News (Noticias) Tagged ‘Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez’

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, an associate professor in the School of Journalism, has spent her career promoting Latino community coverage in the media.

Because of her efforts, Rivas-Rodriguez, who helped found the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in 1982, will be inducted into the association’s hall of fame in July.

In her 17-year career in news media, Rivas-Rodriguez has worked for such publications as The Boston Globe and The Dallas Morning News. “*

“Cartoonist Hector Cantu decided if the stories of Latino soldiers were going to go untold in Ken Burns’ upcoming World War II documentary, he’d have Benito tell them.

This week, Cantu and co-creator Carlos Castellanos unveiled Benito “Benny” Ramirez in their syndicated comic strip “Baldo,” which appears in 200 newspapers.

Benito is a composite character based on the actual stories of several Hispanic World War II veterans. Their experiences are featured in a book by University of Texas journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez.”

“Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor who helped spearhead a grassroots campaign for meaningful inclusion of Latinos in the upcoming Ken Burns documentary titled THE WAR, and Maria Burns Ortiz, a college soccer columnist with ESPN.com and one of the newer Latino voices in the country’s newsrooms, are among those to receive the prestigious n Awards next month from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Rivas-Rodriguez, from the University of Texas at Austin, and Burns Ortiz will receive the Leadership Award and the Emerging Journalist of the Year Award, respectively.

Others honored with n Awards include Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning News for her thoughtful and sincere coverage of immigration, Gary Coronado of The Palm Beach Post for his stunning photographs chronicling the physical risks Central Americans take jumping trains to go north and enter the U.S., and Rebecca Aguilar of KDFW-TV Fox 4 in Dallas for her reporting work that gives a voice to those who typically don’t have one in the media. They will receive the Frank del Olmo Print Journalist of the Year Award, the Photojournalist of the Year Award and the Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award, respectively.

All the n Award recipients and winners in 14 other categories will be honored at the 22nd Annual Noche de Triunfos Journalism Awards Gala on Oct. 4 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., NAHJ’s signature event during Hispanic Heritage month. Gloria Campos Brown, news anchor at WFAA-TV Dallas, the evening’s honorary gala chair, and master of ceremonies Antonio Mora, anchor at CBS 2 News Chicago, will host the event attended by journalists, Latino leaders and the community at large.

The work honored with the Journalism Awards that evening ”” produced all across the country from Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina in the east to Salinas and San Diego/Baja California in the west ”” range from an editor’s impassioned defense of undocumented immigrants in the deep South in his commentary to a documentary investigating California’s rural gangs and their devastating effect on Latino families.

The award-winning work also chronicled the emotional journey of a woman diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer during her fifth month of pregnancy, investigated the little-known, yet incredible story on the U.S. military’s contingency plans to invade Mexico, and descriptively narrates in literary style a woman’s story of sexual violence on both sides of the border and the forced silence of undocumented abuse victims who have little hope of finding justice.

“Immigration was a big issue in 2006 and in our journalism awards, it shows,” said Ivan Roman, NAHJ’s executive director. “Much of the winning coverage went way beyond the huge immigration marches to deeply explore other aspects of the debate and tell simply heart-wrenching stories conveying much of the emotion with such wonderful writing that as journalists, they make us proud. It’s bound to be an inspiring evening.”

The five n Awards honor journalists for their professional achievements and their leadership in bringing greater awareness to issues affecting the Latino community, while NAHJ’s Journalism Awards are given out to honor Latino journalists for excellence in their specialized fields of work or to any journalist, regardless of ethnicity, for their outstanding coverage of the Latino community.

The gala’s presenters include Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, Gilbert Bailon, publisher and editor of Al Dia (Dallas) and current president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Maureen Bunyan, anchor of WJLA-TV in Washington, Miguel Almaguer, a reporter with WRC- TV in Washington, and Renay San Miguel, senior vice-president/senior media strategist with Weber Shandwick/WCTV public relations firm and former anchor of CNN Headline News.

For information on purchasing tables, tickets or other sponsorship opportunities, please contact Azuree Salazar, NAHJ Development Director, at (202) 662-7482 or asalazar@nahj.org. The deadline to confirm a sponsorship option is Monday, September 24, 2007. Sponsors to date include: Freddie Mac, Continental Airlines, Chrysler, Hearst Newspapers, State Farm Insurance, Disney, Harrah’s Entertainment, Prudential Financial, Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., Univision Communications and Western Union.

