For Jannelle Calderón, reporting about issues in the Latino community is not only important–it’s personal.
“My first ever internship was with the [Las Vegas] Review-Journal. I was covering breaking news and I was one of the couple Spanish speaker reporters on staff,” she said. “Even though I was in my second week in my internship, there was this horrible car crash that hit two 15-year old girls crossing the crosswalk trying to get home after spending a day in the mall. They had their quinceañera, they were planning it, and were going to have a double quinceañera because they were best friends,” she remembered. “I had to speak with the parents, because no one else could speak with them in their own language.”
Calderón is the Nevadan/El Nevadense’s bilingual newsletter editor, breaking down important stories and issues in Nevada’s Latino communities. She grew up in the community and knows the people behind the stories.
“I hope it helps the community, because we are culturally aware of the challenges, we speak the language and we are able to have those voices that are from our community, rather than just a spokesperson,” Calderón said. “I would rather be someone that looks like the community telling and sharing those stories than someone who doesn’t quite get it or see the depth, or is just in for exploiting our community in the situation.”
At the center of two challenges, Latino journalists are juggling the responsibility of hard-hitting reporting on their own community, while also experiencing the increasing pressures on journalism. For reporters covering recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity, adversities are revealed both directly and professionally.
During the Los Angeles immigration protests in June, U.S. correspondent for Australia’s 9News, Lauren Tomasi, was shot with a rubber bullet by police while reporting live, showing the dangers journalists are faced with while doing their job.
Across the country in Atlanta, Salvadorian reporter Mario Guevara has been imprisoned for more than 50 days, “the only journalist in the U.S. to have been held in ICE custody after being arrested in relation to his work.”
Guevara, known for his immigration focused stories, was arrested while covering a “No Kings” protest and charged with three misdemeanors. Despite having authorization to work in the U.S. and a “path to a green card through his U.S.-citizen son,” he still remains in custody, further revealing the harsh realities of a Latino journalist, even those with legal protection.
Calderón said that even while speaking to those from other countries, she cherishes the eye-opening experiences told from different Latino cultures and uses her Latinidad to her advantage.
“It just opens your eyes to all the different perspectives, all different types of lives and experiences,” she said. “I let their voice be the guide, I let their voice be the one carrying the article or the story.”
Reporters like Calderón, who are pushing the Latino voice to be heard, gathered at this year’s National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Conference in Chicago, embracing the same commitment to their community.
“We live these stories. I myself am an immigrant, and I was raised in an immigrant community in San Diego, so I know the community right. But again, it comes back to that connection,” said veteran reporter and PBS Public Editor Ricardo Sandoval-Palos during a panel, Serving Immigrant Audience in Time of Fear, where he emphasized his time covering the stories of immigrants to a room packed with journalists.
Sandoval-Palos has spent 44 years in the field doing investigative journalism. He said both his professional and personal experience give him important context that he can bring to his work.
“If I have a question about something that’s going on in our community, I know who to go to, and that’s our power,” he said. “How do we then balance that and achieve this patina, this perspective as a professional journalist that’s unbiased and does their job?”
He said one way he does that is by inserting history and contextualizing the story for readers, something he knows deeply and has lived through himself.
“You give a little bit of the history of the anti-immigration movement, but then you also talk about the fact that the establishment that now wants to get rid of us, hires us. They provided the magnet to bring us all here in the first place,” he said.
“So that context becomes really critical to the story. You’re showing the full dimension of the story. It’s the best possible way to do it.”
Unfortunately, documenting these topics doesn’t pose an easy task for reporters, pointing to the example of jailed journalist Mario Guevara. He said it’s important for anyone heading into the field to be prepared.
“Make sure you go in there with a full set of contacts, the people you know can help you in a pinch, that you’ve got a good lawyer lined up, that they know where you are,” he said.
In a time of urgency and responsibility to the Latino community, Sandoval-Palos urges journalists to focus on what sets them apart and to continue searching for the right narratives to be told.
“Knowing the community and our strengths as Latino journalists and journalists of color, is that we know where those stories are,” he said.
