA in photography and is currently based in Central Florida. Find her work at michellebruzzese.com

JASON BUCH

Jason Buch is a freelance reporter based in Seattle, where he writes about criminal justice, immigration and the environment. He spent a decade covering the U.S-Mexico border for newspapers in Texas.

JOY BORKHOLDER

is a Seattle-based investigative and data journalist. With 15 years of experience in research, she recently began freelancing as a journalist with InvestigateWest and the South Seattle Emerald. She has written about civil rights and child care.

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MARCOS CABRERA

Marcos Cabrera is a writer born and raised in Salinas, California. He has written for the San Jose Mercury News, the Village Voice, Zocalo Public Square and the Associated Press.

Roberto Camacho

Roberto Camacho is a freelance Chicano journalist from San Diego, California. He is a graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. His reporting typically focuses on criminal justice reform, immigration, Chicano/Latino issues, Hip-Hop culture, and their intersections with social justice.

MONICA CAMPBELL

Monica Campbell is a California-based independent journalist who focuses on immigration and immigrant life in the United States. She has reported globally extensively, including as a senior editor and reporter for The World.

LOURDES CARDENAS

Lourdes Cardenas is an assistant professor at San Francisco State University, where she is developing a Spanish-language journalism program. She has years of experience working for American and Mexican media outlets and is the author of “Marihuana: El Viaje a la Legalización.”

KAVITHA CARDOZA

Kavita Cardoza is a freelance journalist and has covered education and poverty for almost 20 years. She is currently serving as Public Editor for the Education Writers Association. Cardoza was awarded a Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship in 2021-2022. She is a frequent contributor to NPR and the Hechinger Report. Most recently she worked as correspondent for Education Week/PBS Newshour, WAMU in Washington, D.C. and Illinois Public Radio in Springfield, Illinois. Cardoza received multiple national awards for her work.

Ruben Castaneda

Ruben Castaneda is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist with more than three decades of experience as a reporter and an editor. He has worked for the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report and is the author of the book S Street Rising: Crack, Murder and Redemption in D.C.

IVAN CASTANEIRA

Ivan Castaneira is a Mexican photojournalist and videographer who specializes in social movements, missing people in Mexico, migration, climate change and human rights.

MONICA CASTILLO

Monica Castillo is a film critic and journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, RogerEbert.com, Remezcla, The Wrap, Hyperallergic and elsewhere. She can usually be found online talking about the movies she just watched at @mcastimovies.

JEANNETTE CEJA

is an award-winning travel journalist and television host. She has appeared on BBC World News, WTTW Chicago, ABC7 Los Angeles, FOX 11 Los Angeles, The Mexico Travel Channel, Spectrum News 1, and KUSI News, among others. She’s a journalism graduate of Belmont University and the Professional Producing Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ceja has completed internships at Fox News Chicago, WTVF-CBS in Nashville, and The Tennessean daily newspaper. She was accepted into the Chips Quinn Scholars Program for Diversity in Journalism.

SOFÍA CERDA CAMPERO

Sofía Cerda Campero is a Mexican-American journalist and translator. Her work focuses on gender, Latin American politics, and immigration. She has written for The Daily Beast, NBC, Nexos (Mexico), and Chicas Poderosas, an organization that promotes the participation and leadership of women in the media. Raised in Mexico City, she has been living in Brooklyn for the past four years.

CORA CERVANTES

Cervantes is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles who focuses on immigration and diversity, equality and inclusion issues. She has produced stories for multimedia outlets, including NBC News, Al-Jazeera, NPR’s Latino USA, and Narratively.

FRANCISCO COLLAZO

Francisco Collazo is a photographer, chef, and co-founder of Immigrant Families Together.

FRANC CONTRERAS

Franc Contreras is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City. In the last three decades he has covered Latin America for China Global Television Network, Al Jazeera English, and the BBC World Service Radio. In the early 1990s, he was an Assistant Producer for NPR’s All Things Considered, based in Washington D.C. He was also part of the team that created Latino USA in Austin, Texas.

Maria Contreras

Maria Contreras is an illustrator born and raised in southern Chile. Her illustrations feature loud and saturated colors and are filled with memories. Fear and humor are her two inspirations. Her current clients include The New York Times, The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Penguin Random House, NPR, The New Yorker, The Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, among many other outlets. Her work has been featured in It's Nice That, Domestika, Wetransfer, Colossal, Creative Boom and other brands. In 2022, I won the Young Guns award from The One Club for Creativity. In 2023, she was an AI42 Selected Winner, was short-listed for WIA2023, served as a judge of Latin American design awards for the D&AD New Blood Portfolio Competition in collaboration with Editor X and was also a judge for the Young Guns award.

ALFREDO CORCHADO

is the award-winning Mexico/Border Correspondent for The Dallas Morning News. He’s the author of “Midnight in Mexico” and “Homelands.”

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CRISTINA DEL MAR QUILES

Cristina del Mar Quiles is a journalist from Caguas, Puerto Rico who has worked for the past 13 years in print, radio, multimedia, and independently as a reporter, editor, and producer. She has been researching and writing about recovery issues for the Center for Investigative Journalism since 2018. She is also focused on reporting about gender-based violence and is the co-founder of the feminist journalism outlet Todas, todaspr.com. Her investigation on the island municipality of Vieques and the struggle of its community for access to quality medical services is part of the podcast about Puerto Rico La Brega.

CAROLYN DORANTES

Carolyn Dorantes is a junior at Rancho San Juan High School in Salinas, CA. She is passionate about uplifting student voices to create meaningful change. In college, she plans to study computer science and business

HIRAM ALEJANDRO DURÁN

Hiram Alejandro Durán is a Chicano photojournalist, Catchlight Local fellow and Report for America corps member with El Tímpano in the San Francisco Bay Area. Durán is a fourth-generation Mexican-American and the first person in his family to be raised and educated in the US. Durán began a career in photojournalism at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when a friend and photographer lent him a camera with a 24-70mm lens. Durán began photographing his surroundings on walks from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn to Harlem, New York. Since then, Durán has been visualizing stories that address the needs and tensions of various metropolitan communities for national, local, and hyper-local publications. Durán's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Pulitzer Center, The City, The Riverdale Press, and The Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg, South Africa.

OSCAR DURAND

is a Peruvian multimedia journalist based in New York City. For the past 10 years he has covered migration and refugee issues. Before moving to the United States, he worked in Peru and Turkey. His work has been published by NBC News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Finnish Broadcasting Company, PRI’s The World, Catholic News Service, The Guardian, UNICEF, UNDP, and World Vision International. Durand is a graduate of the photojournalism program of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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HECTOR EMANUEL

Hector Emanuel is a Peruvian-born photojournalist based in Washington DC. Among the many prizes he has received are a World Press Photo prize and an NPPA's Best of Photojournalism award for his documentation of the civil conflict in Colombia, as well as two POYi prizes for his portrait series depicting life in Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and his work documenting festivals in Lake Titicaca communities in Peru.

