Maria Hinojosa ’84 is no stranger to breaking barriers. The journalist’s homecoming to her alma mater comes after over 30 dedicated years of transforming the language the media uses to describe immigrants.
A year after graduating from Barnard with a degree in Latin American studies and minors in political science and women’s studies, Hinojosa became the first Latina hired at NPR. She went on to garner multiple awards — including four Emmys — reporting for PBS, CBS, CNN, and WBNC.
In 2010, she founded Futuro Media. One of its productions is the podcast series Suave — a 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner for Audio Reporting — which documents the 29-year relationship between Hinojosa and David Luis “Suave” Gonzales, a formerly incarcerated juvenile who had been sentenced to life.
The first time Hinojosa returned to campus as a professor was in August 2019, as the College’s first Journalist-in-Residence of the English Department. As soon as the semester began, she decided to make her classrooms a space for radical change by encouraging students to share stories about their families and personal experiences. For her fall 2023 course, Latinx and the ICE/Prison Industrial Complex: Access and Strategies for News Coverage, she borrowed heavily from her experiences in the field.
“I like to create a classroom experience where the students can bring their full selves in, where they’re going to be affirmed, where their personal experiences will be,” said Hinojosa.
As an immigrant — Hinojosa was born in Mexico City — she understands the need for humanity and the lack of it often shown in the media — especially on the topic of immigration. On the first day of class during the fall semester of 2023, she silently walked over to a whiteboard and crossed out the words “illegal alien” in thick red marker. During the semester, Hinojosa deliberately stepped away from the traditional role of lecturing students to create an environment where they felt free to express their own immigration experiences or their views on the state of American journalism.
“Absolutely everything has to change about the conversation around immigrants and how they are covered in the mainstream, which is why I try to make this a class that students will always go back to a decade from now when they’re the ones in power — whether they’re running a news company or producing feature films,” said Hinojosa, who will be honored as the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award on April 3.
In this “5 Questions With …” interview, Hinojosa delves into the nature of her classroom, as well as the importance of bringing immigrant stories to the forefront.
Why did you choose to teach a course centering immigrant narratives?
I’ve been covering immigration since I left Barnard — it was the first story I ever covered as an intern for NPR in January 1985. I was born in Mexico and migrated to the United States at 2 years old, so, as a journalist, I feel the responsibility to help the next generation understand what it means to be an immigrant.
That’s why, in my class, students and I spend a lot of time getting to know each other so that they understand their peers come from immigrant backgrounds. I want to communicate that reporting on immigration also entails reporting on the people around you, who happen to be the children of undocumented immigrants, have undocumented friends and co-workers, or who are undocumented themselves. My course was a way to empower students to see how immigration is part of their lives and not just something separate that is “out there” in the world — it is part and parcel of who they are on this campus.
Why do you feel it’s necessary to include guest speakers in the classroom, such as Suave and investigative journalist Peniley Ramirez?
There is a lot of glory and glitz around journalism, but I like to tell it how it is to my students. Still, the essence of a good journalist is humility in being able to hear and being genuinely interested in somebody else’s story. I saw the walls of myth and disinformation break down as students engaged with Suave, a formerly incarcerated person. Not only does he have a great life story, but he is also very media savvy. He is the producer of Suave Season 2 and understands how to take advantage of media platforms to share his narrative.
Peniley Ramirez ’22CC, a former student of Columbia Journalism School, would come into my office feeling insecure in her abilities as a journalist. However, she stayed focused on the mission of her work, and this led to her achieving success. Bringing her into my classroom as a guest is my way of telling students that they can speak English with a thick accent and not have it be their first language, because the essence of a strong journalist is something you can see and feel. Peniley embodies this, and now she’s a media executive at Futuro Media.
I want my students to have these interactive moments with other storytellers because they can be life-changing in terms of their decision to become a journalist.
Absolutely everything has to change about the conversation around immigrants and how they are covered in the mainstream.
What sets your course apart?
I reference some of the best classes I took during my experience as a student here in the 1980s — where professors encouraged me to bring my full self into the classroom — as a guide for my teaching. I also remember very clearly what it was like to be a student on campus and to feel extraordinary competitive pressure. That’s why I like my classes to be a place that is very affirming of the student’s goals and their personal experiences.
I begin each class with a brief meditation, encourage students to share the conversations we have together during office hours, and [ask them] to read aloud the papers they write for this class. The most important part of teaching is to see my students feel capable in themselves and to affirm that they do know what they’re talking about. I want them to know that they deserve to be here.
When I was a student at Barnard, I also had a voice. What I said and did mattered not only within the context of the College but also in the rest of New York City and the country. Students sometimes do not realize it, but they have incredible voices and power because it’s common for what happens at Barnard and Columbia to become national news.
What changes would you like to see in how people discuss the topic of immigration?
We have gone backward in our country, where we’ve had an entire presidency and campaign based on the notion of building a wall against immigrants. For my students, I make sure my course is going to sear into their memory that immigrants are wanted and needed. I also want students to view their own immigrant stories with profound value. Each person has a personal history tied to a complicated past that they have the right to voice.
What projects are you currently working on outside of Barnard?
It will be hard to top Suave Season 1 after it won a Pulitzer Prize, but my team and I are currently in the process of creating Suave Season 2. I am also interested in voter registration for Latinx communities for the upcoming 2024 election and specifically empowering minority groups to participate in the election.
While I have multiple projects going on, that’s life. One of the things I like to do with my classes is practice radical transparency. I want students to be aware that life after graduating is hard but also that they hold incredible privilege, power, and that they will be fine.
—TARA TERRANOVA ’25
