Luisa Suarez and Thomas Hernandez want to see more Latinx presence in media. Personally contributing to that goal, the sophomore Klein College of Media and Communication students serve as the co-presidents of the Latinx Media Association. The organization aims to elevate the voices of Latinx media students while giving them the professional skills to thrive in an increasingly competitive media landscape.
The association was started by adjunct instructor Rafael Logroño, who spearheads many other Latinx initiatives at Temple University. When he passed leadership on to Suarez and Hernandez, they got to work on actualizing their vision for more inclusivity.
Suarez, a journalism and political science double major, believes that because of language barriers and bias, Latinx people are left out of the political news loop. Hailing from Colombia, moving to Reading, Pennsylvania at a young age opened her eyes to the limited access immigrant and culturally diverse audiences have to United States media. “There is no catering towards informing Latinx communities and also other minority communities,” she says. “It’s harder for news outlets to reach us or they deem it harder to reach us.”
Hernandez, a communications studies and global studies double major who wants to work in government, cites the recent Puerto Rican protests as an example. As a self-proclaimed “Philly-Irish-Puerto Rican,” he has inside knowledge of what was happening on the island; many others do not. Though the citizen-backed ousting of the island’s governor was heavily covered, he says that many of the other reasons Puerto Ricans were upset were not highlighted. “These are American citizens who are a part of the Latinx community,” he says. “They’re not getting their story told properly. Actually, they’re not getting their story told at all.”
The co-presidents hope that the Latinx Media Association will not only provide a space to voice similar frustrations, but also to include students from all Klein College majors so that they can learn about different fields of media from one another. “We want to make sure that every major under Klein knows that this is an association that is Klein-based,” says Suarez. “Which means that it’s open to everybody and it’s also open to allies.”
Suarez and Hernandez’s passion for change inspires the direction of the association’s events. They plan on holding professional skills workshops, hosting movie nights and eventually establishing a scholarship for incoming Latinx Klein College students. Meetings started September 9 and take place every other Monday. Their programming will be released as the school year progresses.
Follow the Latinx Media Association on social media:
Instagram: @kleincollegelatinx
Twitter: @collegelatinx