BARBARA ESTRADA

Barbara Estrada is a freelance multimedia journalist based in Miami. She has traveled extensively and studied in Amsterdam and the Basque Country of Spain. She is a graduate of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Her Instagram is @HollaitsBarbara and tweets from @BarbaraBright.

ENCARNACIÓN EZCURRA

Encarnación Ezcurra is a Buenos Aires-based journalist and author. She worked 15 years as a reporter at the Argentine newspaper, La Nación, and blogged about commercial aviation for the newspaper. She is a contributor to numerous publications, including Apertura and Lugares magazines. Ezcurra also co-authored a book on the life of legendary Argentine editor Claudio Escribano, which was published in March to critical acclaim.

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MARÍA ÁNGELES FERNÁNDEZ

María Ángeles Fernández. Freelance journalist and part of the editing team at Pikara Magazine.

MARITZA L. FÉLIX

es una galardonada periodista independiente, productora y escritora en Arizona. Es la fundadora de Conecta Arizona, un servicio de noticias en español que conecta a las personas en Arizona y Sonora principalmente a través de WhatsApp y las redes sociales. Es coproductora y copresentadora de Comadres al Aire. Actualmente forma parte del programa de liderazgo en periodismo Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership in Journalism de  Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism en CUNY.

SUSAN FERRISS

Susan Ferriss is a prize-winning former foreign correspondent who has been investigating treatment of children by the U.S. justice and immigration system, law enforcement and the school-discipline process.

DIANA FUENTES PÉREZ

es periodista profesional, y freelancer. Corresponsal en Guatemala de Radio Francia Internacional (RFI). Vive en San Lucas Sacatepequez y es creadora del Podcast Diana Fuentesfp.

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MICHELLE GARCÍA

Michelle García is a journalist and essayist and recent Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations. This essay was adapted from her article in the forthcoming academic anthology, Democracy on the Line: Trumpism and the Latino Predicament. García is working on a non-fiction book about borders. Twitter: pistoleraprod

OSCAR GARCÍA

Oscar García is an editor at the Nuestro Diario newspaper in Guatemala City. He is a graduate of the University of San Carlos de Guatemala, and a former professor of the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Mariano Gálvez University. Three decades ago, he started out as an editor and reporter at the Guatemala Flash radio newspaper and the Diario Al Día newspaper.

TARA GARCÍA MATHEWSON

Tara García Mathewson is a reporter covering inequality and innovation in K-12 education, nationally, and she oversees coverage for Hechinger en Español as the languages editor. She has been writing about education since 2012, first for the Daily Herald in Chicago’s northwest suburbs and then as a freelancer until she joined The Hechinger Report in 2017, where she has focused on the “Future of Learning” and educational inequalities. García Mathewson has won awards for beat reporting and her investigations into the educational technology industry, among other topics. Her work has appeared in a variety of regional and national news outlets, including The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

EDDIE GASPAR

Eddie Gaspar, a native of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, is an associate photo editor and photojournalist at The Texas Tribune, a role they took on after working as the Tribune’s photography fellow for two semesters. Previously, they have served as Photo Editor and Chief Photographer at The Daily Texan, Multimedia Intern at KUT/X and Visual Content and Photo Editor at Texas Student Television’s “Austin Underground.” Eddie is a senior at The University of Texas at Austin and is fluent in Spanish. Photo credit: Brenda Bazán.

Andrea Godínez

Andrea Godínez is a Guatemalan social communicator with a seven-year career devoted to photojournalism and the production of journalistic content, focusing on issues such as migration, poverty and social inequality. She studied communication sciences at Rafael Landívar University.

BRANDON GOMEZ

is a segment producer and digital contributor at CNBC. He was named the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ “Next Generation Journalist of the Year” in 2017. He is a member of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, and has covered the push for diversity in small businesses, financial literacy, and how business can better serve underrepresented communities.

ERICA GONZÁLEZ MARTÍNEZ

is the daughter of parents from Río Piedras and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. She served as the Opinion Page Editor and then Executive Editor of El Diario/La Prensa in New York. She is the founding editor of the Latina analysis and stories channel IDAR/E at the Women’s Media Center, and with Power 4 Puerto Rico champions changes that will help the island. Erica is a board member with City Limits magazine and the Women’s Media Center, and serves as a Aronson Journalism Awards judge.

KEERTI GOPAL

Keerti Gopal is a multimedia journalist and emerging documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York, and a climate cohort fellow with the Solutions Journalism Network (SJN). She graduated from Northwestern University in 2021 and moved to Taiwan for a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship, where she documented stories of climate action and resilience through photo, film, audio, and written media. In addition to her work with SJN, she's now a summer fellow at Inside Climate News, the editorial fellow at The Lever, and a graduate of One World Media’s Global Short Docs Forum for international filmmakers. Keerti is interested in accountability and investigative reporting, climate and environmental justice, and centering marginalized voices.

TÉMORIS GRECKO

Témoris Grecko is an award-winning political scientist, journalist, and documentary filmmaker who has covered armed conflicts on every continent and has authored seven non-fiction books.

TERRY GREENE STERLING

Terry Greene Sterling’s journalism has long been informed by her family’s roots in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands. A Pulitzer Center grantee, she’s a three-time Virg Hill Arizona Journalist of the Year and the Editor at Large for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. Her bylines have appeared in numerous media, including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Slate, High Country News, National Journal and Daily Beast. This is her first story for palabra., and it will always be close to her heart. She’d love to chat with you on Twitter @tgsterling or via her website.

PATRICIA GUADALUPE

Raised in Puerto Rico, Patricia Guadalupe is a bilingual multimedia journalist based in Washington, D.C. She has been covering the capital for both English and Spanish-language media outlets since the mid- 1990s. She previously worked as a reporter in New York City. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and has a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. She specializes in business news, politics and cultural issues, and also freelances.

ARMANDO GUERRA

Armando Guerra (Cuba, 1975) is a documentary director and producer based in Spain. He started almost 20 years ago at CNN and has worked for CBC, PRI, Radio Havana Cuba and is a regular contributor to CGTN's documentary show Big Story. Among his films are "Für Maria", "Reinventing Cuba", "Ascending", "Unsustainable", "The Landing Strip", "Fortress Europe", "The Spanish Gate", "Made in Different Places," "Up North" and "Zero Hour". Armando also works as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Program where he produces campaigns and develops online learning content.

RUXANDRA GUIDI

Ruxandra Guidi a native of Venezuela, has reported throughout the Western Hemisphere for over 20 years. Her work has appeared on the radio shows PRX's The World and NPR’s Latino USA, and in Orion Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Atlantic, The New York Times and other publications. She teaches audio and freelance storytelling at the University of Arizona and collaborates regularly with husband, Bear Guerra, under the name Fonografia Collective.

KARLA GUTIERREZ

Karla Gutierrez is palabra’s first intern. She’s a fourth-year journalism student at California State University, Long Beach. She’s been a reporter for the Daily 49er, DIG en Espanol, and The Renegade Rip. She has also served as executive producer for the campus television program, Campus Connection. Her career goal is to become a broadcast producer. 

