Carolina Latinx Center Co-Hosts NPR’s Maria Hinojosa

When you say, “Latina journalist,” there is only one name that quickly comes to mind at the top of the list and that is, author, radio and television news reporter, and media businesswoman, Maria Hinojosa. Her career spans almost 30 years as an award-winning journalist reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring the Emmy Award-winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. And she is the founder of Futuro Media Group a multimedia company aimed at telling Latinx stories that developed Latino USA a public radio program focused on issues facing Latinx people in the U.S. When you say, Latina journalist there is only one person that comes to mind, Maria Hinojosa, and she’s coming to UNC.

The Carolina Latinx Center, together with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) at UNC and the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, is proud to co-host “Una Noche con Maria Hinojosa,” on Tuesday, February 23 at 6 PM EST. The event is free to the public and will be virtual.

UNC students Angelica Edwards, ’22, and Julian Berger, ’22, the leaders and founders of NAHJ at UNC and students at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media will be moderating a discussion with Hinojosa on her career and her new memoir, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in Torn America. The event is expected to attract hundreds of students and others interested in hearing from Hinojosa and her career.

The Carolina Latinx Center got involved when Associate Professor Paul Cuadros, and faculty associate for the Center, first proposed inviting Maria Hinojosa to campus on behalf of NAHJ at UNC and partnering with the Center to host and organize the event. From there, the Center worked with NAHJ at UNC to make it happen. The event is also sponsored by UNC Latina/o Studies Program, the Institute for the Study of the Americas, UNC Libraries, Carolina Union Activities Board, the Carolina Union, Epilogue café, which will be selling copies of Hinojosa’s new book. Additionally, Epilogue will be donating 10% of all food sales on the day before and the day of the program (February 22nd and 23rd) to the student organization leading the program.

“Maria Hinojosa represents the very best of journalists in our country and it’s a privilege to have her appear on our campus to talk with our students and share her thoughts on her career and where the country is going politically and socially when it comes to Latinx people,” Cuadros said. Cuadros is also the faculty adviser for NAHJ at UNC and wanted their first event to be a big one. “Maria and I go back to our days as reporters in Chicago and we’ve been colleagues and friends ever since.”

As the Anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, as well as Co-Host of In The Thick, the Futuro Media’s new political podcast, Hinojosa has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. Hinojosa is also Anchor and Executive Producer of the PBS show America By The Numbers, the first national television series to examine our country’s dramatic demographic shifts, and Humanizing America, a digital video series that deconstructs stereotypes about the American electorate. She is also a new contributor to the long-running, award-winning news program CBS Sunday Morning and a frequent guest on MSNBC. She’s won four Emmys total, the John Chancellor Award, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Ruben Salazar Lifetime Achievement Award.

As a reporter for NPR, Hinojosa was among the first to report on youth violence in urban communities on a national scale. During her eight years as CNN’s urban affairs correspondent, Hinojosa often took viewers into communities rarely shown on television.

Now at Futuro Media Group, Hinojosa continues to bring attention to experiences and points of view that are often overlooked or underreported in mainstream media, all while mentoring the next generation of diverse journalists to delve into authentic and nuanced stories that impact their communities.

“Maria has done great stories on our community, but people don’t realize that she’s developing Latinx media on her own with Futuro Media, something that is so desperately needed to tell our stories by our writers and creators,” Cuadros said. “I hope people will ask questions not only about her experiences as a journalist but also her entrepreneurial work with Futuro.”

The Carolina Latinx Center worked with NAHJ at UNC to bring the event together helping to coordinate the sale of Hinojosa’s new book and coordinating with the sponsors to make the event happen.

“This is what the Center is designed to do, to work with other UNC organizations to bring unique programs and events that highlight and examine the Latinx experience in the U.S.,” said Josmell Perez, the executive director of the Center. “We’re pleased that we helped to make this happen and want to do more events like this on campus.”