Marcela Davison Avilés
Verified
As seen in:
The Washington Post,
NPR,
Infobae,
Flipboard,
The Mercury News,
WUSF Public Media,
KAMU-FM (College Station, TX),
San Francisco Chronicle,
WBUR-FM (Boston, MA),
KRCC-FM (Colorado Springs, CO)
and
Covers:
Latin(a)(o)(x)/Hispanic culture, heritage and policy, performing arts and literature, American and Latin American cinema, finance.
Doesn't Cover:
Sports
Writer/producer/journalist (NPR, Journal of Alta Ca., Mercury News, SF Chron, CNN, BELatina) LA Press Club Honors, Hollywood culture whisperer
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
Reporter for my high school newspaper.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes. Still do.
How is social media changing news?
Social media has changed how the news is reported and given agency to historically marginalized communities to report their own stories.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Hildegard "Hildy" Johnson
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To be a journalist is to seek the truth, to report the news and provide current event analysis accurately, with cultural competence.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Via e-mail
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Apple laptop; paper and pen; free transcribing app; adobe suite; google mail
Who do you wish followed you?
Hildy Johnson.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I was a reporter.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My essays for The Mercury News and a review for NPR on a new book on Latin America by Marie Arana.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Read the news, don't scroll it and don't bury the lede. Verify, verify, verify your research. Report the news, don't create it.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
How the National Archives decided to out Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickock.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Never got a truly bad pitch.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
In production or development meeting on current film projects, researching my next story, hiking with my wife
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The LA Times
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That the Latin(a)(o)(x)/Hispanic community is homogeneous, only speaks Spanish and on a net basis is a taker and not a contributor to the US.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.