I was an avid consumer of the news, growing up on the south side of Chicago in a Mexican immigrant family . . . newspaper, television-it was really important to me. But I never saw my story . . . the experience I was having, reflected anywhere. Much less was there anyone who looked like me, or had a name like me, or sounded like me doing anything in any media. So [being a broadcast journalist] was not something that I thought was actually attainable.
Maria Hinojosa is executive producer of America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa: Clarkston Georgia, the first public affairs program on PBS to be executive-produced and anchored by a Latina woman.
Hinojosa has reported hundreds of important stories-from the immigrant work camps in New Orleans after Katrina, to teen girl victims of sexual harassment on the job, to Emmy Award-winning stories of the poor in Alabama.
She is the author of two books including the memoir Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son.