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GERRY HADDEN

Gerry Hadden is a long-time radio journalist who started at KPLU in Seattle, moved on to National Public Radio as a correspondent in Latin America and then to PRI’s The World as its Europe Correspondent. Along with Armando Guerra he's been making award-winning documentary films for the last eight years. Gerry also has written two books: a memoir entitled “Never the Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti,” and the novel “Everything Turns Invisible.” He lives in Barcelona with his family.

Celeste Hamilton Dennis

Celeste Hamilton Dennis is a solutions journalist who reports on efforts to address social issues. Born in Levittown, NY, she graduated from Boston College and is finishing a masters degree at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She worked for 10 years as an editor for for Idealist.org and has written for Next City, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Oaklandside, YES! Magazine, Artsy, and other publications.

NOELLE HARO-GÓMEZ

es un fotoperiodista independiente bilingüe que vive en Tucson, Arizona. Ha trabajado en los EE. UU. Como fotógrafa de plantilla para Public Opinion en Pensilvania y Tri-City Herald en el estado de Washington.

LEXIE HARRISON-CRIPPS

Lexie Harrison-Cripps is a multi-format journalist based in Mexico City specializing in migration. She has covered stories across Europe and the Americas. She has a masters in War & Psychiatry, specializing in trauma and terrorism. She also practiced as a lawyer in the UK for ten years before becoming a journalist.

SHIRLEY HAWKINS

has written for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the California Crusader, The L. A. Watts Times, Our Weekly, Our Times (a subsidiary of the Los Angeles Times) and currently writes for the Los Angeles Wave. She loves writing stories about people who have overcome obstacles, in the hope that it will inspire and empower others to overcome adversity.

DANIEL HELFT

Daniel Helft is a Buenos Aires-based freelance journalist with more than 20 years experience as a reporter and editor, including eight years as Argentina bureau chief for Bloomberg News. He began his career as a reporter with Reuters and then edited the business section at Argentina’s La Nación newspaper. He has covered economic and political stories throughout Latin America. In the 1990s he also covered the debt crisis in Russia and South Korea. He teaches journalism at the Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires.

JAIME “JIMMY” HERNANDEZ

Jaime “Jimmy” Hernandez is an Emmy-award winning videographer who began his career in 1989 as a sound recordist for ABC News. Hernandez’s work has appeared on many global television news and documentary channels including Discovery, the History Channel, Telemundo and Univision. He is based in Mexico City.

VERONICA HERNANDEZ

Veronica Hernandez is a senior at Florida International University pursuing a bachelor's degree in Digital Journalism. She obtained an associate degree in Mass Communication & Journalism at Miami-Dade College. Upon graduation, Veronica hopes to become a TV anchor or reporter. She is devoted to her community; her goal is providing a voice to the voiceless.

SEBASTIÁN HIDALGO

Sebastián Hidalgo is an independent visual journalist and investigative reporter in Chicago. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, ProPublica IL, and is also supported by The Chicago Reporter, City Bureau and Catchlight io. His coverage focus is on immigration, housing and environmental justice. Hidalgo is a member of the National Geographic Explorer grant program.

LIZ HIGHLEYMAN

Liz Highleyman is a health journalist who has covered HIV for more than 20 years, after participating in AIDS activism with ACT UP/Boston. She is the science editor for POZ magazine, and she’s written for publications including aidsmap, The Body, and the Bay Area Reporter. She studied public health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Highleyman lives in San Francisco with her partner and two beagles.

BITA HONARVAR

Bita Honarvar is an independent photojournalist and visuals editor based in Atlanta, Georgia. She also works as an image editor at Gravy, a quarterly publication from the Southern Foodways Alliance. There, she primarily commissions original illustrations, and also original photography, to accompany non-fiction stories, essays and poems. Bita spent the early part of her career at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she was a staff photojournalist and photo editor for 16 years. Her work there took her around the United States and abroad, including stints in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. More recently, she was the senior photo editor at Vox.com. She is a member of the National Press Photographers Association and serves on the board of the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, the longest continuously-operating photojournalism conference in the U.S.

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MARÍA LUISA IMBACHÍ

María Luisa Imbachí is a senior at Hunter College in Manhattan. She won the 2019 James Aronson Undergraduate Award for Social Justice. Born in Colombia and raised in East-Elmhurst, Queens, Imbachi was a staff writer for The Athenian, and a reporter and presenter for the biweekly journalism newscast Hunter News Now. As a “dreamer” and beneficiary of a TheDream.Us scholarship, Imbachí wrote of the problems that face undocumented students: “I learned that I could be a voice for the students who are afraid of expressing themselves as migrants.”

CATALINA JARAMILLO

Catalina Jaramillo is a reporter with WHYY. She tells stories on how climate change, pollution, and policies regulating air, water, land, energy, food and waste affect residents in their everyday lives.

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK

Jude Joffe-Block is an audio producer and journalist in Phoenix, Arizona. She frequently reports on immigration and her work has appeared in The Guardian, NPR, The World and The Associated Press.

LINDA JUE

Linda Jue is a contributing editor and writer for palabra. She is also editor-at-large for the investigative site 100Reporters and a reporting and writing coach for the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Among the many hats Linda has worn, she was an associate at the Center for Investigative Reporting, a magazine editor and associate producer at KQED-TV/San Francisco Focus magazine, and Northern California correspondent for C-SPAN. Her work has appeared in San Francisco Focus, KQED-TV, GEO, MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, PBS Frontline and other outlets.

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BARBARA KASTELEIN

Barbara Kastelein is an author and independent journalist. She worked in Mexico City for the Toronto Star, The Mexico City Times, the BBC and South America’s TV Globo, and covered the environment in Mexico for the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington. Her books include “Mexico Chic” and the forthcoming “Heroes of the Pacific,” about Acapulco’s iconic cliff-diving community.

TASMIHA KHAN

Tasmiha Khan is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Vox, among other outlets. Currently, Tasmiha covers a wide range of topics related to health, race, politics, culture, and religion. This past year, Khan was named a Fellow for Knight Science Journalism at MIT, a IFYC/RNS Religion Journalism Fellow, a Higher Education Media Fellow at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, and Woodrow Wilson Higher Education Media Fellow. She was also a recipient of the National Geographic Society’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalists. Khan was awarded a grant by the International Center for Journalists to assist with brand-building and audience engagement and is a recipient of the Kozik Environmental Justice Reporting Grant from The National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute.

MEGAN KIMBLE

Megan Kimble is the executive editor of the Texas Observer.

ANGELA KOCHERGA

Angela Kocherga is an award-winning multimedia journalist who has dedicated her career to reporting about the Southwest border and Mexico. In 2019 she earned a Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University for courageous reporting in Latin America. She served as Mexico bureau chief and border correspondent for a group of U.S. television stations. Kocherga currently is news director for public radio station KTEP in El Paso, and multimedia editor for El Paso Matters. She lives on the southwest edge of Texas and calls the border home.

