Stories of migration from some of the best young journalists in Mexico, Central America and the United States
Between May 2014 and September 2015, 19 young journalists from the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras fanned out around the country to report on the uncovered stories of migration. For many, this was a rare opportunity to witness migration close-up. For others, it was a chance to share their experience with colleagues from different countries. Mentored by Round Earth Media's veteran reporters, they produced more than 50 published or broadcast pieces.
Francisco de Leon Rodríguez is a 26-year-old Guatemalan journalist, whose work has appeared in the Sunday section of elPeriódico, a well-respected, independent online newspaper. Rodríguez has a degree in Political Science from the Universidad Rafael Landivar of Quetzaltenango. In 2014 he won first place in the National Journalism Award in the category of research.
German Andino is a writer for the online publication Revistazo and co-author of an upcoming book of interviews and essays about life on the streets of Tegucigalpa. He has worked as a fixer for the BBC and other international news outlets. He is also an illustrator and teaches computer programming to children. He is currently working on a documentary in comic form about life in a Honduran street gang.
Iolany Pérez is the director of Communications and Multimedia for Radio Progreso, the pioneering Honduras-based station, specializing in gender and violence. During her seven years at Radio Progreso, Pérez produced a three-part radio and print special, “Mujeres en Maras,” featuring extensive interviews with women gang members. She also writes for the newspaper aMecate Corto. She studied at the National Autonomous University of Honduras.
Gerardo Chévez has worked for Radio Progreso for 10 years. He began producing a program about human rights and labor unions, but has since expanded his beat to include economics, politics and his personal passion, Afro-Indigenous issues. An active campaigner for press freedom in Honduras he recently traveled to Washington to speak to the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights about security conditions for journalists. He studies journalism at the National Autonomous University of Honduras.
Jimmy Alvarado is a part-time reporter who covered the recent elections in El Salvador for the digital newspaper El Faro. He also is completing studies at Central American University José Simeón Cañas (UCA) in La Libertad. As an exchange student, Alvarado also attended University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) in San Antonio, Texas, as a Communication Arts student.
Eric Lemus is a freelance journalist in El Salvador whose reports have been seen in El Mundo Digital, BBC News, and VICE News. Lemus received a doctorate in Jounralism from Universitat de Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. In addition to his reporting, Lemus has been active on a national basis in the areas of Human Rights and Free of Expression for journalists. Among his many awards is the Ill Premios Iberoamericanos de Communicación por los Derechos de la Niñez y las Adolescencias.
Mely Arellano Ayala l works for Lado B, an online magazine in Puebla, Mexico focusing on public policy, technology and culture. A graduate in Lingustics from Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla, Ayala has held fellowships at the Press and Democracy Program of the Iberoamerican University, Mexico City in and of the Iberoamerican for New Journalism Foundation. Among her awards are first places in the category of Chronical in the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Journalism Prize in Puebla in 2012 and 2013.
Visual Journalist and multimedia producer based in Juarez. Since early 2010 she’s been documenting war attributed to drug trafficking cartels fighting for the plaza in Juarez, and consequences on society. Some of her projects includes groups of children in marginalized neighborhoods who are taught on photography to help them express their ideas and try to find situations that violate their human rights, portraits of struggle stories and icons of Ciudad Juarez with the intention of showing the Juarez survivor, also has produced some video stories where victims of violence have used their courage to organize and undertake projects of common welfare.
Imelda Robles studied Communication Sciences, with a specialty in Journalism, at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. Initially hired by a Nuevo Leon television station to cover official events and local human interest news Robles was selected to participate in a journalism workshop by El Norte, of the Reforma newspaper group. She was subsequently hired by Reforma and reports on social problems, education and health.
Manuel Ureste is a Spanish journalist who’s been working in Mexico since 2008. Currently a reporter at Animal Político in Mexico City, Ureste holds a master’s degree in International Relationship and Diplomacy (Staffordshire University). He has published chronicles and special reports about migration and human rights.
Antonia Cereijido is an associate producer at NPR's Latino USA. She covers = education and technology among other topics. Antonia has interpreted for Th= is American Life and Love + Radio. She has been a guest on the Dinner Party= Download.
Jennifer Collins is a freelance reporter based in Mexico City. Before moving to Mexico, Collins was with Marketplace from American Public Media for about five years. She has also reported for newspapers in Oregon, Alaska and Cambodia. Collins has a Master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Marlon Bishop won a first-place National Headliners Award for his work on Round Earth Media’s MacArthur-funded reporting project in Mexico. He is a radio producer, writer and reporter, with a focus on music, Latin America, New York City and the arts. His work has appeared in a number of public radio outlets, including NPR Music, WNYC News, Afropop Worldwide, PRI’s The World, Latino USA and Studio 360, as well as in magazines such as Songlines, the Village Voice and Wax Poetics.
Mónica Ortiz Uribe is a Fronteras Desk (NPR) Senior Field Correspondent and a native of El Paso, Texas, where she recently worked as a freelance reporter. Her work has aired on NPR, Public Radio International and Radio Bilingüe. Most of her stories examined the effects of drug-related violence across the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Previously, she worked as a reporter for the Waco Tribune-Herald in Waco, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a degree in history.
Dr. Giovanna Dell'Orto is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and a former newswoman with The Associated Press. Her research focuses on the interplay of journalism and international affairs, historically and currently. Her sixth book, on how foreign correspondents have covered the world since World War II, will be published in November by Cambridge University Press. [if you want to embed a link: http://www.cambridge.org/US/academic/subjects/history/twentieth-century-american-history/ap-foreign-correspondents-action-world-war-ii-present] Previous books include American Journalism and International Relations [link: http://www.cambridge.org/US/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/american-journalism-and-international-relations-foreign-correspondence-early-republic-digital-era], which shows the impact of foreign correspondence on U.S. foreign policy through an analysis of coverage of 20 major world events from 1848 to 2008, and Reporting at the Southern Borders [link: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415835886/], which details the challenges and repercussions of covering immigration into the United States and the European Union. Fluent in four languages, Giovanna has lectured on journalism from Chile to China, and research brought her around the world, from Islamabad to Seoul to Mexico City.
Tyler J. Kelley is a freelance journalist based in New York City whose work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal. His feature length documentary film, "Following Seas," about sailors struggling to find a balance between adventure and family, is currently in post-production. Tyler also teaches printmaking at Parsons The New School for Design.
Ruxandra Guidi has more than 12 years of experience working in public radio, magazines and multimedia, and has reported throughout the United States, the Caribbean, South and Central America, as well as Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region. After earning a master’s degree in journalism from UC Berkeley in 2002, she worked as a reporter and producer for NPR’s Latino USA, PRI’s The World, the CPB-funded Fronteras Desk in San Diego-Tijuana, and KPCC Public Radio’s Immigration and Emerging Communities beat in Los Angeles. She’s a native of Caracas, Venezuela.
Conrad lived in Mexico for 15 years, where he worked as freelance radio and print reporter. His work appeared on the BBC World Service, NPR and CBC, as well as Christian Science Monitor and Canadian Press. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he runs a local soccer club for immigrant youth. He is currently writing a web app to take the drudgery out of radio reporting. Find out more at his page.
