(Oct. 26, 2001) The California Chicano News Media Association today announced the winners of its 3rd Annual Ruben Salazar Awards recognizing work that exemplifies journalistic excellence while contributing to a better understanding of Latinos.

Cash awards of $250 each were given out in four journalism categories:  Photography, Television, Print and Radio. A reception to announce the winners was not held this year because of ongoing news events and the slumping economy.

Los Angeles Times photographer Allen J. Schaben won the Photography Award for his photo series "Mexico's AIDS Crisis," which depicted the problem of Mexican immigrants returning to their villages with the HIV virus and infecting their wives and children. This is the third straight year that a Los Angeles Times photographer captured this award.  Rick Loomis, also with the Los Angeles Times, placed second. There was no third place award.

Reporter Christina Gonzalez of Los Angeles station KTTV Fox 11 won in the Television category for her series "Slave Labor."  The segments
provided a glimpse into the lives of undocumented immigrants who are kept as virtual slaves to pay back the "coyotes" who brought them
across, and at the further victimization of these people by unscrupulous companies that employ them.  Alfredo Romero was the producer and Patti Ballaz and David Henry photographed the stories.  Reporter Rick Garcia and Producer Rick Marquardt of KTTV Fox 11 placed
second for their story "Garvanza Park Little League Field," and Diane Diaz of KNBC-TV in Los Angeles placed third for her story "Latina
Images."

In the Print category, Javier Erik Olvera of the Fresno Bee won for his story "Season in the Sun." Olvera spent more than five months living as
a field worker providing a compelling account of the grueling lives of farmworkers. He told of their humanity, but mostly he put faces and real lives to people who are otherwise invisible.  In second place was Jose Cardenas of the Los Angeles Times for his story "Getting By, One Can At A Time."  Third place went to Ken Ellingwood and James E. Smith, also of the Los Angeles Times, for their story "When The
Trek North Becomes A Slow March Toward Death."

The Radio Award was presented to Adolfo Guzman Lopez for his series "A Different Day of the Dead," which aired on KPCC FM in Pasadena. His story illustrated how a new generation of Chicanos in Southern California is melding the traditional Mexican approach to the Day of the
Dead celebration with a very modern L.A.-style.  There were no second or third place winners.

The entries were judged by members of the Arizona Latino Media Association in Phoenix, AZ.

The awards are named after the late Ruben Salazar, who at the time of his death in 1970 was a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and news
director of Spanish-language television station KMEX in Los Angeles.

CCNMA is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization with more than 400 members statewide. The group is dedicated to the advancement of Latino journalists and to fostering fair and accurate portrayals of Latinos in the news media.