When reporting on Latino groups for environment and climate stories, data can be difficult to find.
Some of the journalists who have been successful recommend going to the source, and they emphasize respect and trust in collaborations and interviews. They spoke on April 25 on a panel at the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Tempe.
Who to reach out to
Luis J. Méndes González is a climate change investigative journalist for the Center for Investigative Journalism. He reports in Puerto Rico and said it’s extremely hard to get data through FOIA information requests. When collecting data outside of federal agencies, reaching out to lawyers and advocacy groups can be an effective resource, but navigating their biases is necessary.
When a lawyer loses a case, they can be open to talking about the case and the stories assembled from it. He related it to an investigation he conducted, where a lawyer shared with him documents that ended up narrating his story.
Méndes González also recommended contacting environmental groups and nonprofits within a region.
He asks nonprofits for any government documents they’ve requested from agencies, which he said can help speed up his investigative process.
Panelists speak on reporting about Latino groups when data does not exist on April 25, 2025, at the Omni Hotel in Tempe, Arizona. From left: Myriam Vidal Valero, Estefanía Pinto Ruiz, Luis J. Méndez González and Monica Samaya.
The power of community leaders
Many of the panelists said a good place to start for gathering data is speaking to local leaders from Latino communities.
Estefanía Pinto Ruiz — a journalist for KWQC-TV 6 News in Davenport, Iowa, who reports for the Mississippi River Basin Water desk — said religious leaders can be helpful sources trying to understand what’s happening in a community.
Ruiz also recommended the League of United Latin American Citizens for a similar purpose, as many chapters in the U.S. know what is going on in communities and the issues they are experiencing.
Connect through similarities and understand differences
Monica Samayoa, a climate reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting, said when there wasn’t enough data for her story on groundwater pollution, she went door-to-door to compile information. When speaking to sources and compiling data, connecting with them based on shared language and experiences was important.
Myriam Vidal Valero, a freelance journalist who works in science and data journalism, said it is also important to connect through differences, and understand the person rather than seeing them as only an aspect in your story.
“To build trust, they need to feel that you’re not there just because you care about the story,” Valero said. “They need to see and feel that you care about them.”
Collaboration with both journalists and scientists
Valero said she finds herself collaborating with other scientists or journalists on her stories. As a freelance journalist, she said support can go a long way when you don’t have the resources to find data on your own.
Scientists can also help relate topics to other issues within environmental journalism, Valero said. They can ask questions that journalists don’t think about, knowing more on the community level.
She and Méndes González said these collaborations are important because they provide new perspectives and background information a journalist might not have when going into a story.
Recommended resources from the panelists
Méndes González said he uses Open Corporates — a tool that can identify the corporations an individual is involved in and data about their presence in other countries.
He also recommended the Hispanic Federation. The federation is a Latino nonprofit that focuses on social, political and environmental issues affecting the demographic.
Ruiz cited the Hispanic Access Foundation, an organization that works with Latino communities to educate about resources and the environment.
Be cautious of artificial intelligence, but still apply it as a tool
Méndes González said he uses artificial intelligence in his reporting as a tool, meant to assist him in constructing formulas to speed up his data analyzing process.
Valero cautioned against overusing artificial intelligence when gathering data. She said that it can be dangerous to input names, addresses or other private information into an artificial intelligence software, especially for Latino communities in the U.S. that could consider the data “sacred.”
George Headley is politics editor at The State Press at Arizona State University, and is part of a student newsroom led by The Arizona Republic.
Coverage of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference is supported by Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism, the University of Arizona, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and the Arizona Media Association.
These stories are published open-source for other news outlets and organizations to share and republish, with credit and links to azcentral.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: At SEJ conference, journalists offer advice about covering Latino issues