Latina Journalists Leading the Fight for Gender Equality Across the Americas

Every day, millions of women suffer systemic and systematic violence, and yet very few of their stories get told. Why are Latina journalists important especially in feminist media? Many Latina journalists with feminist ideologies make the coverage of these cases their number one priority.

We’ll share three of the many present and former Latina journalists (and reporters) that exist. In fact, many honored by a Smithsonian exhibit at National Museum of American History: María Elena Salinas, Blanca Rosa Vílchez, Dunia Elvir, Marilys Llanos, Gilda Mirós, Lori Montenegro, and Ilia Calderón, to name a few. We’ll link to many independent feminist news outlets to find the best stories on Latina and feminist issues too.

María Hinojosa

Born in Mexico City in 1961, she’s a central figure in Latino journalism in the US. Her family moved to Hyde Park when she was just little, and she quickly adapted to the American way of life as an immigrant. As a student of Latin American studies at Barnard College, Hinojosa had her first journalism experience as the host of a Latino radio show.

Her career took off in 1992, when she joined forces with Mexican-American journalist María Martin to launch Latino USA. This public radio show was one of the first programs dedicated to the Latino community, and Hinojosa became its host just three years after its creation. Thirsty years have passed, and she’s still leading the project, now also as an executive producer via Futuro Media Group. As its founder, President, and CEO, María’s non-profit has been producing multimedia content from a POC perspective since 2009. Other works include the political podcast In The Thick and the seven-episode podcast series Suave, which landed her the Pulitzer Prize in 2022.

Her dedication to Latino issues as a reporter for PBS, CBS, WGBH, WNBC, CNN, and NPR also helped her win four Emmys, two Robert F. Kennedy awards, the John Chancellor Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Journalism Excellence, and more. In 2020, Hinojosa published her memoir, Once I Was You, in which she shares her experience as a Mexican American child on the South Side of Chicago. 

Hinojosa's made the news waves again with a recent interview with labor and farm workers rights icon and co-founder of the United Farmworkers, Dolores Huerta. Huerta along with other sexual abuse survivors of Cesar Chavez came forward after decades of withholding their secret.

María Ugarte

María de la Purificación Ugarte España (1914-2011) became famous for being the first woman to practice journalism in the Dominican Republic. Born in Segovia, Spain, she obtained a degree in Philosophy and Literature at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1933, she participated as a student in the Mediterranean University Cruise, an expedition of 200 intellectuals who spent 45 days visiting archaeological sites in Tunisia, Malta, Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Ugarte then specialized in Historical Sciences and studied with Antonio Machado and Ortega y Gasset. 

In 1940, after the dictator Franco came into power, Ugarte was forced to flee to the Dominican Republic after having fought on the losing side of the civil war. As a political refugee, she taught the first course on archival science at the University of Santo Domingo and published in 1947 the first Bulletin of the General Archive of the Nation. One year later, she began her journalism career at the newspaper El Caribe, where she became assistant editor, director of the cultural supplement, and director of supplements. Her first assignment was to cover the murder of a prostitute in the upper part of the city. 

“I was the first woman to join a newspaper's newsroom as a reporter. In that huge room at El Caribe, everyone else was male. The other women who worked there were in administrative roles. I tried to show that women could do the same work as men,” she said in an interview recovered by El Caribe.

Ugarte began to shed light on a forgotten part of Dominican history, which made her the first woman to be admitted to the Academy of History. In 2008, eight years after retiring from the newspaper, she was awarded the Dominican Republic National Literature Prize.

Mariana Romero

Although this Argentinian journalist isn’t as recognized as the other two covered in this article, one of her stories had a political and cultural impact on the region. She played a key role covering “the Belén case,” one of the most emblematic examples of the criminalization of abortion in Argentina before legalization. 

The case involved a young woman from the province of Tucumán (identified publicly as Belén to protect her identity) who was imprisoned after suffering a miscarriage in a public hospital and later accused of homicide. This region is known for obstructing abortion procedures, even in cases of rape and of pregnant girls, due to strong pressure from religious groups. Romero was among the journalists who reported the case and helped expose the judicial irregularities in Belén’s detention. Media coverage helped make her story known and eventually secured Belén’s release after almost three years in prison.

The story was later documented in the book Somos Belén by Ana Correa, which reconstructs the events of the case and the collective mobilization that emerged around it. This story was taken to the big screen with the film Belén (2025), directed by and starring Dolores Fonzi. The film won multiple awards and was shortlisted for the Oscars, but sadly didn’t make the cut. 

More Feminist Journalists from Latin America

Catalina Ruiz-Navarro (Colombia)

This political activist is the founder of Volcánicas, a Latin American feminist journalism outlet, made up of women and dissident voices. She is a specialist in international media and is one of the most influential voices of Latin American feminism today.

María O'Donnell (Argentina) 

María is a well-known political journalist in Argentina, with a long career in radio, television, and print media. She has a strong influence at the national level and a moderate influence at the regional level. She has been a victim of verbal attacks from the current President, Javier Milei. She’s also a successful writer, with many bestsellers under her belt.

Sol Borja (Ecuador) 

She is a narrative journalist and editor with regional influence, linked to Latin American media and international journalism projects. She has worked in television, print, and digital media, as well as being a university professor and translator. She is currently deputy editor at Gkillcity and contributes as a political analyst to several international media outlets.

Arysbell Arismendi (Venezuela)

This journalist and researcher is associated with regional investigative journalism projects and Latin American journalist networks. She writes independently on politics, and economics for national media outlets and international websites.

María Florencia Alcaraz (Argentina)

María Florencia is a journalist and graduate in Social Communication from the National University of La Matanza (UNLaM), specializing in human rights and gender. As a reporter, she contributed to various media outlets, including Revista Anfibia, Las 12, Cosecha Roja, and Infojus Noticias. She is one of the founders of the Ni Una Menos collective and editor of LATFEM, a feminist independent news outlet.

Pia Flores (Guatemala)

Pia Flores is a journalist and anthropologist, focusing on the social inequalities of her homeland. She writes about sexual violence, migration, and the LGBTIQ community. She is a founding partner of the independent media outlet Quorum and was nominated for the Gabo Award.

Independent Media Outlets with a Feminist Scope

• LATFEM (Argentina)
• Memorias de Nómada (Mexico)
• Volcánicas (Colombia)
• Agência Pública (Brazil)
• Wambra (Ecuador)
• Revista Anfibia (Argentina)
• No Es Hora de Callar (Colombia)
• Cotidiano Mujer (Uruguay)
• Agencia Presentes (Argentina-Mexico)
• EsParaMiTarea (Mexico)
• Feminacida (Argentina)

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Resumen en español

En este artículo, destacamos a tres periodistas latinoamericanas con una mirada feminista de la realidad: María Hinojosa (México-Estados Unidos), María Ugarte (España-República Dominicana) y Mariana Romero (Argentina). Su labor periodística fue fundamental para iluminar problemáticas de género en la región y para romper el techo de cristal de las mujeres en el rubro. También mencionamos a otras periodistas de América Latina que escriben desde una postura feminista. Asimismo, compartimos los nombres de algunos portales independientes que cubren asuntos relacionados con las mujeres y disidencias.