It’s been a few days since the Hispanic Communicators scholarship awards banquet in Dallas, and I’m still on a “happy high.” It was a huge success. Dozens of sponsors donated generously. More than 140 people showed up to celebrate with the six students who received $10,000 in scholarships.

Here are a few of the highlights thanks to many people who took several great photos.

A big thanks to WFAA’s Gloria Campos who made the night a delight as our Mistress of Ceremonies. PBS NewsHours’ Ray Suarez gave us something to think about as our keynote speaker.  He talked about the state of journalism in 2013.

We’re still adding up how much we raised for the night, but I do know that we raised $510 when we auctioned a lunch date with a TV celebrity. Thank you to Gloria Campos, NBC5′s Deborah Ferguson, Telemundo’s Norma Garcia, Fox 4′s Heather Hays and Saul Garza and Channel 8′s Cynthia Izaguire who agreed to be part of our special auction.

Scholarship winners with NAHJ President Hugo Balta

Members of HCDFW are like family. It was great being surrounded by Hispanic journalists and friends in news who really care about journalism,and care about those who want to follow the same journey.

Thanks to all of you who know that in– journalism it’s not about “me” it’s about “us.”

If you don’t have tickets yet to our scholarship banquet on Saturday, April 20– you can still buy them today. Just follow this link: Tickets

Now check out all the items you can take home for the right bid! Good luck!

SILENT AUCTION ITEMS

Sharp 40” Class LED TV, with Full HD 1080p/60Hz anti-glare LCD panel and High brightness and contrast.
Airrosti Rehab Center treatment plan. A highly effective treatments for your  back, neck, knees and hips. Good for up to 4 visits.

Merchandise package from Frisco Roughriders, which includes an Ian Kinsler bobblehead, RoughRiders cap, T-shirt, water bottle and baseball.

DJ services by Rikki Rincon of Creative Juice Online. Winner responsible for the sound rental ($250 separate from the auction bid).

Salsa Party – Professional instructions will host a party up to 40 people for two hours.  Instruction in salsa, cha-cha, merengue and Bachata.

Carmen’s Delicious Catering- catering service for 4 to 6 people. The winning bidder can have a small dinner party catered at their home.

Margaret Chambers Interiors will donate a gift certificate for two hours of consultation along with photos of her work.

Beautiful rustic photo “Through These Eyes Visual Art’  by photographer Sonia Hernandez Doneghue 

Personal tour of Fox 4 by news anchor, Heather Hays

Three public speaking training sessions with Irene Zucker of Verbacom.

Dinner for four at Dallas’ newest steakhouse ‘SER Steak and Spirits’ atop the Hilton Anatole Hotel

Sunday Brunch for four at Cafe on the Green at Four Seasons Resort and Club at Las Colinas

One-year subscription to Netflix and an Apple TV.

Two tickets to TI Classical Series concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Two tickets to Dallas Summer Musicals’ opening night of Sister Act on June 4

Four tickets to FC Dallas regular-season home game at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco

Autographed photo of Dallas Mavericks guard Mike James.

Family four pack (2 adult, 2 kids) to Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie

Two tickets to a Texas Rangers home game

Gift basket from Fox 4

Gift basket from Channel 8

Gift basket from NBC 5

Basket of merchandise from the show “Cheaters”

Print painting and frame & hand-painted wine glasses by McKinney artist Toni Andrukaitis

Gloria Campos jewelry collection

Mexican art hand-painted glass plates

Rover Bow Wow edition – Photographer Andrew Grant coffee table book of more than 500 photos of beautiful dogs.

Four tickets to a Texas Revolution Indoor Football League game at the Allen Event Center

Dinner for two at Cadot French restaurant in Dallas

Photo print of Dallas skyline on canvas by Saul Garza of KDFW Fox 4

Get your business noticed by the media. Seminar being offered by Jeff Crilley, Real News Public Relations

• A conversation with keynote speaker, Ray Suarez, award-winning broadcast journalist and senior correspondent for PBS NewsHour
• Gloria Campos, WFAA Channel 8 news anchor and mistress of ceremonies
• Bid on many excellent items in our silent auction such as Southwest Airlines tickets,  Texas Rangers tickets, a 40-inch TV or a one-year subscription with Netflix, just to name a few.
• Get a chance to lunch with one of the following on-air personalities:
  • Gloria Campos, WFAA
  • Norma Garcia, Telemundo
  • Saul Garza, FOX 4
  • Deborah Ferguson, NBC 5
  • Heather Hays, FOX 4
  • Cynthia Izaguirre, WFAA
• Dinner prepared by chef Sharon Van Meter and live mariachi music.Hispanic Communicators DFW is a non-profit organization with members in the local news media and communication companies.  We’ve been around since 1981.  In that time, 260 students have received more than $310,000 in scholarships.  We didn’t do it alone. We have had help from dozens of local sponsors, individuals and businesses.Be part of this great event and worthy cause.  Be part of the future of journalism.
   