For more information about all the winners and winning entries, please go to www.nahj.org/sponsorship/specialevents/2007/noche/07awardwinners.shtml

For general information about the Gala event, presenters and sponsorships, please go to www.nahj.org/sponsorship/specialevents/2007/Noche/07nochedetriunfos.shtml“

“Saballos will be passing on what little information he has to the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project, an initiative created to ensure that the memories of those like Armando Saballos — among the half-million to 750,000 Hispanics who served in that war — are not lost forever.

Project director Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez will be honored Tuesday by the National Council of La Raza, the countrys largest Latino civil rights organization, as part of its convention, beginning today in Miami Beach.”

“-V-me, the national television network partnered with public television, brings its positive message and smart, engaging entertainment for Latinos to the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) annual conference and Latino Expo USA 2007, taking place in Miami, Florida, July 21-24

As a major media sponsor of the event, V-me will broadcast its signature primetime show, Viva Voz, from the convention on July 23-25.

The programs will cover key conference issues including Health, Homeownership, Latinos in the Military, Citizenship, the Latino Vote, and the State of the Latino Community.

Viva Voz from the NCLR Conference will also present coverage of keynote speeches and thought-provoking conversations with national personalities. Some of the newsmakers and leaders featured in the Viva Voz coverage will include:

– Senator Hilary Clinton, 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate (D-NY)

– Senator Barack Obama, 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate (D-IL)

– Raul Yzaguirre, prominent Hispanic activist and founder NCLR

– Mayor Manny Diaz, City of Miami

– Janet Murguia, president, NCLR

– Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (D-FL)

– Jorge Mursuli, national executive director, Democracia USA

– Arturo Vargas, executive director, Nat’l Assoc. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials

– Juan Carlos Zapata, Florida State Representative (R-District 119)

– Monica Lozano, publisher & CEO, La Opinion

– Juana Bordas, president, Latina Leadership

– Juan Flores, founder, Afro Latino Forum

– Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, PhD, associate professor, University of Texas

V-me’s event presence extends to the free public event, Latino Expo USA. At its booth (#636), V-me showcases its extensive educational pre-school lineup with appearances by Lunar Jim and Plaza Sesamo’s Cookie Monster. And V-me’s Vox Pop booth will let visitors speak out on select topics that will appear on www.v-me.tv.

“Everyday V-me engages Latino families with smart, positive entertainment, and provides a platform to support and showcase the interests and achievements of the national community. Our significant presence at the NCLR conference underscores our commitment to presenting various voices and participating in the discussion of issues at the heart of that community,” says Carmen DiRienzo, president V-me.

Held at the Miami Beach Convention Center, July 21 - 24, the NCLR annual conference is the largest gathering of its kind in the Hispanic community, serving as a meeting ground for more than 20,000 community leaders, activists, and volunteers.

V-me is presented locally by public TV stations in many cities as a digital broadcast and on basic cable; and nationally on DISH Network Ch 9414 and DISHLatino Ch 846. Check your local listings for more information.

About V-me
V-me is a new national network partnered with Public TV that entertains and educates America’s Latino families in Spanish with a lively mix of original and exclusive programs including: kids, lifestyle, nature, science, history, current affairs, music, arts, and nightly movies. The 24-hour digital broadcast network is presented by public television stations and carried on basic digital cable and satellite. V-me is the first venture announced by newly formed media production and distribution company, V-me Media Inc. To find out more visit www.v-me.tv “

“Today, PBS informed the Defend the Honor Campaign of their decision to reverse their position and include the Latino experience in Ken Burns’ forthcoming World War II documentary, The War. In a letter released today, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger reported that, “PBS, Ken Burns and his co-director/producer Lynn Novick have decided to create additional content that focuses on stories of Latino and Native American veterans of the Second World War.”

The PBS plan also included the following elements:

— The additional narratives about experiences of the Latino and Native
American veterans of World War II will be integrated into the
documentary, the DVD, the Website and PBS’ educational outreach
materials.
— A Latino producer will be hired by Burns production company, Florentine
Films, in consultation with PBS, to be part of the production teams
that will create the additional content.
— The War will premiere on September 23, 2007 (during Hispanic Heritage
Month) as scheduled with the inclusion of the new content.
— Additional national programming will be aired on WWII that will include
and focus on the Latino contributions to the war.

The Defend the Honor Campaign was organized in early February to coordinate a national volunteer campaign to pressure PBS and Ken Burns to include Latinos in the documentary, The War. Based at the University of Texas at Austin’s U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project headed by Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, the leadership of the Campaign first met with PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger on March 6, 2007 in PBS headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. At that point, Kerger informed the group that PBS would not be making any changes to the Ken Burns film because it was already completed and they did not want to interfere with his artistic independence.

“This is a great victory for the Latino community and for our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much for the defense of this nation,” stated Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin who leads the project that documents the Latino role in the war.

