25th Anniversary Convention Makes News, Honors Founders, Offers Skills for Changing Times
Washington, D.C. – This year’s annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists produced headlines around the country, offered attendees the skills essential for journalists of the future, and celebrated a quarter century of accomplishments by Latino journalists. NAHJ’s 25th Anniversary Convention and Media & Career Expo drew about 1,300 people to San Jose, California from June 13-16, 2007.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made news right at the start of the four-day event when during the opening plenary, responding to a question about how to help struggling students, he said they should “turn off the Spanish television set. It’s that simple. You’ve got to learn English.” That remark set off a debate with NAHJ taking the position that the governor made a good point – poorly.
The highlights for the 2007 convention, themed “NAHJ@25: Building Today, Shaping Tomorrow”, also included lively discussions about immigration; news coverage in Latin America; Ken Burns’ omission of Latinos in his WWII documentary; the surge in hate speech and violence against Latinos tied to immigration; and the clash between journalists and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department at an immigration rally May 1st. Confronted by journalists and immigration leaders who were at the rally, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton did not offer excuses for the officers’ behavior to the room packed with journalists and acknowledged that a lot “went wrong.”
Just days before a compromise on immigration reform failed in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez flew to San Jose to stress to the hundreds of journalists at the convention that the administration’s proposed fixes to the current immigration system are essential to maintain the country’s position in a global economy.
Jamie Zuieback, an official from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a man whose wife and child were deported after a government raid on a worksite, and religious leaders offering sanctuary to undocumented workers faced off on the repercussions of the growing number of detentions and deportations across the country. Moderated by John Quiñones, co-anchor of ABC’s Primetime, the session also offered ACLU lawyer Monica Ramirez and Rick Oltman of Californians for Population Stabilization, who opposes illegal immigration, to comment on the fate of the forced separation of mixed-status families, one of the most complex aspects of the country’s growing debate on immigration reform.
Besides hearing from some of the day’s top newsmakers, convention registrants learned about everything from managing in constantly changing newsrooms to improving your voice and on-air presentation to financial literacy for journalists. But among the biggest hits were the 15 multimedia training sessions sprinkled throughout the convention where latecomers sitting on the floor made standing-room-only impossible, and even more crammed the doorways to watch and participate.
“I wasn't surprised at all by the popularity of the multimedia/online workshop sessions, because our industry is in the midst of an incredible transformation. I was heartened at the enthusiasm the participants showed - everyone was excited to learn about how to apply and adapt new technologies to journalism,” said workshop presenter Amy Webb, President, Webbmedia Group, LLC., a digital media consulting/ training firm.
Robert Lopez, an investigative reporter at The Los Angeles Times, was one of those enthusiastic participants. “The strongest message that I took away is that you shouldn’t wait for somebody at your news organization to teach you these skills, you should try to develop the skills on your own,’’ said Lopez. “It was a really learning convention for me, but a great social time too.”
NAHJ officially kicked off the convention with the opening plenary followed by the opening reception at the San Jose Museum of Art with cocktails, music and dancing to the funk, salsa, cumbia, norteña and blues of Juan Escovedo and Tortilla Soup. Other special events included a screening of “The Hungry Woman/La Mujer Hambrienta,” a film set in a migrant camp inspired by a true story, followed by a hot after party. And at the Noche de Fiesta @ The Mexican Heritage Plaza, hundreds of people nibbled on Mexican food and some mole tasting, sipped a lot during the tequila and wine tasting, howled with laughter when the comedians took the stage, including headliner Bill Santiago, and sang along during the mariachi karaoke, when attendees belted out rancheras backed by Mariachi Azteca.
But that wasn’t all. Producer/director John Singleton stopped by with part of his all-Latino cast to show a clip of his latest movie, “Illegal Tender’’, set in New York and in Puerto Rico. High-profile journalists like Univisión’s Teresa Rodríguez and The Palm Beach Post’s John Lantigua were on hand for book signings at the Author’s Café, a popular feature at the Expo Hall.
More than 100recruiters attended the convention to meet with job candidates.
This year’s convention experienced an unprecedented $805,000 in support from sponsors. By making it a competition among local television and media companies,the third annual NAHJ Golf Tournament netted $13,500, the most ever, which goes to benefit the association’s Ruben Salazar Scholarship Fund.
Fifty-five students also benefited from the convention’s focus on multimedia skills. For the first time, in addition to producing their respective publications or radio and television programs, the online, print, TV and radio students worked across media platforms in a lesson on convergence that has earned high praise from many of the professionals there. To view the students’ work, go to http://joomla.latinoreporterdigital.org/
“When news organizations say there are not enough talented Latino applicants out there I will think back to this convention and know they are wrong,” said CNN senior producer Rose Arce, adding that she returned to her newsroom “hyper focused on quality.”
NAHJ conventions, the nation’s largest gathering of Latino journalists, serve as an annual reunion for many. This silver anniversary year, the “reunion” took on a new meaning with a reception for founders and “alumni” of NAHJ student projects and scholarships.