  SHINING A LIGHT ON OUR SPONSORS
  When you or your company become a banquet sponsor, we will post your logo on our website. Your logo will also be displayed on our video slide show at the banquet and placed on our Hispanic Communicators’ YouTube channel. And that’s not all. Your logo and company name also will be listed in the banquet’s program.
   
  Take a look at last year’s sponsors video here

  We believe in recognizing our sponsors and letting everyone know who has been there to support us, and to support the students in need. If you’re interested in this opportunity to become a sponsor, please contact Gary Piña at 469-323-0083 or garyp329@gmail.com.

Hispanic Communicators DFW

Join us for a plenary session and workshops on Saturday, March 23 at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Location: Fine Arts Building, Room 258, UTA

Registration on-site:  9-9:30 a.m.

Opening Remarks
9:30-9:40 a.m.—Saul Garza, Fox 4 and President of Hispanic Communicators DFW

Covering the Community: Contrast in Coverage
Plenary session | 9:40 – 10:40 a.m.

The Latino population is a fast-growing, and vital segment of our audience, but English and Spanish-language media cover Hispanics in different ways. Why and who decides what gets covered? Is there a way English and Spanish media can work together for the benefit of our community.

Moderator: Norma Garcia, Telemundo 39

• Julian Rodriguez, UT Arlington
• Cheri Garcia, former assignment at KTVT, Channel 11
• Jose Flores, Telemundo 39
• Carlos Tamez, Univision 23

Courtesy: NY Daily News

The 10 Commandments of the PIO
10:50 – 11:50 a.m.

You’ve seen public information officers at major news stories surrounded by reporters. They’re the ones we count on when we need information right away. Some will call you back only during office hours, others are available 24/7. How can we in the media and the PIOs work together to get our jobs done on deadline? This is your chance to ask them directly. Also, find out what they expect from us.

Moderator: Saul Garza, Fox 4

• Carmen Castro, Dallas County Sheriff Department
• Gerardo Montreal, Dallas Police Department
• Jose Luis Torres,  City of Dallas
• Joe Harn, Garland Police Department

Open Discussion/ Box Lunch
Noon -12:50 p.m.

Grab your box lunch and join a informal roundtable where different topics will be discussed. No topic is off limits: salaries, hiring practices, media trends, what we say and do on television and radio.

Moderator:  Jay Torres, La Estrella

• Gonzalo Aguilera, Servicios Hispanos Unidos
• Baltazar Ortega, Liberman Broadcasting Inc.
• Claudia Torrescano, Instituto de la Mujer and former host of La Voz del Pueblo
• Paul Watler, media attorney with the Jackson Walker LLP

Graphic Courtesy: Technorati

Getting the Spanish language Audience Through Social Media
1- 2 p.m.

Studies show Latinos are the biggest users of social media. Whether you work in Spanish or English language media, we all want more viewers on our website. We want more followers on Twitter, and fans on Facebook. Learn from the experts on how to reach the Spanish-speaking and bilingual audience even if you don’t speak Spanish.

Moderator: Rebecca Aguilar, NAHJ VP of  Online

• Teevee Aguirre, Dallas Marketing Rockstar
• Michael Vega, Public Information Officer, City of Fort Worth
• Frankie De Soto, SEO Analyst & Blogger on Online Hispanic Marketing
• Amoya Edwards – Public Relations Account Executive

Closing Remarks

2-2:10pm–Closing remarks by Saul Garza, Fox 4President of Hispanic Communicators DFW

Follow this link to REGISTER TODAY

March/April 2000 Newsletter

Scanning through the DFW Network of Hispanic Communicators newsletter for March/April 2000 you’ll find that the organization was busy planning the annual scholarship banquet. One of our members launched a comic strip that today is read in many newspapers around the country.  Here are more newsletter highlights:

• Profile on Latino USA’s Maria Martin who was the keynote speaker at the scholarship banquet in 2000.
• WFAA’s Anna Martinez was honored by an Arlington organization.
• Hispanic Communicators gets a donation for $5000
• High School Writing Contest
• Profile on member Erika Ruiz with Fox 4
• List of members who won Texas AP Awards for 1999-2000
• Network raises $900 from Super Bowl Fiesta
• Hector Cantu with the Dallas Morning News starts a comic strip “Baldo”

Read the entire March/April 2000 newsletter right here.

