Maria Hinojosa, an award-winning journalist and author, joined NOW on PBS as Senior Correspondent in 2005. Hinojosa, who formerly covered urban affairs for CNN, also serves as anchor and managing editor of National Public Radio's Latino USA, a weekly national program reporting on news and culture in the Latino community.

Hinojosa has garnered many awards and honors, most recently the prestigious Leadership Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. In 2007 she was recognized by the Paley Center (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio) in a program that honors womens' contributions to media.

Maria won the Ruben Salazar Award from the National Council of La Raza, an award that recognizes a journalist's outstanding body of work. She has also been named one of the "25 Most Influential Working Mothers in America" by Working Mother magazine, and three times over the past decade Hispanic Business magazine named her one of the 100 most influential Latinos in the United States.

In 2001, Maria received an Emmy in recognition for her work covering the September 11th attacks in NYC. She has also been given a lifetime achievement award in media by the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors and won a Robert F. Kennedy award in radio for her reporting on the disadvantaged.

Before joining CNN in 1997, Hinojosa spent six years at National Public Radio as a New York-based correspondent. During this time, she also hosted Visiones, a public-affairs talk show on WNBC-TV in New York. Her personal experiences as a Mexican-American career woman, wife and mother living in New York were published in 1999 in her critically acclaimed memoir, Raising Raul: An Adventure Raising Myself and My Son . In 1995 she published Crews: Gang Members Talk with Maria Hinojosa, a book based on her award-winning NPR report.

Blog Entries by Maria Hinojosa

A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught Up to Me

8 Comments | Posted May 29, 2009 | 03:03 PM (EST)


The phone call came just minutes after Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. Rose Arce, my former producer at CNN and a Peruvian-American told me the news. I let out an excited shout: what?!

Though Sonia Sotomayor had all of the qualifications, I was...

Read Post

Are Rape Survivors Being Victimized Twice?

Posted April 27, 2009 | 12:05 PM (EST)


One in six women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime, but even more shocking is the underreported backlog in processing rape kits -- crucial evidence in arresting violent predators -- and how that backlog is delaying and sometimes denying justice for tens of thousands...

Read Post

Teen Sexual Harassment at Work -- An Underreported Scandal

Posted February 17, 2009 | 12:58 PM (EST)


I always talk about the stories I'm working on with people I meet along the way: cab drivers, waitresses, hotel maids, TSA agents, family, and girlfriends. Their response typically ranges from casually interested to intensely curious. But the response to my latest NOW on PBS report -- about sexual...

Read Post

"Women, Power and Politics": How Have Women in Politics Changed the U.S. and the World?

Posted September 19, 2008 | 12:12 PM (EST)


I was as surprised as anyone when news broke that Sen. John McCain had chosen Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. I was in the midst of working on "Women, Power and Politics," a special episode of NOW on PBS airing this weekend, and the experience of...

Read Post