FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE
CONTACT:  Julio Moran, Executive Director
                       (213) 743-4960 or juliomoran@ccnma.org
WINNERS OF CCNMA’s 5th ANNUAL
RUBEN SALAZAR AWARDS ANNOUNCED

(Oct. 23, 2003) The California Chicano News Media Assn. today announced the winners of its 5th Annual Ruben Salazar Journalism Awards recognizing work published or broadcast in California that exemplifies journalistic excellence while contributing to a better understanding of Latinos.

The awards will be formally presented at a reception in San Jose, CA on Friday Nov. 7, 2003. Cash awards of $250 will be given in each of the four categories of Print, Television, Radio and Photography.

The Los Angeles Times resumed its hold on the photography category after missing out last year. Don Bartletti won for his photos “Enrique’s Journey,” which accompanied a Pulitzer Award-winning story by the same name. “The photos told the story every bit as much as the words,” the judges noted.

Reporter/producer Claudia Botero of Sacramento station KUVS-TV, the local Univision affiliate, won in the Television category for her story “Drama y Dolor en el Campo,” which shed light on a growing AIDS problem among heterosexual immigrant farm workers who frequent prostitutes. Gabriel Ortega photographed the story.

In the Print category, Claudia Kolker of the Los Angeles Times Magazine won for her story “Head of the Class,” a lighthearted story of a Mexican youth from Juarez who revolutionized the popularity of the Stetson cowboy hat on both sides of the border while reminding readers that much of what is called American culture are really values from across the border.

The Radio Award was won by Eric Niiler for his story “Chinese Maquiladora Workers,” which aired on KPBS-FM in San Diego. His story described how some foreign investors are buying factories in Tijuana and replacing Mexican workers with Chinese immigrants who work longer hours and get paid less.

Members of the Arizona Latino Media Association in Phoenix judged the entries.

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 31-year-old Los Angeles-based non-profit organization housed at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism. The group, with 400 members statewide, is dedicated to the advancement of Latino journalists and to fostering fair and accurate portrayals of Latinos in the news media.

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