May 1999 Newsletter

Hispanic Communicators DFW has a lot of history.  On these archive pages we’re going to share our very important past.

We used to be called “Network of Hispanic Communicators.” Since then our name has changed, but not our commitment.  Our May 1999 newsletter is a trip down memory lane.

• Ray Suarez, PBS correspondent was the keynote speaker at our annual scholarship fund.
• Journalists gathered for a town-hall meeting.
• Gary Pina got an award for his hard work with the organization.
• 21 students received scholarships from Hispanic Communicators.

Read the entire May 1999 newsletter right here.

Do you remember the scholarship banquet? Ray’s speech? Were you one of the scholarship recipient? We’d love to hear from you. Leave your comments.

Early Mission Statement

When Diana Navarette Marquis and Evelyn Hernandez met each other during a reception in Fort Worth 25 years ago, they never envisioned that their efforts to form a networking and support organization would still be alive today and would continue to help young people throughout North Texas fulfill their dreams.

The year was 1981 and Marquis at the time was a producer at WFAA-TV (Channel 8). Hernandez was a young reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The two had been invited to a mixer being sponsored by the recently formed Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators.

“Evelyn and I just started talking about what a great idea it was that this organization was around and wouldn’t it be great if we (Hispanics) had something like this too,” said Marquis, former manager of development at the Center for Nonprofit Management in Dallas.

So Marquis and Hernandez, former opinion page editor at El Diario/LA PRENSA in New York, decided to organize the Dallas-Fort Worth Network of Hispanic Communicators. The basic premise of the group was that it would serve as a support network for Hispanics in the communications industry and also to help advocate for workplace issues.

“We felt we needed to know each other, who was working where and how many of us there were,” Marquis said.

The initial efforts were not always successful. Some felt an organization like this could not survive because there would not be enough interest.
But about the same time, a national committee made up of journalism professionals from throughout the United States also was working on a similar effort but on a nationwide scale.

That committee eventually organized the first ever National Hispanic Media Conference that took place in San Diego. It was the springboard from which in 1984 the National Association of Hispanic Journalists was formed.

Back in DFW, Marquis and Hernandez continued to generate interest in the local organization. Its goal was to be as inclusive as possible, not only reaching out to English-language media professionals, but also those in Spanish-language newspapers, radio and television. The DFW group also made the decision to include public relations professionals and interested members of the community.

“At that point there were so few of us that we didn’t feel we could exclude anybody,” Marquis said. “Plus, we needed each other. We each had resources we could share with each other.”

She recalled that among early members were the Gonzalez brothers in Dallas who operated a Hispanic Yellow Pages company and allowed the Network to set up an office in their building.

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez recalled she became involved with the Network in 1982 when she came to Dallas from Boston to work at WFAA-TV as reporter. She already had been working as part of the committee working on setting up the first National Hispanic Media Conference, so it was natural for her to become involved in the DFW group.

Rivas-Rodriguez, who is now associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin, remembers that sometime in 1983, several of the women in the Network had a slumber party at her Dallas apartment. During that party the group discussed things the Network might become involved in.

Rivas-Rodriguez suggested a writing contest and the group quickly liked the idea of holding such a contest to generate enthusiasm among young people for writing and for careers in journalism. The first writing contest, open to all area high school students was held that year.

The first awards ceremony was a brunch held at the original location of Mia’s Restaurant in Dallas.

One of the winners was Anna Macias, who was in her senior year at North Dallas High School. She recalled that the contest called for students to write an essay about someone they admired or had the most influence on them. She wrote about a relative who lived in a small village in Mexico. Her name was “Tia Pepa.”

Tia Pepa was a strong, self-sufficient woman who had lived all her life in her tiny village, but still managed to educate herself about world affairs and was a caring compassionate person not only to her family but to all those around her. Macias recalls going to The Dallas Morning News building to deliver her contest entry. She stopped at the entrance and looked up at the building and became somewhat emotional, recalling that her grandfather has once worked as a gardener for one of the newspaper founding families.

“And here I was, walking into this building and thinking about the possibility that I could be a journalist,” Macias said.

Through her association with the Network, Macias said she met several Hispanic journalists who became her friends and mentors.

“When I met these people, I felt like I’d met brothers and sisters who were going to give me their hand and they have never let go,” Macias said.

Macias did become a reporter and worked at The Dallas Morning News for several years. She is now a reporter for the Texas Catholic newspaper.