The event served as a spring board for the proposed NAHJ alumni association and gave NAHJ President Rafael Olmeda the opportunity to thank the men and women who met in 1982 in San Diego to establish what is now a 2,000-strong national organization dedicated to increasing the representation of Latinos in the nation’s newsrooms and advocating for more fair coverage in the Latino community.
“I participated in every convention since the inaugural one in ‘82 when my hair was brown. The increasing depth of the new breed both in expertise and commitment is wonderfully scary. But I still believe us old timers were better drinkers,” said Charlie Ericksen, one of NAHJ’s founders.
NAHJ paused the final night of the convention to recognize its 2007 Hall of Fame Honorees Cecilia Alvear, Rigo Chacón and George Ramos during the 25th Anniversary Celebration Gala.In her acceptance speech, Alvear said:
“What I cannot fail but notice at this point is that Rigo, George and I, by entering journalism when we did in fact, ended the “apartheid” that existed in the media. There were no people with names like Chacón, Ramos or Alvear then. There are now. We have come a long way but still have a long way to go.’’
Founded in 1984, NAHJ's mission is to increase the percentage of Latinos working in our nation's newsrooms and to improve news coverage of the Latino community. NAHJ is the nation's largest professional organization for Latino journalists with more than 2,300 members working in English and Spanish-language print, photo, broadcast and online media.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists
1000 National Press Building
529 14th St., NW
Washington, DC 20045-2001, USA
E-mail: nahj@nahj.org
Phone: 202.662.7145
Fax: 202.662.7144
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made news right at the start of the four-day event when during the opening plenary, responding to a question about how to help struggling students, he said they should “turn off the Spanish television set. It’s that simple. You’ve got to learn English.” That remark set off a debate with NAHJ taking the position that the governor made a good point – poorly. 
Just days before a compromise on immigration reform failed in the U.S. Senate, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez flew to San Jose to stress to the hundreds of journalists at the convention that the administration’s proposed fixes to the current immigration system are essential to maintain the country’s position in a global economy.
Jamie Zuieback, an official from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a man whose wife and child were deported after a government raid on a worksite, and religious leaders offering sanctuary to undocumented workers faced off on the repercussions of the growing number of detentions and deportations across the country. Moderated by John Quiñones, co-anchor of ABC’s Primetime, the session also offered ACLU lawyer Monica Ramirez and Rick Oltman of Californians for Population Stabilization, who opposes illegal immigration, to comment on the fate of the forced separation of mixed-status families, one of the most complex aspects of the country’s growing debate on immigration reform.
“I wasn't surprised at all by the popularity of the multimedia/online workshop sessions, because our industry is in the midst of an incredible transformation. I was heartened at the enthusiasm the participants showed - everyone was excited to learn about how to apply and adapt new technologies to journalism,” said workshop presenter Amy Webb, President, Webbmedia Group, LLC., a digital media consulting/ training firm. 
NAHJ officially kicked off the convention with the opening plenary followed by the opening reception at the San Jose Museum of Art with cocktails, music and dancing to the funk, salsa, cumbia, norteña and blues of Juan Escovedo and Tortilla Soup. Other special events included a screening of “The Hungry Woman/La Mujer Hambrienta,” a film set in a migrant camp inspired by a true story, followed by a hot after party. And at the Noche de Fiesta @ The Mexican Heritage Plaza, hundreds of people nibbled on Mexican food and some mole tasting, sipped a lot during the tequila and wine tasting, howled with laughter when the comedians took the stage, including headliner Bill Santiago, and sang along during the mariachi karaoke, when attendees belted out rancheras backed by Mariachi Azteca. 
But that wasn’t all. Producer/director John Singleton stopped by with part of his all-Latino cast to show a clip of his latest movie, “Illegal Tender’’, set in New York and in Puerto Rico. High-profile journalists like Univisión’s Teresa Rodríguez and The Palm Beach Post’s John Lantigua were on hand for book signings at the Author’s Café, a popular feature at the Expo Hall. 
More than 100 recruiters attended the convention to meet with job candidates. 
“When news organizations say there are not enough talented Latino applicants out there I will think back to this convention and know they are wrong,” said CNN senior producer Rose Arce, adding that she returned to her newsroom “hyper focused on quality.” 
NAHJ conventions, the nation’s largest gathering of Latino journalists, serve as an annual reunion for many. This silver anniversary year, the “reunion” took on a new meaning with a reception for founders and “alumni” of NAHJ student projects and scholarships.
“I participated in every convention since the inaugural one in ‘82 when my hair was brown. The increasing depth of the new breed both in expertise and commitment is wonderfully scary. But I still believe us old timers were better drinkers,” said Charlie Ericksen, one of NAHJ’s founders. 
NAHJ paused the final night of the convention to recognize its 2007 Hall of Fame Honorees Cecilia Alvear, Rigo Chacón and George Ramos during the 25th Anniversary Celebration Gala.In her acceptance speech, Alvear said:
“What I cannot fail but notice at this point is that Rigo, George and I, by entering journalism when we did in fact, ended the “apartheid” that existed in the media. There were no people with names like Chacón, Ramos or Alvear then. There are now. We have come a long way but still have a long way to go.’’