Among the panelists sharing the mic with Sandoval-Palos was Erika Carlos, editor-in-chief of San Francisco’s El Tecolote, the longest-running bilingual newspaper in California. Carlos similarly expressed her gratitude and the privilege of being able to tell the stories of San Francisco’s Latino community, while also building trust and listening to what they want to hear.
From her strong multimedia coverage consisting of a documentary film, Las Vulnerables, nominated for the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion award at the San Francisco Northern California Emmy Awards 2022, and her presence in newsrooms, Carlos emphasized the importance of relationship building outside of just finding stories.
“Just because you go there [a community] one time doesn’t mean that you need to get a story out of it, because trust is built over time,” she said. “So for us, the most rewarding stories are like, ‘No, we showed up even when we didn’t have a story.’”
Carlos said that when working with immigrants and those heavily impacted by immigration, staying sensitive to the matter is crucial. That means checking in with a lawyer, handling certain information with extreme care, or taking the needed precautions to keep sources protected.
“There is no good enough story to risk somebody’s safety,” she said.
But, Carlos understands there is a risk to journalists as well, especially since the extremes and magnitude of the job can have an emotional impact.
“Your community is hurting, you need to be strong and go into the situations protected and knowing how you can keep yourself as safe as possible,” Carlos said. “But also that means, mentally. Can you do that story? What do you need so that you’re not at risk? Because you can’t go in there, can’t do your job if you know you’re mentally not in a space to do so.”
These words serve as a reminder to all reporters that although documentation is needed, becoming resilient and emotionally grounded is an essential step in preparation for investigative storytelling.
That is true for Andrés Jaime-Méndez, a Club World Cup reporter for the Associated Press, Suncoast Regional Emmy Award winner, and senior at the University of Miami. He said it’s important to remember that as a journalist, you’re there doing a job.
“There’s times where you see things that your job might be to capture. You need to think as a journalist, because you need to make sure you capture that right,” he said.
During his assignments at the Club World Cup games in Miami, Jaime-Méndez noticed a panic among fans online who were worried about ICE agents checking for legal documents at Hard Rock Stadium. One of the main ways he handled their concerns was by double-checking sources to diminish misinformation, disinformation, and false images being shared.
“We want to make sure that as journalists, as the professionals in this field, we are at the front of giving people what they need, and making sure that they can have it accessible at their fingertips,” he said.
He said it is important to get facts correct and not fuel fear, but so is understanding the rights of journalists when coming in contact with ICE agents.
“You’re working. If you’re credentialed, an independent journalist, a freelancer, whatever it is, you still have a right. You’re still working. That’s your occupation. You have a right to record,” he said. “You just have to put our work above all, because we’re catering to people that are dependent on us, on our organizations, and on our work for how they inform themselves.”
By staying focused on reporting and accurately collecting information, journalists can further create an informed public and settle the anxieties the Latino community faces. Building a reputation as a reliable source is equally important to emerging Latino journalists, encouraging the growth of media representation.
Gustavo Ariaga, a student reporter from DePaul University in Chicago, focuses on the sports side of journalism, but hopes to also provide information access for Latinos in the future. From Joliet, Ill., he is part of a large Hispanic community and has witnessed firsthand the impacts of ICE roundups on businesses.
“People can’t go to work and can’t pay their bills because they’re too afraid of getting deported,” he said.
Ariaga strives to find a good common ground with people who are willing to speak about their stories and be a stepping stone to further educate them about their rights.
“Children [are] losing their family. There’s parents losing their kids at work. Like there’s [a] multitude of things going on at this moment,” he said.
Across the unique experiences from veteran storytellers to upcoming Latino reporters, these journalists share one major thing in common: the commitment to serve and protect the stories of their community.
Whether it’s creating a feature story on an individual, accurately depicting an event for safety measures, or expanding information access, Latino representation in the media continues to be embraced.
Investigative reporting on immigration has proved to be harsh and has its difficulties, and it is Latino journalists like Jannelle Calderón who focus on telling impactful stories, building bridges between communities, and uplifting the voices that have been neglected.
“If it’s not us, then who?”