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We’re moving full steam ahead with our Immigration and Elections project and now’s the time to join in. Your contributions help us hire all these special reporters. Meet the first two journalists:
Welcome Valeria Fernandez and Marco Vera!
Both journalists are experienced multi-platform media makers with deep roots in immigrant communities. They each bring a wealth of knowledge and energy to this project. We’re already impressed with the ideas they’ve pitched.
Scroll down to learn more about our newest team members and donate today to fund our important community reporting.
Valeria Fernández
Valeria Fernández is an award winning bilingual (English-Spanish) documentary producer, journalist and storyteller. She’s been reporting on Arizona’s immigrant community and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands for over twelve years, casting a spotlight on racial profiling, human rights issues and discrimination against migrant women in jail.
As a versatile freelancer Fernández has reported from Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay and Italy. She covered immigrant communities during the 2012 elections, unaccompanied immigrant children, allegations of Border Patrol abuse, migrant kidnappings by drug cartels and the rise of the immigrant rights movement over a decade.
Her work has been published in The Associated Press Spanish, Phoenix New Times, Salon, the Washington Post, New America Media and Al Jazeera Web. She is a contributor for Radio Bilingüe, PRI’s The World, CNN Spanish and Al Jazeera English.
An accomplished filmmaker and director, her documentary “Two Americans” aired on Al Jazeera America in 2013 and won the audience award at the Arizona International Film Festival in 2012. She also co-directed, shot, produced and edited six-short films as part of the international web documentary “Connected Walls” on the life of people in the Arizona borderlands. The documentary won the Jury Award at the prestigious Belgian Millennium International Film Festival.
Marco Vera
He’s the founder and director of Mexicali Rose Media/Arts Center, a grassroots communitarian organization dedicated to providing free access to artistic media for the community youth of Mexicali, Baja California.
As a cultural promoter with Mexicali Rose, he has held a series of important cultural exchanges, most recently culminating in cities such as New York, Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
As a filmmaker, Vera has obtained grants and made documentaries in Guatemala, USA and Mexico and taught documentary and experimental film workshops with youth in “high risk” or “conflictive” communities.
Vera is also the founder and Director of Radio Pájaro Hombre, an internet radio space which provides a platform for freedom of expression 24 hours a day, promoting local themes and boosting new radio talent in the border community. You can help make this work possible.
- Pledge $20 to pay for an hour of research time
- Pledge $100 towards audio studio time to mix sound rich feature stories
- Pledge $1000 for our award winning team to gather 1st person community stories that you won’t here anywhere else
Immigration is already a hot story in the 2016 election. Let’s impact the discussion!
Become a backer today, and help our non-profit, non-commercial, public radio journalism.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported us in the past. Now let’s do this project together!
We only have 16 days left so please DONATE TODAY!
