David Gonzalez

David Gonzalez is a journalist at The New York Times. Among other posts, he has been the Times Bronx Bureau Chief, the "About New York" Columnist, and the Central America and Caribbean Bureau Chief. His coverage has ranged from the Oklahoma city bombing and Haiti’s humanitarian crises, to chronicling how the Bronx emerged from years of official neglect, to in-depth reports on how Latino immigration is shaping the United States.

In addition to his print reporting, Gonzalez is a photographer and the co-editor of the Times Lens Blog, which has become the premier internet site for photojournalists from around the world.

Early life and education Gonzalez was born in the South Bronx of New York City. His parents Pedro and Lillian Gonzalez came to New York from Puerto Rico as teenagers, and Gonzalez received a Catholic School education: first at Saint Athanasius and Saint Martin of Tours grammar schools, then at Cardinal Hayes High School, where he was on the track team for four years. He also published his first article in the school’s student newspaper,The Challenger.

At Cardinal Hayes, an English teacher named Bill Kerrigan and Father Jeremiah Monahan were strong and early influences in Gonzalez's development as a writer. Over the years, Gonzalez maintained a lifelong friendship with Father Monahan, until his passing in 1999.

Journalism career

Immediately after graduating from Columbia, Gonzalez joined the staff of Newsweek magazine, where he filed stories from New York, Detroit and Miami.

The BROKEN PROMISES building, as reported by David Gonzalez in "Faces in the Rubble."

As the Times citywide columnist from 2004 until 2008, Gonzalez analyzed social and cultural themes. His debut column, a profile of the Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri, proved to be the artist's last major interview before his 2004 death. Another column highlighted the collateral damage caused by predatory lenders in minority neighborhoods, before the nation's subprime collapse.

Until 2011, Gonzalez wrote numerous lengthy narrative pieces on such topics as the children of undocumented immigrants and the role of the arts in community life. He also produced several major projects with significant multimedia components for the Times. This included "House Afire," a three-part series about a struggling Pentecostal storefront church in West Harlem; "A Family Divided by 2 Words, Legal and Illegal, about a family of mixed-immigration status; and "Faces in the Rubble," a personal essay and slide show about Gonzalez's devastated South Bronx neighborhood during the late 70s and early 80s.

"Faces in the Rubble" added a visual dimension to Gonzalez's reporting. For example, along Charlotte Street – which U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton had used for political photo ops – Gonzalez noted that "an artist wrote BROKEN PROMISES on the same buildings that served as stage sets for politicians to troll for votes." According to the National Press Photographers Association, within five years, "Lens Blog has become the 'go to’ site for photojournalists as well as anyone interested in photography.

In January 2013, Seis del Sur had its first exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center. The January 19 opening was an overwhelming success with a crowd that included musician Afrika Bombaataa, actress Annabelle Sciorra, the artists of Tats Cru, and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. The group's goal was to show – as insiders – the complexity of life in the South Bronx, especially during the years it was hit hard by arson and abandonment. Speaking to the opening night crowd, Gonzalez said, "This is our family album. These are our family pictures. It’s just that we’ve got a complicated family." the aftermath of civil war in El Salvador, deficiencies in the U.S. census, the health crisis amongst Nicaraguan sugar cane workers, arson and devastation in the South Bronx, and Walker Evans.

In 1992, Gonzalez received Columbia University's Mike Berger Award for his coverage of New York City and its neighborhoods.

In 2000, he received the Feature Writing Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists for "Game Produces 28 Hits and a Political Home Run," about a baseball game between the Cuban and Venezuelan national teams.

In 2013, he was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame.

His feature writing has been honored twice by Columbia University's Workshops on Race and Ethnicity, and by the Associated Press.

Gonzalez also received the New York Associated Press award for feature writing.

Awards and honors

The following awards received by David Gonzalez were reported by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Mike Berger Award, Columbia University, 1992. Nation's 100 Most Influential Hispanics, Hispanic Business Magazine, 1997. Hostos Community College Commencement Speaker, 1998 New York's 25 Most Influential Latinos, Viva Magazine (NY Daily News), 1998. Citation of Merit, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, 1999. Hombres Distinguidos Award, El Diario/La Prensa, 2005 Cardinal Hayes High School Hall of Fame, 2011.