Federico Martínez and Mike Huerta recognized

Sept. 27, 2014: Federico Martínez, a contributing writer to La Prensa, was the recent recipient of The 2014 Latina/o Workers Leadership Institute Media Award  sponsored by the Labor Studies Center of the University of Michigan.

The Domingo “Nick” Reyes Latina/o Workers Media Award was presented on Saturday during the Latina/o Workers Leadership Institute’s four-day conference held at the University of Michigan Dearborn Campus.

Mr. Martínez is an award-winning journalist with nearly 30 years of experience working at daily newspapers, including The Muskegon Chronicle in Michigan and The Toledo Blade.
 

Federico Martínez

He has been covering immigration, farmworker and Latino community issues full-time since the mid-1980s when he worked as a staff writer for El Renacimiento, a bilingual weekly newspaper based in Lansing.

Also honored during the conference was Mike Huerta, who received the César Chávez-Jane González Award, which is presented to labor and community activists who work to build unity in their community and strive for better working conditions for all workers regardless of their country and origin. Mr. Huerta, a member of UAW Local 602, is currently vice-chairman of the Ingham County Democratic Party.

A former migrant worker, homeless youth and high school dropout, Mr. Martinez received a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Michigan State University in 1990.
 

He previously worked as a State Capital political reporter for Booth Newspapers – Lansing bureau and is a former Journalism Professor at MSU where he taught student journalists how to integrate social media into their news reporter. He also created and taught a required journalism course that focused on immigration and farmworker reporting.

Mr. Martinez is also the founder Hispanic Voice, a journalism workshop for Latino youth who produce content for the Hispanic Voice Internet-based newspaper. The program has won numerous education awards over the years.

Other awards he has received include:

·         Touchstone Award: Excellence in Journalism, New Media, for Pulso Latino, a daily bilingual blog for The Blade, The Press Club of Toledo, 2013.
 

Mike Huerta

·         Second place News-Division II investigative reporting award from the Associated Press for migrant housing blight series.

·         An SBC Ameritech Hispanic Excellence Award for producing a 16-story series that was the result of Federico living and working as a migrant worker for two months. The project also earned Federico a personal letter of commendation from President Bill Clinton.

The media award is named after Mr. Reyes, a Chicano media practitioner/activist who dedicated his adult life to the fair and dignified representation of Chicanos and Latina/os in the media industry.  A master of his craft, Dr. Reyes was appointed Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy during the Jimmy Carter administration and was also a media consultant for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

As a veteran broadcaster and Civil Rights activist, his media and political involvement span decades as a radio and television journalist, producer of numerous radio and television program series, and news print articles, publisher of VIVA, an historical booklet series on Latina/o accomplishments and founder and president of the Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee responsible for the fight against Frito Lay Co. and their Frito Bandito commercials.

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Revised: 10/07/14 22:50:40 -0700.