Maria Hinojosa

Maria de Lourdes Hinojosa Ojeda (born July 2, 1961) is a Mexican-American journalist. She is the anchor and executive producer of Latino USA, a syndicated public radio show devoted to Latino issues. She is also the founder, president and CEO of Futuro Media Group, which produces the show. In 2022, Hinojosa won a Pulitzer Prize.

Additionally, she serves as the executive producer of America By the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa: Clarkston Georgia which premiered on PBS as a Need to Know Election 2012 special on September 21, 2012. In 2011, she became the first Latina to anchor a Frontline report on PBS (Lost in Detention, a documentary exploring the issue of deportation and immigrant detention and abuse). Since 1995, she has been named three times as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business magazine for her work as a reporter for CBS, NPR, and CNN.

Career In 1992, Hinojosa helped launch Latino USA, one of the earliest public radio programs devoted to the Latino community. She has been the host of the show for its entire 30-year run, and since 2000 has also been executive producer.

In 2010, Hinojosa founded Futuro Media Group with the mission to produce multi-platform, community-based journalism that respects and celebrates the cultural richness of the American experience. She has also appeared on V-me, the Spanish-language TV network, where she hosted La Plaza: Conversaciones con María Hinojosa.

Hinojosa has written three books: Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son, a motherhood memoir; Crews: Gang Members Talk with Maria Hinojosa, a collection of interviews with gang members in New York City; and Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America, her experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago and as an adult witness to the US immigration crisis.

In addition, she interviewed various notable Latinos(as) for Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' 2011 HBO television special The Latino List. The special inspired the publication of a photo book, The Latino List/La Lista De Latinos, co-authored by Hinojosa that includes transcriptions of their interviews. The Latino List: Volume Two premieres on HBO on September 24, 2012. Hinojosa began hosting the National Public Radio show Latino USA in 1995 and continues to host today. Latino USA is produced exclusively by The Futuro Media Group.

Hinojosa's first journalism experience was as host of a Latino radio show while she was a student at Barnard College, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Latin American studies in 1985.

Hinojosa has a cameo in 2021's In the Heights film, playing the part of a protest leader at a DREAMer immigration rally.

Personal life Maria Hinojosa was born in Mexico City, the daughter of Berta Maria Ojeda Y de Teresa and Dr. Raul Efren Hinojosa Prieto. She currently lives in Bethlehem, Connecticut with her husband, the Dominican painter German Pérez, and their adult son and daughter. She also has an apartment in Harlem.

In a 2021 episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Hinojosa learned that her 11th great-grandfather on her father's side was Diego de Montemayor, a Spanish conquistador and the founder of the Mexican city of Monterrey, and that her third great-grandparents on her mother's side, who lived in Cuba, were members of the Spanish nobility. It was also found that her direct matrilineal line is indigenous Mexican.

She has won four Emmy Awards, including one in 2002 for coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and another in 2008 for her work on Taxing the Poor, documenting the plight of the lower class in Alabama. In 2009, she was honored with an American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) Gracie Award for Individual Achievement. Hinojosa has been named among the top 25 Latinos in Contemporary American Culture by the Huffington Post.

Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One was recognized with New England Emmy Awards for Outstanding Interview Program in 2008 and 2011, and a New England Emmy Award for Outstanding Host/Moderator in 2012. In 2011, One-on-One received an Imagen Award for its contribution to the positive image of Latinos in the US.

In 2007, she was inducted into the "She Made It" Hall of Fame at the Paley Center for Media/Museum of Television and Radio.

In 2022, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that Futuro Media and Hinojosa won a Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting for its seven-part podcast series, Suave, about David Luis Gonzalez.

Books Once I Was You: A Memoir Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son Crews: Gang Members Talk with Maria Hinojosa The Latino List/La Lista De Latinos