CLAUDIA KOLKER

Claudia Kolker is a writer who has lived and worked in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. She often writes about innovators, entrepreneurs, and immigrants. Her book, “The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn From Newcomers to America About Health, Happiness and Hope” was an O Magazine selection. She lives in Houston with her family.

JESSICA KUTZ

Jessica Kutz is a national reporter covering gender and climate change at The 19th, a nonprofit news organization that reports at the intersection of gender, politics and policy. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at High Country News, a regional nonprofit that covers the Western United States. Her work has appeared in many outlets including The Guardian, Slate, Mother Jones, PBS NewsHour and The Atlantic. She is based in Tucson, Arizona.

MEERA KYMAL

Meera Kymal is a Founder/Producer at DesiCollective Media and the Contributing Editor at the magazine India Currents. She writes about issues that impact minority communities in the South Asian diaspora through the lens of social justice, politics, and the arts. Meera is a 2021 and 2022 grantee from the USC Center for Health Journalism, reporting on domestic violence in the South Asian community in the ‘Desi Dost’ project. It recently won first place California Journalism Award for In-Depth Reporting and Open In-Depth Reporting from the California News Publishers Association. In 2022, Meera won a grant to report on aging as part of the first Altavoz Lab cohort. She has received Journalistic Excellence awards from the San Francisco Press Club (2021 & 2020) and from CNPA (2021).

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KATELYNN LAWS

Katelynn Laws is a Colombian-American writer and producer based in North Carolina. Her work focuses on the lives and experiences of Latinos living in the U.S. South.

JULIE LEOPO

Julie Leopo is a California-based award-winning photojournalist who explores culture, politics, identity, and social issues and has a passion for amplifying the stories of bicultural and bilingual communities through her photography. In 2021, Latino Journalists of California, CCNMA named Julie one of “California’s Most Influential Latina Journalists,” and in 2022 she was a runner up for the prestigious Ruben Salazar Journalism Award for her reporting on the Oxnard beach community.

EMMA LESUR

Emma Lesur is a Mexican-Dutch multimedia artist and writer studying at Farnham University for the Creative Arts. Her topics of interest range from politics and environmentalism to queer issues and philosophy. Besides her studies, she currently freelances as an illustrator while volunteering for a number of activist organisations and collectives.

BEATRIZ LIMÓN

es una periodista independiente que fue corresponsal en Arizona y Nuevo México de la Agencia Internacional de Noticias EFE. Licenciada en Ciencias de la Comunicación, fotógrafa profesional y columnista para periódico El Imparcial.

Verónica Liso

Verónica Liso is an Argentinean product manager for digital native media and a freelance investigative journalist since 2013. She specializes in judicial journalism and data journalism. She has been published in Cosecha Roja, Infojus Noticias, Página 12, Revista Anfibia, eldiario.ar, Perycia, among other outlets.

FRANK LÓPEZ BALLESTEROS

Frank López Ballesteros was a reporter at the international desk at El Universal newspaper in Caracas, Venezuela, where he covered national security issues, particularly anti-terrorism, as well as domestic politics. He has been a freelance investigative journalist at Diario Las Américas in Miami. In 2020 he founded Itempnews, an investigative journalism non-profit organization.

VIRGINIA LORA

Virginia Lora is an independent audio producer, reporter and editor who works in English and Spanish, and dabbles in French. Born in Peru, she moved to the U.S. at age 13 and grew up in Miami, Florida. Much of her interest in stories that center the margins comes from her early-career experiences interviewing people in communities all over the country for an oral history project, and her own immigration experience. She earned a B.A. in history, French and a certificate in Latin American & Latino studies from Amherst College and trained in narrative audio at the Transom Story Workshop.

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MONIQUE O. MADAN

Monique O. Madan writes about immigration and enterprise for the Miami Herald. She is currently a Reveal Fellow at the Center for Investigative Reporting. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald and The Dallas Morning News.

MEGHNA MAHARISHI

Meghna Maharishi is an investigative intern at CNBC.

JENNY MANRIQUE

Jenny Manrique is a freelance reporter who has covered human rights in Latin America and the United States for two decades. She covered immigration for the Dallas Morning News and national politics for Univision. Her work has been published, in English and Spanish, in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and CNN, among others. Follow @jennymanriquec on Twitter.

FLÁVIA MANTOVANI

Flávia Mantovani is a reporter for the international section of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, in Brazil. She has written about migration and human rights since 2014. She has published reports in the Spanish magazine Capital, on BBC Brazil and in Brazilian media such as G1, Veja and Piauí.

J. MARCOS

J. Marcos. Precariousness. Philosophy. Journalism. Freelance questions from those three vital areas.

Rosario Marina

Rosario Marina is a journalist specializing in data and narrative. She studied at the National University of La Plata, in Argentina. She has been covering human rights, gender and LGBTIQ issues, migration and police violence for 10 years for media outlets in Spain, Guatemala, the U.S. and Argentina.

ABRAHAM MARQUEZ

Abraham Marquez is a freelance writer from Inglewood, California, focusing on immigration, and politics.

FÉLIX MÁRQUEZ

Félix Márquez is an independent photographer and visual journalist based in Mexico. He has specialized in covering the war against drug trafficking, migration, human rights and the lives of children in Latin America. He is the organizer of the Mirar Distinto Photo Festival. His photographs have been exhibited collectively and individually in New York City, Mexico, Norway, Ecuador and Chile.

PILAR MARRERO

Pilar is a journalist and author with extensive experience in covering social and political issues in the Latino community. As a disinformation monitor for the National Conference on Citizenship’s Algorithmic Transparency Institute, she has been tracking COVID-19 misinformation, the anti-vaccine movement, and politics. Pilar is also an Associate Editor for Ethnic Media Services in San Francisco, a Spanish-language content partnerships advisor for The Marshall Project, and a consulting producer for “187, the Rise of the Latino Vote,” a documentary by Public Media Group of Southern California which premiered in 2020.

CONSUELO MARTINEZ

Consuelo Martinez is a multimedia journalism student at the University of Texas at El Paso with a passion for photography. She will graduate in December 2021.

SAÚL MARTINEZ

Saúl Martinez is an independent freelance photographer and videographer based in South Florida. He specializes in documentary, portrait, editorial and news photography. Saúl’s vision and approach to his work flow allows him to document life in a creative, intimate, storytelling way through photographs. He has been working in Florida since 2017, for numerous publications. Before shifting over to freelance work, he was based in Central America since 2009 as a staff wire photographer for EFE and Reuters news agencies for ten years out of Guatemala City, Guatemala.

JACQUELINE MATA

desde perseguir noticias de última hora hasta encontrar personajes noticiosos, está comprometida a contar historias que inspiran y educan. Nacida y criada en El Paso, Texas, y de herencia mexicana, Mata ha reportado y producido para varios estados, incluyendo Texas, Nevada y Florida. Su trabajo periodístico ha destacado varios temas, incluyendo la inmigración, la trata de personas, la donación de órganos y la salud global.

