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First off, I’m a Chicana from Chicago.
I’m also journalist. I worked as a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune from 1995 to 2002. I covered many different stories but mostly wrote about immigration and the Latino community.
In 2000, I was awarded the Studs Terkel Award by the Community Media Workshop for coverage of Chicago’s diverse communities.
I took a break from journalism and in the fall of 2002 became a reverse migrant and moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. My great grandfather left Mexico in 1890 and I went back more than 100 years later. While in Mexico I did a lot of different things from freelance writing to teaching and traveling. I even ran an informal bed and breakfast in my rented house there on Goya Street.
My hometown called me back in August 2006 when I joined the journalism faculty at Columbia College Chicago. I’m an assistant professor of journalism and I teach different courses, including Opinion Writing, Global Blogging, Reporting Public Affairs - International and Reporting and Writing II.
I also briefly worked for the Sun-Times from October 2007 to October 2008 as a part-time member of their editorial board. I also wrote an op-ed column.
Last fall, I founded a Web site called Latina Voices (www.latina-voices.com) to promote opinion pieces, essays and stories by or about Latina women. I am the editor and publisher of that site which was founded with a New Media Women Entrepreneurs Grant awarded by J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, and funded by the McCormick Foundation.
Now I’m back writing for a blog site run by Chicago Now (and the Tribune Media Company)
(www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicanisima/)
