El Tecolote won four awards in the annual California Journalism Awards, including the top award in illustration. Organized by the California News Publisher Association, the awards were announced July 14 and are among the most important journalism awards in the state.
As a bilingual, community newsroom, we understand the unique value visual formats have in reaching and informing hard-to-reach Latinx communities, and are thrilled to be recognized as a home for powerful visual storytelling for the first time at the state level.
To support our award-winning work, donate today to our non-profit publisher Acciòn Latina.
1st place, Illustration
Contributor Brüno Ferreira won the top prize for an illustration remembering the 1973 coup that toppled Chile’s Salvador Allende and murdered activist folk singer Victor Jara. “Vibrant shades of red capture the eye,” wrote a judge for the contest. “A shaft of white illuminates the subject of the mourner’s vow to ‘never forgive nor forget’ what happened.”
2nd place, Editorial cartoon
The Chronicle’s xenophobic and racist coverage blamed the city’s spiraling drug crisis on immigrant Honduran communities. In response, artist Yano Rivera satirized readers who were emboldened by the harmful coverage to push anti-immigrant rhetoric at City Hall.
3rd place, Photojournalism
El Tecolote’s brilliant photojournalists were honored for their “incredible eye for catching that special moment that brings an entire story into focus.” The award includes photo contributions from Pablo Unzueta, Christian Balanzar, Manuel Orbegozo, Aaron Levy-Wolins and Carla Hernández Ramírez.
5th place, Informational Graphic
As Acción Latina’s R.A.I.C.E.S fellow, artist Yano Rivera developed “The 90s Matter in the Mission,” a comic series that sources information from El Tecolote’s newspaper archive to examine key issues in the Mission. In the winning comic, Rivera shows the community backlash against Prop. 187 in 1994, an initiative that denied social services to undocumented immigrants.