Latina Voices Update
Latina Voices is a project by NMWE winner Teresa Puente.
November 2008
I am pleased to report that we have launched Latina Voices. The site went live on Nov. 24, 2008. We have the following main categories—About Latina Voices, Book Club, Creative Nonfiction, News/Features, Opinion and Recent. My goal is to have a diversity of editorial content, from columns about immigration to personal essays addressing issues of identity and culture. Other topics will include the economy, health care, politics, education and the arts.
The Opinion section features columns and commentary. One of the first columns was by Bertha Serrano, a Columbia College student, about why she didn’t vote (she’s not yet a U.S. citizen). I wrote a piece on hate crimes against Latinos.
For the News/Features section, Columbia College graduate student Agnes Masnik profiled a woman who came to the United States as a refugee from Nicaragua and is now active in Republican politics.
In the Creative Nonfiction section is a personal essay by Belen Romero, a photojournalism student at Columbia College who discusses what it was like to go back to Mexico. Juanita Santiago, a former Columbia College graduate student now working at CNN, wrote an essay on her two grandmothers that we have published in two parts (Part One and Part Two).
The Book Club section encourages readers to read “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros.
This project provides students and other writers an outlet to publish their work. Though we are starting at Columbia College in Chicago, my goal is to reach out to students across the country, as well as to freelance and/or citizen journalists.
The goal of Latina Voices is to create connections and provide a platform for new voices, as well as those of experienced writers and journalists. It also is a mentoring project. So far I have matched eight professional Latina journalists with eight students. They are communicating with each other via a private Wiki we created.
The mentors are: Jessica Alpert, WBUR-FM, Boston; Ofelia Casillas, Chicago Tribune; Laura Castaneda, University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Journalism; Dawn Garcia, Stanford University, John S. Knight Fellowships; Michelle Garcia, Pistolera Productions; Martha Irvine, Associated Press, Chicago; Claudia Melendez, University of Southern California, Institute for Justice in Journalism; and Margaret Ramirez, Chicago Tribune.
Several other women have expressed interest in mentoring students and I’m in the process of setting up matches. My goal is to have at least 15 mentors and mentees.
I also have received support from Columbia College to create a class called Latina Voices for spring 2009. Students from a variety of backgrounds will write directly for the Web site. After the class ends, I will offer the students a stipend to continue writing for Latina Voices.
Important technical decisions were made in building the Web site, which was designed by Columbia student Carlos Ardila, who used WordPress. Carlos previously had worked only in Dreamweaver, but he is highly motivated and learned the new program—one that makes it easy for me to post and edit comments. My colleague and fellow Columbia faculty member Elio Leturia designed the Latina Voices logo. It’s been great to have the support of Latino men on this project.
I made a decision early on to use bright colors and content boxes on the site. We don’t want it to appear too busy and we aim to be aesthetically pleasing.
Once we get the content rolling, I plan to develop the business side of the Web site, selling arts and crafts made by Latinas in the United States and Mexico. I already have a wide selection of purses and weavings to sell. It will take time, but I plan to photograph the items and set up a Paypal purchasing system on the Web site. I am planning a trip to Mexico in January, where I will buy beaded jewelry and scarves to sell as well.
I also am creating a profile on Facebook and a Twitter account so that I can reach more readers and writers online, and I will promote the Web site on the listservs that reach Hispanic and women journalists.
In conclusion, I’m excited and thankful to have this opportunity to create, edit and publish Latina Voices. I hope that we will give voice to all kinds of Latina women—young, old, professional, working-class, journalists, creative nonfiction writers, educators and students.
