HAPPY HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, Sept. 15 – Oct. 15!
During this monthlong period, Friends of the Inyo will share social media and blog posts about Hispanics who have made significant contributions to conservation and environmental justice.
Puerto Rican-born award-winning journalist Juan González is the co-host of independent news show Democracy Now!, which was years ahead of mainstream media in highlighting, through sensitive and extensive reporting, the ravages of climate change on U.S. communities of color (e.g., Hurricanes Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, and Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, as well as in developing nations–this year’s destructive flooding in Pakistan).
González himself has written extensively on environmental and social injustices, including in his books “Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse,” which documents cover-ups by the Environmental Protection Agency and government officials with regard to health hazards at Ground Zero in New York, and “Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America.”
Some of his accomplishments and awards include:
- Being a past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and being inducted into the NAHJ Hall of Fame in 2008;
- Being the first Latino to be inducted into the New York Journalism Hall of Fame in 2015; and
- Being a two-time winner of the George Polk Journalism Award for commentary in 1998 and 2010.
Coincidentally, González’s birthday is Oct. 15, the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month!
Learn more about Juan González and his many achievements on the Staff page of DemocracyNow.org and on wikipedia.org.
Stay tuned for more posts on Latinos in conservation and environmental justice.