In 1988, when the National Association of Hispanic Journalists held its national convention in Dallas, Network members were a key part of the event. Rivas-Rodriguez helped organize a newspaper to cover the convention events, with students as reporters and professionals as editors.

The newspaper was so successful that other journalism organizations have used it as a model for their conventions.
The Network continued the writing contest for several years, and in 1989 the organization also began awarding scholarships to area young people.

The first year, a total of $6,000 was awarded to seven students. Through 2005, a total of 248 students have received scholarships totaling $268,303. Nearly $24,000 has been awarded to high school writing contest winners.

Marquis said she believes that when the Network started the writing contest and scholarship programs and other efforts for young people, “that’s what gave the organization its heart.”

“I think that professionals can pretty much fend for themselves if they have to, but with the writing contest and the scholarships and the student newspaper at the conferences, that’s when we found out what really mattered,” she said.

As the NAHJ Dallas chapter, we want to do our part to raise money for the national organization.  So here is our challenge—our chapter will match every donation to Voces during Hispanic Heritage Month, up to a total of $1,000 in donations.

We challenge other NAHJ chapters and individual members to take us on.  We also encourage our local members of Hispanic Communicators DFW to donate to Voces.

Adelante! Let the challenge begin!  >>>Donate Here

Saul Garza
HCDFW, President

Photo by Rebecca Aguilar

The HCDFW board met on Saturday, Sept. 8 at Half Price Bookstore. At the board meeting several issues were discussed. Here is a summary of the meeting:

Amanda Salinas stepped down as President for personal and professional reasons. Saul Garza was voted in as President. He will hold the position until elections in about a year.

Laura Martinez was voted in as Secretary. She replaces Giselle Cestarte who stepped down for personal reasons earlier this year.

Committee chairs were named:

• Website committee: Teevee Aguirre
• Social Media committee–Michael Vega
• Scholarship committee: Anna Macias
• Fundraising committee: Gary Pina
• Spanish-language committee: Jay Torres
• Banquet committee: Magda Salazar
• Events/Planning committee: All of the above and several members
• Membership committee: Karina Ramirez

There was also a discussion how to bring in more members from the Spanish-language media,and possibly having a day exclusively for workshops for Spanish-language journalists in DFW market.

Upcoming events planned:

• Sept.15–Launch “Hispanic Heritage Month” fundraiser for NAHJ’s “1,000 Voces.”
• Oct.4–Cokie Roberts at UTArlington/members go together
• Oct.11–Mixer for members
• Nov.19–Seth Myers at UTArlington/ members go together
• Dec.–possible Christmas gathering
• Jan.–possible Spanish-language workshop day
• April–2013 Scholarship Banquet

Our next board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, October 20 at Half-Price Bookstore at 10a.m. It is open to all our members. Feel free to come.

Rebecca Aguilar is part of the HCDFW planning committee. She’s also the NAHJ Vice President of Online.

Courtesy: WFAA-TV

After 28 years at WFAA-TV, Gloria Campos will now have a little more time for herself.  Gloria has decided to reduce her hours and only anchor the 10pm show at Channel 8.  As she told Unclebarky.com,

“Life is full of transition, and I’m ready for that transition in my life.”

The last time I saw Gloria was at the Hispanic Communicators DFW Media Mixer at the House of Blues. There’s one thing about Gloria, she may be one of busiest journalists in town, but she always makes time for our functions.   She’s also one to offer her home to us for events and help out where ever she’s needed.

Gloria is also a Lifetime member of NAHJ.  She is such a valued member that in 2010, NAHJ inducted her into NAHJ Hall of Fame.  She’s giving with her time and financial support.

In these tough economic times, it takes a very confident woman to make the move Gloria has made at Channel 8.   She’ll start her new schedule after Labor Day.

Gloria with HCDFW at House of Blues

There is also something to be learned from a quote Gloria gave Unclebarky.com:

“”Believe it or not, I’ve always had that mindset that this job could disappear tomorrow. No one is irreplaceable.”

More than two decade ago, Gloria became the first Hispanic to hold a permanent anchor position on a weekday newscast in Dallas.  She’s made history and made Latinos proud.  She’s also proof that Latinos can help make a newscast number #1 year after year after year.

Gloria is not leaving TV.  In fact, she’ll continue being a role model for many Latinos getting into journalism, and continue giving North Texas viewers the news on her 10pm show.

Gloria, we’re proud of your accomplishments and wish you more success in the coming years!

Rebecca Aguilar is NAHJ Vice President of Online and a member of NAHJ Dallas Chapter, Hispanic Communicators DFW.  She’s also a board member with the SPJ Fort Worth Chapter, and a  freelance reporter based in Dallas.