JORGE MELCHOR

Jorge is a freelance visual and data journalist whose video, online, print and broadcast work has appeared on outlets including NBC News, The New York Times, the History Channel, and the Financial Times. He has worked as a freelance journalist in Mexico and the U.S. and currently lives just outside New York City.

ALEJANDRO MELÉNDEZ

Alejandro Meléndez was born in Mexico City. He studied communication science at the School of Political and Social Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and photography at the Center for Marti Studies in Havana, Cuba. He is a freelance photographer, deputy director of the website Periodistas Unidos (United Journalists) and a member of the FotorreporterosMx collective. He worked at the newspapers El Financiero, La Jornada and Excélsior and the sports publication Récord. He has also worked at the news agencies Notimex, Clasos, AFP, Xinhua y Procesofoto and has contributed to the magazines focused on music, including Mosca, Rolling Stone, Grita Radio and website Me Hace Ruido. He has written two books: Culturas Juveniles, edited by the UNAM School of Political and Social Science and Luminiescencias with the publishing house Literal. He won the Gabriel García Márquez award in 2019 in the innovation category for joint reporting on “Mujeres de la Vitrina” (Showcase Women).

CLAUDIA MELÉNDEZ SALINAS

Claudia Meléndez Salinas is an author, journalist, open water swimmer, and a big cat lover

DANIEL MÉNDEZ

Daniel Méndez is an award-winning editor/producer with more than 15 years of experience covering news in English and Spanish. He has worked with Telemundo and 12 News. His professional experience contributed to a better understanding of fair and comprehensive coverage of Latino communities, including collaborating on the production of bilingual stories that spawned 12 News en Español.

JOSEE MOLAVI

Josee Molavi is a bilingual filmmaker and multimedia journalist passionate about immigration, human rights, and environmental justice. Using the visual storytelling language to tap into underrepresented narratives, she focuses on socio-cultural documentary films and intersectional reporting projects. Molavi graduated with a degree in Communication, Legal Studies, Economics, and Government (CLEG) from American University in 2020 and has a background in immigration law and community organizing. She pursues freelance journalism and videography, serves as the bilingual producer in the media team for the city of Annapolis, Maryland, and writes and produces original music.

PEDRO NOÉ MORALES

Pedro Noé Morales is a researcher at the Moses Mesoamerican Archive at Harvard University and a Teaching Fellow at the Department of Anthropology and the Harvard Divinity School, where he focuses on Ancient Mesoamerican Cultures and Societies, the Comparative Study of Religion, and the evolution of religious practices in the Latino-Diaspora in Latin American and within the United States.

SARINA MORALES

is the Los Angeles Rams Team Reporter. She was a former SportsCenter anchor for ESPN. Sarina was part of the launch of ESPN’s SportsCenterAM morning show. She also worked as a feature reporter covering the NBA Finals as well as MLB’s Opening Day. Prior to ESPN, she was the social media manager for National Geographic.

IVAN MORENO

Ivan Moreno is a Chicago-based freelance journalist with more than 15 years of daily news experience, including 14 years with The Associated Press in Colorado, Illinois and Wisconsin. He’s covered state and national politics and major breaking news in every state he’s worked in and has been on assignment in Mexico City, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Albuquerque N.M. He began his career in Denver with the Rocky Mountain News.

JIM MORRIS

Jim Morris is the executive director and founder of Public Health Watch. He has been a journalist since 1978, focusing on public health and the environment. He has received more than 80 awards for his work, including the George Polk award, the Sidney Hillman award, three National Association of Science Writers awards, two national Edward R. Murrow awards and five Texas Headliners awards. Morris spent more than 13 years with the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization in Washington, D.C., as a senior reporter, managing editor, acting CEO and executive editor. While there, reporting he directed won a Pulitzer Prize and an Edgar A. Poe award for national reporting from the White House Correspondents’ Association.

RUTHY MUÑOZ

Ruthy Muñoz is a freelance journalist, a multilingual linguist, and a soon-to-be book author. She served in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of specialist during the Desert Shield/Desert Storm era. Previously, Ruthy was a Chips Quinn Scholar, and National Association of Black Journalists Reuters Fellow. She speaks five languages and was a French translator for Haiti’s national football team. She is also a freelance contributor for global travel publication, Skift, focusing on airlines coverage.

URSULA MUÑOZ SCHAEFER

Ursula Muñoz Schaefer is a freelance journalist and recent graduate of Florida International University. She was opinion editor of the school newspaper, PantherNOW, and wrote this story for the University’s South Florida Media Network.

MARIELA MURDOCCO

is a bilingual multimedia journalist and photographer in New York City who has been nominated for five Emmy Awards. Born in Uruguay, she has worked as a reporter, TV producer, anchor, photographer and videographer for Consumer Reports, Telemundo, News 12, The New York Daily News, Banda Oriental, The Jersey Journal and The Associated Press. She has contributed to The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Hola TV, Fox News and as a NY correspondent for Canal 7 in Uruguay. In 2012, Mariela was elected national Spanish at-large officer for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

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ANJANA NAGARAJAN-BUTANEY

Anjana Nagarajan-Butaney is a writer for India Currents magazine, showcasing the stories of South Asians in the United States while exploring the social and cultural impact of issues like immigration, health, census, elections, technology and the arts. She is also a Producer/Founder of DesiCollective Media, creating multimedia (podcast, video and written) content that impacts the multiethnic, multicultural communities of the South Asian diaspora. Anjana is a 2021 & 2022 grantee from the USC Center for Health Journalism, reporting on domestic violence in the South Asian community. This project received two - First place In-Depth Reporting California Journalism Awards from the California News Publishers Association. In 2022, Anjana won a grant to report on aging, as part of the first Altavoz Lab cohort. She also received an award for Local Coverage of Election 2020 from CNPA."

LYGIA NAVARRO

Lygia Navarro is an award-winning disabled journalist working in narrative audio and print. She has reported from across Latin America, as well as on Latine stories in the United States and Europe. Lygia has reported for The American Prospect, Business Insider, Marketplace, The World, Latino USA, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Christian Science Monitor, The Associated Press, and Afar, among other outlets. She has also worked as a podcast producer, and her work has been supported by many grants and fellowships, including, most recently, the Journalism & Women Symposium.

Rebecca Noble

Rebecca Noble is a freelance photojournalist based in Tucson, Arizona and frequently contributes to the New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg and other outlets.

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REM O'DONNELLEY

Rem O'Donnelley is a freelance journalist and photographer in Northern California. He's covered issues and events in the San Francisco Bay Area for local outlets since 2013. He enjoys writing about the world of craft beer. Having had epilepsy since 2010, he uses his experience to educate others. He is also an avid amateur radio operator and weekends can be found contacting others in states and countries during radio contests.

MANUEL OCAÑO

Manuel Ocaño started his career in journalism four decades ago in Mexico City. He covered Central America during the 80s. He currently reports on the U.S.-Mexico border on immigration and human rights issues. He is a multimedia journalist and his work is often published in EFE, La Opinión, Excelsior, and Chula Vista Today.

