Press Release
June 19, 2009
NAHJ MOURNS THE PASSING OF TENNESSEE-BASED COLUMNIST TIM CHAVEZ
Media Contact: Marina Giovannelli, (858) 610-0237
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) mourns the loss of one of our members, Tim Chavez, who had been a columnist and blogger in Nashville, Tenn. He passed away on Thurs., June 18, 2009 from leukemia at the age of 50.
Chavez had been a columnist at The Tennessean from 1997 to 2006, with pieces that often centered on politics and Latinos. He had also written about the growth of Latinos in the south and the need for them to be treated fairly by the media and by government officials.
Chavez also railed against the lack of Latinos in newsrooms, as well as the lack of Latino journalists as regular panelists on the Sunday network TV talk shows. Chavez was told that his position at The Tennessean had been eliminated after his doctors had given him approval to return to work following several months of chemotherapy to help him deal with his leukemia.
He went on to establish the Political Salsa blog while also serving as a columnist at the Williamson County Herald in Franklin, Tenn. Chavez was also a contributing columnist to Hispanic Link News Service.
Chavez used his Political Salsa blog to call for the rejection of an English-only initiative for the city of Nashville. Voters ultimately did vote against that proposal and it went down to defeat.
In 2001, Chavez was named as the recipient of the Will Rogers Humanitarian of the Year Award by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
Services for Tim Chavez are planned for Monday, June 22, 2009 at St. Edward Catholic Church in Nashville.
To view Tim's work on his Political Salsa blog, please visit:
http://politicalsalsa.blogspot.com
Here is a link to an obituary for Chavez that appeared in his former newspaper, The Tennessean.
All press inquiries should be addressed to Marina Giovannelli at (858) 610-0237 or at marina@nahj.org.
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. NAHJ is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.nahj.org.
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