NAHJ Inducts Del Olmo, Sotomayor, Gutierrez & Espinosa Into Hall Of Fame.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists inducted Frank del Olmo, Felix Gutierrez, Paul Espinosa and Frank Sotomayor into its Hall of Fame during a luncheon ceremony June 13 at the NAHJ 20th Annual Convention in San Diego June 12-15.

The NAHJ’s Hall of Fame honors those journalists whose efforts either nationally or locally have resulted in a greater number of Latinos entering the journalism profession or have helped to improve news coverage of the nation’s Latino community.

The following are biographies of this year’s inductees:

Paul Espinosa, independent producer, writer and director

Paul Espinosa is an award-winning independent producer, writer and director based in San Diego. In 1997, he formed Espinosa Productions as a film and video company specializing in documentary and dramatic films focusing on the U.S.-Mexico border region. He served as the executive producer for Public Affairs and Ethnic Issues for KPBS-TV (1990-94) and as the senior producer and director of the KPBS Office of Latino Affairs (1980-90), which he created in 1980.

Espinosa’s major national production credits for PBS include: The U.S.- Mexican War: 1846-1848 (1997); The Hunt for Pancho Villa: The American Experience (1994); The Border (2000); and The Lemon Grove Incident (1986). Espinosa has earned eight Emmys for his work.

Espinosa received his B.A. from Brown University in anthropology and his Ph.D. from Stanford University, also in anthropology.

Espinosa was a founding member of the California Chicano News Media Association (San Diego) and served as the group’s president from 1983-86.

Felix Gutierrez, author, educator and activist

Felix Gutierrez, former senior vice president of the Freedom Forum and Newseum, is a visiting professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Journalism.

Among the first scholars to focus on Latinos and media, he reported how American print journalism began in Mexico in 1541, identified the first U.S. Latino newspaper in 1808, chronicled Spanish-language radio’s beginnings in the 1920s and exposed how U.S. Spanish-language television was illegally controlled by Mexico’s television network beginning in the 1960s. Academic publications include more than 50 articles or book chapters and four books on media diversity.

An advocate for diversity and inclusiveness in the media, he was the first executive director of the California Chicano News Media Association (CCNMA) from 1978 through 1980. He has consulted for The Associated Press, Knight Ridder, Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., Federal Communications Commission, McClatchy and CBS Television, among others.

As a university journalism professor from 1974 to 1990 and foundation vice president from 1990 to 2001, he mentored aspiring journalists of all races. Named NAHJ’s Padrino of Latino Journalists, he has awards from the Asian American Journalists Association, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Black College Communication Association, CCNMA and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

Frank del Olmo, associate editor, Los Angeles Times

A native of Los Angeles, Frank del Olmo began his Los Angeles Times career in 1970 as a summer intern, shortly after graduating from Cal State Northridge.

He became a full-time staff writer in 1971 and, as the only Spanish- speaking reporter on the Metro staff for several years, covered topics as varied as the Mexican border, farm labor and the Watergate break-in. He also worked for the foreign desk as a correspondent in Mexico and Central America from 1976 to 1979. Del Olmo became a member of the Times editorial board in 1980, when he also began writing a regular Op-Ed page column on Latino affairs. He was promoted to deputy editorial page editor in 1989, was named assistant to the editor in 1995, and became an associate editor in 1998.

Del Olmo was a member of the team of Times staffers awarded the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Meritorious Public Service in 1984 for a series on Southern California’s Latino Community and won an Emmy Award for writing The Unwanted, a 1975 KNBC documentary on illegal immigration.

Del Olmo was one of the original founders of the California Chicano News Media Association in 1972. He was the chairman of the first national meeting of Latino journalists, in San Diego, 20 years ago. That meeting led to the organization of NAHJ.

Frank O. Sotomayor, assistant METPRO director and hiring editor,

Los Angeles Times

For 30 years, Frank O. Sotomayor has been in the forefront of the drive to diversify the U.S. news profession. Through his efforts in the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, the California Chicano News Media Association, the NAHJ and his recruiting and mentoring at the Los Angeles Times, he has helped to launch and enhance the careers of hundreds of journalists, including Latinos, African Americans and Asians.

Sotomayor was a co-founder of the Maynard Institute and a frequent instructor at its Summer Program for Minority Journalists. At the Times, he was among the editors who established METPRO (the Minority Editorial Training Program). After 30 years as a Times editor, he is now assistant METPRO director and a hiring editor.

Sotomayor was co-editor and a writer of the series “Latinos in Southern California,” which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He has coordinated other major projects and was founding editor of the bilingual Nuestro Tiempo section.

Sotomayor helped secure foundation funding that enabled the fledgling CCNMA to hire its first executive director in 1978. He was a major player in establishing CCNMA’s Journalism Opportunities Conference. In 1985, he became the first NAHJ member to win a Nieman Fellowship to study at Harvard University.