ROMMEL H. OJEDA

Rommel H. Ojeda is a bilingual journalist and filmmaker based in NYC. He is the community correspondent for Documented. His work focuses on immigration and issues affecting Latinx communities in New York.

LAURA OLIVIERI ROBLES

Laura Olivieri Robles is an independent multimedia journalist. Olivieri was born in Puerto Rico, but lives in the diaspora. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN en Español and the New Scientist magazine. Olivieri also works as a responder for the nonprofit Vita Activa.

SERGIO OLMOS

is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He covers conflict. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Reuters.

MANUEL ORTIZ ESCÁMEZ

Manuel Ortiz Escámez is a national award-winning (US) social documentary photographer and journalist based in Redwood City, California. He was born in Mexico City where he received a BA in sociology and an MA in visual arts, specializing in documentary film. He has traveled through over 20 countries for his photographic, and multimedia projects, most of them about immigration, social justice, and the environment. He has long taught Visual Sociology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where he was the director and founder of the Multimedia Laboratory for Social Research for more than seven years. Manuel is the director and founder of Peninsula 360 Press, a digital and print media outlet in Redwood City, California. He also has collaborated as an independent reporter and photojournalist for media outlets such as El Mensajero (San Francisco, CA), Alianza News (San Jose, CA.), Ethnic Media Services (San Francisco, CA), Proceso (Mexico), Sin Embargo (Mexico), Univisión (USA), The Nation (USA), and Gran Angular Agency (France)."

DR. LUISA ORTIZ PÉREZ

Dr. Luisa Ortiz Pérez is the Executive Director of Vita-Activa.org, a helpline to support journalists, activists and defenders of human, environmental and women's rights and who face gender-based violence online. As a journalist, she has contributed to NPR, WNYC, Yahoo! Hispanic Americas, Televisa Interactive Media and the BBC. He has recently led teams that provide psychological first aid for journalists and media professionals covering natural disasters and human tragedies.

NICK OZA

joined the Arizona Republic as a staff photographer in 2006. He specializes in covering social issues, among them immigration, child welfare, gangs, and mental health. Oza was part of the Knight-Ridder team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2006 for its coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and 2017 The Wall Project for USA TODAY. (Photo by Stacey Champion.)

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SAIDA PAGÁN

Saida Pagán is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist. Born and raised in New York City, and of Puerto Rican heritage, Pagán has reported, anchored and produced for news organizations across the United States. She received a B.A. from the City University of New York and holds a master’s degree with distinction in Strategic Communication from National University. Pagán is the winner of six recent Los Angeles Press Club-sponsored awards for entertainment journalism and three awards from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors for her work in government television. She invites readers to follow her on LinkedIn and subscribe to her new YouTube channel: “American Stories with Saida Pagan.”

JUAN PALOMO

Juan R. Palomo grew up in Crystal City, Texas and several Midwestern states. He studied at La Escuelita de Doña Herminia Sifuentes, the Crystal City schools, Southwest Texas Junior College, Texas State University and The American University in Washington. Palomo wrote news and opinion for La Otra Voz, The Hays County Citizen, The Houston Post, Austin American-Statesman and USA TODAY. He lives in Houston.

RICARDO J. PARTIDA

Ricardo J. Partida, a New York City-based photographer, filmmaker and educator, focuses on documentary work centered around capturing the complexities of immigrant families. Through his lens, he hopes to illuminate their stories, cultural heritage and the challenges they encounter. As an educator, Ricardo empowers aspiring storytellers, equipping them with skills to amplify their voices and share their unique narratives. His work aims to demonstrate the power of visual storytelling in fostering connections across diverse communities.

JULIETA PELCASTRE

Julieta Pelcastre is a journalist in Mexico with over 23 years of experience covering politics, migration, corruption, drug trafficking, and national security. Her work has been published by Journalists for Transparency, 100Reporters, the Los Angeles Post-Examiner, Diálogo-Americas, Mundo Hispánico and Ahora Sí.

LAURA PEÑA

Laura Peña is an immigration lawyer. She used to be an attorney for ICE, and once deported migrants. She has an amazing story to tell. Instead, her story today is about how she's been treated amid the American Dirt controversy by a publishing business with a lousy history of fostering literary voices from among emerging writers of color with great stories to tell.

ANDREA PINEDA-SALGADO

Andrea Pineda-Salgado is a bilingual journalist born and raised in Queens, NY. She is the community reporter for Epicenter-NYC, a hyperlocal journalism initiative. Andrea’s work uplifts the voices of the marginalized. At Epicenter-NYC, she’s written stories about vaccine equity and the battle to fund excluded workers and immigrant tenants who were victims of a fire. Andrea is a 2021 graduate of New York University, where she earned a B.A. in Journalism and Media, Culture and Communications.

ALICE PIPITONE

Alice Pipitone is a freelance investigative journalist in Mexico, where she has contributed to several radio, digital and print media. In Washington, D.C., she contributed to Newsweek in Spanish. And, in Colombia, she worked with the research unit of the economic magazine Dinero.

MARIA POLLETTA

Maria Polletta is an investigative reporter for AZCIR focused on covering inequities in education. Prior to joining AZCIR, she covered state government and politics for The Arizona Republic and USA Today Network, leading breaking and enterprise watchdog coverage of the Arizona Governor’s Office, Attorney General’s Office and state Supreme Court. Polletta also has covered criminal justice reform, inequality issues, economic development and city politics over the past decade, with bylines from Arizona to Mexico.

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KATHERINE RAPIN

Katherine Rapin is a freelance climate journalist based in Puerto Rico. Her work has been published by WIRED, Yes! Magazine and Yale Environment 360 among others. She's currently focused on stories about climate adaptation, resilience and humans restoring relationships with the natural world. Read more at KatherineRapin.com.

KATHERINE REYNOLDS LEWIS

Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning science journalist covering children, behavioral and mental health, education, race, gender, disability, and related topics for the Atlantic, New York Times, Undark, and Washington Post, among others. Her book, The Good News About Bad Behavior, grew out of Mother Jones’ most-read story. A Harvard physics graduate, Katherine is the founder of the Institute for Independent Journalists and former national correspondent for Newhouse and Bloomberg News.

DANIEL ROBLES

Daniel Robles is an independent photographer and graphic designer with over 18 years’ experience. He is the art director for Conecta Arizona. His work has been featured in different magazines and media outlets internationally.

ANNABEL ROCHA

Annabel Rocha is a Multimedia Journalist for Illinois Latino News (ILLN). A native Chicagoan, Annabel graduated with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 2018. Her areas of experience include broadcast production, news writing and interviewing. She now resides on the south side of the city, with hopes of amplifying local Hispanic/Latino voices and sharing stories of inclusion and diversity.

ISABELA ROCHA

Isabela Rocha is a Brazilian reporter formerly based in Boston. Her favorite coverage topics are race, gender and social justice. In her free time, she loves exploring the city and having long conversations over a cup of coffee.