“When we started this campaign in February, many people told us that we would never get PBS to change its mind on this issue, given its poor history with the Latino community,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “But it is a tribute to Paula Kerger that she listened and took our concerns seriously, especially since this problem predated her leadership of PBS. She is a person of great integrity and we look forward to working with her.”

“The unity in the Latino community on this issue was unprecedented,” stated Gus Chavez, another leader in this movement, a retired university administrator and a veteran himself. “We were part of a movement that demonstrated how powerful our Latino community could be when we work together in common cause.

We were also deeply moved to see that this struggle by the Latino community also resulted in the inclusion of Native Americans in this documentary,” Chavez said. “It makes the point that, as Latinos, we are also fighting for a broader agenda of inclusion.”

The Defend the Honor Campaign has responded to Kerger in a letter in which they outline some concerns that they wish to pursue further with her.

“As they say, the devil is in the details and we need more information, especially about how the Latino experience will be treated in the film, what role our community will be playing in the development of the film itself, in the development of the educational materials, and in PBS’ community outreach efforts,” said Marta Garcia, another leader of the Campaign who volunteers as Chair and Founder of the New York Chapter of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. “We plan a follow-up meeting with Ms. Kerger and will be talking to them about developing an ongoing mechanism by which our community can have input and can act as a resource for PBS.”

“We also need to make sure that this problem does not occur again and media advocates like the National Latino Media Council will be following up to make sure PBS in general better incorporates Latinos in its programming, staff and in other ways,” Garcia said. The National Latino Media Council is a coalition of 15 of the largest Latino civil rights groups that have come together to focus on media issues relating to Latinos.

“As a longtime journalist, I can attest to the impact this decision by PBS and the Burns’ film can have on how Americans will view the Latino community and its contributions to this country,” observed Ivan Roman, another member of the leadership of the Defend the Honor Campaign, and Executive Director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. “We think that this will make the documentary a more accurate and enduring work on an important part of this country’s, and the world’s, history.”

“This result was made possible by the unusually strong collaboration between the many Latino organizations and leaders that came forward to let PBS know that our community must be respected,” said Angelo Falcon, who also is part of the leadership of the Campaign and is President and Co-Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy. “Groups like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the American GI Forum, the National Latino Media Council, the National Council of La Raza, MANA and many others at the national and local levels throughout the country came forward in defense of those from our community who sacrificed so much to defend all of us.” “

“Some of the local connections: The letter announcing the change came after the president of PBS, Paula Kerger, met with Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a journalism professor at UT-Austin and creator of the Latino/Latina WWII Oral History Project. She grew up in Devine.

Among the members of the oral history projects advisory board: Gil Coronado, former director of the Selective Service System and a former member of the Edwards Aquifer Authority board.”

“When UT associate journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez caught wind that Latinos would be omitted from an upcoming World War II documentary, she reverted to her days as a journalist and followed the lead.

In the months that followed, Rivas-Rodriguez was at the forefront of public pressure to get documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and the Public Broadcasting Service to revise the film before it airs in September.

PBS is expected to announce its decision today.”

“PBS chief executive Paula Kerger, after meetings with leaders including Congress Hispanic caucus, has promised suggested solutions as early as this week.

Burns 14-hour documentary is scheduled to premiere in September. PBS hopes it becomes as definitive a record of the World War II experience as Burns “The Civil War” was for that conflict, and as popular. Kerger has already described it as Burns greatest work.

Even though the film hasnt been seen publicly, its lack of Latino representation was sniffed out by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, a former newspaper reporter who runs an oral history project about Latino World War II veterans at the University of Texas.”

“A Legacy Greater than Words: Stories of U.S. Latinos & Latinas of the World War II Generation by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, University of Texas Press, $35

The World War II generation has been called “the greatest” by many historians and authors. Growing up in the Depression and playing a key role in this country’s effort during the war, both abroad and on the homefront, challenged these men and women like few other times in our nation’s history. University of Texas at Austin professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez has compiled an oral history of the Latinos in this group.”

“Arizona State University and the University of Texas at Austin have partnered to create “Voices of Valor,” a theatrical production that holds its world premiere on March 11 at 7 p.m. in the Grady Gammage Auditorium. The play recounts how American Latinos lived, fought and died during the global struggle for democracy, despite a legacy of discrimination in the U.S.

Inspired by the “U.S. Latinos and Latinas World War II Oral History Project” created by Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez at UT Austin, “Voices of Valor” recalls in vivid detail how the war served as a catalyst for the Hispanic struggle for civil rights and social recognition in the United States.”