Part Two

Then I discovered the other half of my heritage. At 15, I found my long-lost Grandma Juanita, papi’s mom. She represented all I thought I wanted to be and I inherited her name. Initially, I was magnetically drawn to her — Grandma Juanita was and is–modern.

She goes to the salon every two weeks and along with facials gets her toes and nails well groomed usually with earth tone colors. (more…)

The goal of this new website is to give voice to stories by or about Hispanic women. They can be written in the form of a column, commentary, blog or feature story. We are interested in stories or columns on a variety of topics from culture to family, immigration to politics or health care and education.
We have funding to pay a modest stipend to writers who are students. This website was created with a New Media Women Entrepreneurs grant awarded by  J-Lab, the Institute for Interactive Media, based at American University, with funding from the McCormick Foundation.
The editor and publisher is Teresa Puente, formerly with the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, and currently on the journalism faculty at Columbia College Chicago. This also is a mentoring project with experienced journalists and writers mentoring the new Latina voices. Our mentors include:
Jessica Alpert, WBUR-FM, Boston
Ofelia Casillas, Chicago Tribune
Laura Castaneda, University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Journalism
Dawn Garcia, Stanford University, John S. Knight Fellowships
Michelle Garcia, Pistolera Productions
Martha Irvine, Associated Press, Chicago
Claudia Melendez, University of Southern California, Institute for Justice in Journalism
Teresa Puente, Columbia College Chicago
Margaret Ramirez, Chicago Tribune
To submit a story, or become a mentor or mentee, please email tpuente@colum.edu