EZRA DAVID ROMERO

Ezra David Romero is CapRadio's environment reporter. He tells stories about how climate change is altering the lives of everyday Californians. He also reports on climate policy, science, water issues and how decisions around the environment impact people across the Golden State.

OLGA ROSALES SALINAS

Olga Rosales Salinas is a journalist who also writes poetry, short stories, and essays. Her debut collection of poetry and prose, La Llorona, was published by Birch Bench Press in August of 2021. In 2019 her philanthropy began with a non-profit benefiting first-generation and immigrant students living on the Central Coast of California, The Rosales Sisters' Scholarship.

LOLA ROSARIO

Lola Rosario is a freelance journalist and spoken word poet based in Loíza, Borikén. Her work centering on cultural identity and social justice issues is featured in Latina Media, NACLA, Hip Latina, Green Left, and Latino Rebels. You can catch Lola on LinkedIn and via her website.

ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA

Romina Ruiz-Goiriena is a multimedia journalist and producer. She covers politics and immigration issues and has worked in Paris, Cuba, and Israel for France24, El Mundo, and Haaretz. In 2016 she co-founded Barrio, a digital news outlet that sought to make political news more accessible to Latinos. Previously, she worked in Guatemala and Central America for CNN and The Associated Press.

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ALLISON SALERNO

Allison Salerno is an award-winning multimedia journalist based in Athens, Georgia. She’s a seasoned print reporter, who also produces audio stories about farming, food, and social innovation, among other topics. You can find Allison on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @allisonbsalerno.

ZAYDEE SANCHEZ

Zaydee Sanchez is an independent documentary photographer based in Los Angeles. She focuses on homelessness, immigration, and racial discrimination.

RICARDO SANDOVAL-PALOS

Ricardo Sandoval-Palos is palabra’s founding editor. He is the Public Editor for PBS, an intermediary on ethics, integrity and standards between the broadcaster’s audiences and its creatives and journalists. Ricardo is an award-winning investigative reporter and editor. His reporting in Latin America earned awards from the Overseas Press Club and the InterAmerican Press Association. He’s also co-author of the biography, “The Fight In The Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement.”

NANCY SAN MARTIN

Nancy San Martin is a freelance journalist based in Miami. She has 30 years of experience as a reporter and editor -- 20 of those at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald.

GABBRIEL SCHIVONE

Gabbriel Schivone is a writer and investigative reporter originally from the Southwest U.S. borderlands.

JULIE SCHWIETERT COLLAZO

Julie Schwietert Collazo is a bilingual writer, editor, fact checker, and translator, as well as the co-founder and director of Immigrant Families Together, a nonprofit formed in 2018 to respond to the family separation policy. Along with Rosayra Pablo Cruz, she wrote The Book of Rosy/El libro de Rosy, published by HarperOne and HarperCollins Español in 2020. Both authors are featured in the documentary, “Split at the Root/Dividida en la Raíz,” which is streaming on Netflix.

KYRA SENESE

Kyra Senese is a Chicago-based reporter. She has recently reported on the COVID-19 pandemic for the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ, and the Pioneer Press in Chicago.

KATE SEQUEIRA

Kate Sequeira is a junior studying journalism at the University of Southern California. She is the editor-in-chief of the university's newspaper, the Daily Trojan.

ANGILEE SHAH

Angilee Shah is a fellow of the Alicia Patterson Foundation and editor-in-chief of Charlottesville Tomorrow, where this piece will also run.

SIMI SHAH

is a metro Atlanta native. She is the Head of Business Development at Paperwork Studios, a media company building niche publications out of New York. Simi also founded South Asian Trailblazers, a professional content platform with a newsletter, podcast, and social media dedicated to showcasing South Asian stories. She also runs Shop South Asian, a platform to amplify South Asian businesses and serve as a resource network for South Asian entrepreneurs. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University. Find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Josephine Sittenfeld

Josephine Sittenfeld is a photographer and filmmaker based in Providence, R.I. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Aeon Magazine, and Shondaland. Her coming-of-age documentary about a young man with autism filmed over a twelve-year span, Growing Up Ethan, is part of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery “The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today” traveling exhibition, currently showing at the Ackland Art Museum, UNC Chapel Hill.

DIANNE SOLIS

Dianne Solis is a staff reporter at The Dallas Morning News and a former foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal based in Mexico. Most recently, she has reported extensively on the immigration crackdown by the Obama and Trump administrations and its impact on children. Throughout her career, she's written about people crossing borders, from tales of refugees from Iraq and Syria, to children from Honduras and El Salvador seeking asylum in Texas. Her passion? Finding the humanity in complex stories. She holds degrees from Northwestern and California State University, Fresno, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

DAN SOLOMON

Dan Solomon is a reporter at Texas Monthly. He writes about politics, music, food, sports, criminal justice, health care, film and business.

JUAN ANTONIO SORTO

Juan Antonio Sorto is a first-generation college graduate from El Salvador and a doctoral candidate at Texas Southern University's School of Urban Planning and Environmental Justice.

LILIANA SOTO

Liliana Soto is an award-winning journalist, an assistant professor of practice at the University of Arizona School of Journalism, an assistant director for the school's Bilingual Journalism Program, and a freelance bilingual multimedia journalist. She has 10 years of experience in broadcast news in English and Spanish, with a specialization in bilingual investigative journalism, immigration, the U.S.-Mexico border, Latino issues, marginalized communities, and Mexican-centric Latin culture.

AUTUMN SPANNE

Autumn Spanne is a journalist, editor and educator who writes about science and the environment. Her stories have been featured in The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Guardian, Reveal, Environmental Health News, the Christian Science Monitor, Inside Climate News and CNN. Previously, Autumn taught English and journalism on the Navajo Nation and later worked as an editor at Youth Communication, an award-winning educational publishing company in New York that trains young people in writing and journalism. She was a 2016-2017 Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a 2006-2007 fellow of the Metcalf Institute for Environmental and Marine Reporting. Autumn currently serves as manager of newsletters and bilingual content for Environmental Health Sciences. She holds an MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, an MA in education from Western New Mexico University, and a BA in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Originally from California, she now lives in Barcelona.

SREE SRIPATHY

Sree Sripathy is a staff photographer for India Currents magazine and a CatchLight Local Fellow as part of CatchLight's California Local Visual Desk.

RAY SUAREZ

Ray Suarez is co-host of “World Affairs” on KQED-FM and public radio stations nationwide. He’s the author of “Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shapes a Nation” (Penguin).

VIJI SUNDARAM

Viji Sundaram formerly worked as health editor of New America Media in San Francisco and as a reporter for publications including India-West, a weekly for the South Asian community in the U.S., the Cape Cod Times, Providence Journal and New Bedford Standard Times. She has been awarded several fellowships and won 11 journalism awards, including one for her expose on McDonald’s use of beef in its so-called vegetarian fries

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JOVELLE TAMAYO

Jovelle Tamayo is an independent documentary photographer, visual journalist and youth educator. She was born in Olongapo City, Philippines, and raised in Central New Jersey. She is currently based in Seattle, Washington.

