I went to Mexico to look for relatives of my great grandfather, who left there in 1890. My grandfather was a cowboy who rode cattle from Texas to the Midwest. I told a woman, who could have been a cousin, how my mom was born in Carrizo Springs, Texas and grew up in a migrant worker family. They picked cotton in Texas and beets in the Midwest and then wound up on a tomato farm outside Chicago. My mom’s sisters convinced the family to move to the city where they could make more money working in factories. My mom was the youngest, so she was allowed to go to high school if she got an after-school job. She found a job in a department store. My mom and dad, also a migrant from Texas, met in the high school cafeteria. They married and had five children, all who went on to graduate from college.
Author Archives: Teresa Puente
Teresa Puente has spent her career reporting on immigration and Latino issues in the U.S. and has also reported extensively from Mexico. Previously, she was a staff reporter at the Chicago Tribune and was on the editorial board at the Chicago Sun-Times. Early in her career, she worked as a reporter for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach and The Orange County Register. Her recent journalistic work has been published in TIME, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Hill, The Miami Herald, Latino magazine, In These Times and more. Puente also is a senior facilitator, coach and mentor with The OpEd Project, a social venture that helps promote and publish underrepresented voices in the media.
Puente, an assistant professor at California State University, Long Beach, teaches News Reporting and Ethics, Social Media Communication and Bilingual Magazine Reporting & Production. Her students publish the Spanish-language magazine Dig En Español, the first magazine of its kind in Long Beach.
Puente received the Studs Terkel Award from Public Narrative for her coverage of Chicago’s diverse communities. She has served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the California Chicano News Media Association and JAWS – Journalism & Women Symposium. She is a past president of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Puente holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a bachelor’s degree with a double major in journalism and political science from Indiana University-Bloomington. Before returning to Long Beach, she taught journalism for 10 years at Columbia College Chicago. She was also a visiting assistant professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and taught journalism and communications at the Tecnológico de Monterrey campus in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Posted inEspañol
Dolores Huerta nos recuerda que en 2024, la democracia estará en juego
Dolores Huerta, cofundadora del sindicato de trabajadores del campo United Farm Workers, habló el 5 de agosto en la conferencia anual de LULAC, la Liga de ciudadanos latinoamericanos unidos, que es la organización latina de derechos civiles más grande y antigua de Estados Unidos. Fue fundada en 1929, y Huerta señaló que LULAC es solo un […]
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: Dolores Huerta reminds us democracy is on the line in 2024
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, spoke at the annual LULAC conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Aug. 5. Huerta, 93, was born in New Mexico but raised in California. She spoke about several key themes – abortion rights, gay rights, the importance of voting and dangers facing our democracy.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: As a Latina, why I never saw myself in Barbie
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Barbie. She was blonde, thin, tall, the Americanized standard of beauty. As a young woman growing up in the early 1970s, Barbie made me feel ugly. I was nothing like her idealized beauty as a Brown, curvy, petite woman. I kinda hated Barbie because I knew I would never look like her. It took me into my 20s to see in myself that Brown is beautiful too.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: I’m not a flag waver
I agree with the James Baldwin quote: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
I struggle to reconcile all the conflicts in our country such as police brutality and political violence against immigrants. I struggle to celebrate our independence.
Posted inOpinion
Latino journalists honored by Los Angeles Press Club
Fernández left broadcast news for a period and started her own company. In 2018, she came back to Spectrum News 1 in Los Angeles.
Fernández anchors the morning news and is host and executive producer of “LA Stories with Giselle Fernández.” This fall John Leguizamo is hosting a three-part documentary on PBS called “American Historia.” Cultural segments will feature visits to historical sites and interviews with notable historians and Latino cultural figures.
Posted inEspañol
COMENTARIO: No soy una abanderada
En mi escuela primaria católica yo recitaba el Juramento a la Bandera todos los días. Lo hice obedientemente. Si no lo hubiera hecho, ciertamente habría sido castigada por las monjas. Este Cuatro de Julio, muchos estadounidenses ondearán la bandera o la vestirán en sus camisetas y pantalones cortos. Como adulto, nunca he sido una abanderada. […]
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: Eva Longoria’s “Flamin’ Hot” is the feel good movie we need this summer
The film came out Friday Hulu and Disney+ is important to the Latino community as we don’t see enough of our stories on the silver screen. There are many stories like Montañez’s out there. These types of stories should be championed and Longoria should be lauded for making this film that uplifts our community.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: Stop the attacks on drag queens and the LGBTQ+ community
The Dodgers controversy happened as many states are moving to ban or restrict drag shows.
Tennessee was the first state in the country to ban drag performances in public spaces and anywhere in the presence of someone under 18 years old. The law was set to take effect April 1 and now is tied up in the courts. A dozen other states have proposed similar legislation against drag performances, including Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
Posted inEspañol
COMENTARIO: La huelga de escritores es un llamado a una mayor representación en Hollywood
El Sindicato de Escritores está en huelga para defender salarios justos y los derechos de sus miembros. Los latinos y las personas de color en general se verían desproporcionadamente afectados si no se lograse un contrato justo. La huelga pone de manifiesto el hecho de que los latinos, que representan el 19% de la población […]
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: WRITERS STRIKE IS A CALL FOR MORE REPRESENTATION IN HOLLYWOOD
The strike underscores that Latinos, who make up 19% of the U.S. population,
are already severely underrepresented not just as writers but in all roles in Hollywood.
U.S. Latino representation in Hollywood went down for the last quarter of 2022 to 2019 levels.
Only 2.6% of lead actors in shows, 1.4% of showrunners, and 1.5% of directors were Latino in 2022, according to the Latino Data Collaborative Think Tank.
The think tank is the research branch of the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) and they released the 2022 Full-Year LDC U.S. Latinos in Media Report this month.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: I’m not a mother but I mother
So this Mother’s Day I want to acknowledge all the women who technically aren’t mothers but who mother. They are hermanas, tías and amigas. Some of them like me wanted children but weren’t able to have them. Others have chosen not to have them. Let’s honor their choices too and their right to make that choice.