Valeria Fernández is training the next generation of journalists to report on and for people of color and immigrants.
As a journalist, filmmaker, and producer, Valeria Fernández amplifies the stories of marginalized communities. An immigrant from Uruguay, she started her career at a small Spanish-language newspaper in Phoenix, Arizona, and quickly learned how to write for immigrant communities, rather than just about them. She transitioned to writing for English-language media — including The Guardian, Pacific Standard, Latino USA and PRX’s The World. Over 18 years, she’s been a relentless watchdog, highlighting the experiences, emotions, and circumstances of people whose voices are not usually heard in media. A winner of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize for her reporting on marginalized communities, she was also named a Nieman Visiting Fellow at Harvard University to develop Comadres al Aire, a podcast in Spanish focused on immigrant women, trans and no-binary people’s health.
As a professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Valeria helped develop the next generation of Latinx and immigrant journalists. Now, as Managing Editor for palabra., a publication created by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, she’s taking that work to the next level. She sees these journalists as vital for democracy and aims to uplift their talent and wisdom.
You can’t have a strong democracy without a strong media informing the electorate. But the mainstream media is largely failing America’s communities of color. There are thousands of small media outlets embedded in immigrant enclaves and they’re often a primary source of information. Yet, most are understaffed, with journalists who are underpaid, lack meaningful editorial support, and don’t have time to produce the essential watchdog stories their communities need.
As an Emerson Collective Fellow, Valeria will launch Altavoz Lab, a collaborative project within palabra. to strengthen reporting at community outlets that serve people of color and immigrants. She will pair a small group of local reporters with seasoned mentors, helping them produce stories with the potential to change laws and policies, and hold public officials accountable. These journalists will serve Black, Asian, Muslim, Native-American, and Spanish-speaking audiences, and have their work published at the national level through palabra. and its partner outlets, reaching wide audiences.