A closer look at Maria Hinojosa

We've got friends everywhere, and some have made mention of journalist Maria Hinojosa, who they said, "is on PBS".

photo credit: futuro media group

Honestly, the consensus around here is that PBS is a bit of a snoozer.  We didn't want to do it.

Nevertheless, Gracie (our brilliant canine office administrator) exclaimed, "It's like it's raining men on the blog!  What's up with that?  Write about a woman!"

So, OK then!

"Maria Hinojosa is on PBS."

What an understatement that turned out to be!  Similar to Jorge Ramos, Maria Hinojosa is as American as Donald Trump, and as it turns out-- is so much more accomplished than we were aware of.

We're going to start with a short promo featuring Maria Hinojosa "broadcast journalist" because it really captures her personality and her point of view: from LinkTV:

Maria de Lourdes Hinojosa, journalist.

Born: July 2, 1961, Mexico City, Mexico
Citizenship: American
Residence: Harlem, NY

When Maria was just one year old, her father, Dr. Raul Hinojosa, moved the family to the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago when he was appointed to the surgical faculty at the University of Chicago.

While there is not a lot of information about her childhood and life prior to college, Maria shared her feelings about motherhood and her Mexican heritage in a memoir, Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son (1999) In it she discusses her frequent trips to Mexico to visit relatives, commenting, "I can't let go of Mexico.  It is part of who I am."

Ms Hinojosa attended Barnard College, graduating in January 1985 with a BA in Latin American Studies with minors in Political Science and Women's Studies.

Here is a summary of her early career from the blog Barnard Archives and Special Collections:

"Hinojosa’s career in broadcast journalism began immediately after college, when she took a position as a production assistant for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. In 1987, she joined the staff of WCBS Radio and produced shows such as “Where We Stand” with Walter Cronkite,” “The Osgood File", and “Newsbreak.” From 1988 to 1989, she was a producer and researcher for CBS’s “This Morning.” Then, from 1990 to 1997, she worked for NPR and WNYC Radio as a general assignment correspondent, covering issues in the New York area and throughout the country."

In 1992, Maria put her mark on the national radio stage with NPR's "LatinoUSA" radio program, which continues to the present day.

Trying to fill out the rest of Maria Hinojosa's achievements is daunting.  Books, TV, documentary films, appearances on numerous news programs, charity work, and also the recipient of numerous prestigious journalism awards.

We have however, picked out a few that seemed particularly interesting, relevant, or curious.

ICE Director Thomas Homan

As our readers may know, we wrote a post (this blog makes no pretense of objectivity) about the aggressive, Trump-inspired attitude permeating ICE and DHS regarding non-criminal undocumented immigrants being arrested and sent to detention centers.

This is generally where the stories end.  We wonder, what then?  What is life like in a detention center?  As it happens, Maria Hinojosa produced and wrote a full epidsode of the PBS investigative series "Frontline" exactly on that topic.

Here we have to point out that the introduction from the PBS page devoted to the program "Lost in Detention" is chilling in light of who currently occupies the White House:

"More than one million immigrants have been deported since President Obama took office. Under his administration, deportations and detentions have reached record levels. The get-tough policy has brought complaints of abuse and harsh treatment, including charges that families have been unfairly separated after being caught in the nationwide dragnet . . ."

Perhaps rank-and-file ICE agents really are straining at the leash.  Perhaps they enjoy rounding up non-criminal immigrants, including minor children, and sending them into indefinite incarceration, also known as "detention".

We are certain, however, that the Obama Administration would never actually encourage these operations, as Trump and his bureaucratic lackeys currently do.

Here is a 5-minute promo on the film:

We mentioned the interesting and the curious.  To be specific, we're talking about Maria Hinojosa: One on One, her interview series.  In it she covers stories nobody else does.  In particular, she traveled to Cuba to interview a couple, part of the "rockero" subculture, who deliberately injected themselves with the AIDs virus in order to be committed to a sanitarium, where they would be housed, fed, and allowed to dress as they pleased without fear of recrimination.

Here Maria discusses interviews that most affected her:

In reading about all of Maria's accomplishments, we couldn't help but notice what seems to be her "baby", her own production company, Futuro Media Group.  The website has lots of information on their activities.

Now we'll conclude this post with a video that expresses the enthusiasm and dedication Maria still brings to her endeavors: The Push-up Challenge:

. . .and check out her very entertaining podcast In the Thick!