DAGMAR THIEL

Dagmar Thiel is Ecuadorian-German journalist and CEO of Fundamedios, a non-profit organization dedicated to press freedoms and freedom of expression throughout the Americas. In her native Ecuador, Thiel reported for Ecuavisa and TC TV, and contributed to Spain’s El Pais newspaper and the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. She is also a Donald Reynolds Institute fellow.

RICH TENORIO

is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in international, national, regional, and local media outlets. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a cartoonist.

SABRINA TOPPA

Sabrina Toppa is an award-winning journalist based in Texas. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, TIME, The Washington Post and NBC News, among other outlets.

ALLISON TORRES BURTKA

Allison Torres Burtka is an award-winning freelance writer and editor based in metro Detroit. She edits articles, books, and other content for organizations including the University of Illinois Press and the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute. Her writing has been published in the Guardian, HuffPost, Harvard Public Health, Outside, Audubon, Sierra, espnW, Runner’s World, EatingWell, Well+Good, and other outlets.

VALERIA MARÍA TORRES-NIEVES

Valeria María Torres-Nieves is a feminist journalist from Yauco, Puerto Rico who recently graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a double major in Journalism and Public Relations. She reported for a year on gender, race, politics, and culture in Todas, a digital site on feminist journalism that augments the voices of women in all aspects of public life, at the same time that it acknowledges the multiple layers of oppression from patriarchy and racism. She currently works as a reporter with the daily El Nuevo Día in Puerto Rico.

VALERIE TRAPP

Valerie Trapp is a writer and journalist from the Dominican Republic and Florida. She is a recent graduate of Stanford University and has received a Steve Steinberg Reporting Award and the California Journalism Awards' First Place in Profile Writing. She has worked with the Council on Foreign Relations, STANFORD Magazine, Argentina's Social Security Administration, and director/filmmaker Jay Roach's production company, Delirious Media.

EILEEN TRUAX

is a Mexican journalist with more than 25 years of experience. Her work has been published in the United States, Latin America, and Spain, such as The Washington Post, Vice, El Universal, El Faro, Gatopardo, and 5W, among others. She has published three books with editions in English and Spanish: “Dreamers, an immigrant generation’s fight for their American Dream ;” “How does it feel to be unwanted. Stories of resistance and resilience from Mexicans in the US;” and “We built the wall. How the US keeps out asylum seekers from Mexico, Central America and beyond.

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MATTHEW VAN METER

Matthew Van Meter's reporting on criminal justice and civil rights has appeared in The New Republic and The Atlantic, and he is the author of DEEP DELTA JUSTICE: A Black Teen, His Lawyer, and Their Groundbreaking Battle for Civil Rights in the South. He lives in Detroit, where he writes, teaches, and facilitates a theatre program for incarcerated women.

AITANA VARGAS

Aitana Vargas is a Columbia University graduate and an award-winning on-camera news reporter, foreign correspondent and live tennis commentator based in Los Angeles. She began her career anchoring a local Spanish-language TV show while obtaining her BS in Physics from Berry College and then interned at the BBC, CNN International and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Communications Department in Germany. Her Master’s thesis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Columbia University was supervised by Professor Rashid Khalidi. Her stories have appeared on Público, EFE, CNN Expansión, Narratively, Hoy Los Ángeles, the LA Times, DirecTV Sports, TVE Internacional, Cuatro/Telecinco TV Network, HITN TV Network and others. She’s received several LA Press Club awards (Investigative Series, Sports Journalist of the Year, Obituary, Consumer, Sports & Hard News), the 2018 Berry College Outstanding Young Alumni Award and is a Livingston Award finalist. Aitana was also the Spanish-English interpreter for transgender artist Daniela Vega, lead actress in Academy Award-winning film "A Fantastic Woman." Learn more about her at aitanavargas.com

TINA VASQUEZ

is a senior staff writer at The Counter, where she reports on gender, labor, immigration, and food systems. She is The Counter’s first immigration reporter. Vasquez was the southern fellow in Type Investigations’ 2020-2021 Ida B. Wells Fellowship and a member of Poynter’s 2021 Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color. She is currently working on a book for The New Press about reproductive injustice in the U.S. immigration system.

VALERIA VENTURINI

Valeria Venturini was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She is studying Broadcast Journalism with a minor in Social Media Marketing and E-Analytics at Florida International University (FIU). Valeria is a reporter for FIU's student-led video web series, The South Florida Access. Currently, she is the marketing director of the NAHJ-FIU Chapter. Her Instagram is @ventuparaca, and you can find her on Twitter at @valeriaventu

Gabriela Olga Villegas

Gabriela Olga Villegas is a regional digital content editor for Univision Texas and Chicago. She is the winner of a Lone Star EMMY for winter weather coverage in North Texas with the Noticias 23 team. She worked for more than seven years as a journalist for El Norte and Reforma in Monterrey, Mexico, where she began in daily news coverage and also conducted investigative journalism focused on corruption that had a national impact, such as the detour of resources in social programs and the favoritism of politicians with companies to distribute contracts and bids.

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Annie Warren

Annie Warren serves as the director of content at Northwest Public Broadcasting. She has a degree in photojournalism from The University of Montana. Born and raised in the Columbia Basin, she is a longtime resident of Pasco, Washington.

JON WILLIAMS

For four decades Jon Williams has left graphite bits, paint splotches, fix stains and pixel dust in several newsrooms throughout the country. He has served as an artist, photographer, art director, news designer and copy editor for publications in California, New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Washington state. He currently lives in the Puget Sound region of Washington.

SALGU WISSMATH

Salgu Wissmath is a nonbinary photographer based in Sacramento. Their personal work explores the intersections of mental health, queer identity, and faith from a conceptual documentary approach. Salgu recently completed a Master of Photography degree at Ohio University and is currently freelancing for editorial publications and nonprofits in Northern California.

JOE YERARDI

Joe Yerardi is a data reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, reporting on a broad range of topics. In this role, he combines traditional reporting techniques with data analysis, visualization and programming to tell investigative stories.

DAISY YUHAS

Daisy Yuhas is a science journalist and editor based in Austin, Texas. She is an editor for Scientific American’s Mind Matters column, which explores insights from brain and behavioral science. Previously, she has served as features editor for SAPIENS magazine, a columnist for The Hechinger Report, and an associate editor at Scientific American, where she edited stories for Scientific American MIND. Daisy has written for multiple publications, including The New York Times for Kids, Audubon magazine, NBC News, and Newsweek.

GRISELDA ZETINO

Griselda Zetino has a passion for storytelling. She’s currently a radio news reporter for KTAR News in Phoenix, through which she has won several awards, including an Edward R. Murrow Award for Hard News in 2022 and the Arizona Broadcasters Association’s Newcomer Award in 2019. Prior to that, she worked as a freelance journalist for NBC Latino, The Guardian, the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and other news outlets. She enjoys covering politics, education and immigration. The Mexico native earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Arizona State University in May 2011, and she recently served as a board member for the Arizona Latino Media Association.