About me

First off, I'm a Chicana from Chicago. That's what inspired the name of this blog.

I'm also journalist. I worked as a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune from 1995 to 2002. I covered many different stories but mostly wrote about immigration and the Latino community.

In 2000, I was awarded the  Studs Terkel Award by the Community Media Workshop for coverage of Chicago's diverse communities.

I took a break from journalism and in the fall of 2002 became a reverse migrant and moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. My great grandfather left Mexico in 1890 and I went back more than 100 years later. While in Mexico I did a lot of different things from freelance writing to teaching and traveling. I even ran an informal bed and breakfast in my rented house there on Goya Street.

My hometown called me back in August 2006 when I joined the journalism faculty at Columbia College Chicago. I'm an assistant professor of journalism and I teach different courses, including Opinion Writing, Global Blogging, Reporting Public Affairs - International and Reporting and Writing II.

I also briefly worked for the Sun-Times from October 2007 to October 2008 as a part-time member of their editorial board. I also wrote an op-ed column.

Last fall, I founded a Web site called Latina Voices to promote opinion pieces, essays and stories by or about Latina women. I am the editor and publisher of that site which was founded with a New Media Women Entrepreneurs Grant awarded by J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Journalism, and funded by the McCormick Foundation.

Now I'm back writing for this blog site run by Chicago Now (and the Tribune Media Company) and happy to have a voice in the blogosphere at Chicanísima.

You can reach me at chicanisimachicago@yahoo.com



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