🎉 Reflecting on a Year of Community-Centered Stories

This has been a hard year for marginalized and underrepresented communities and by extension, for the journalists and storytellers serving them. We have been under attack, wrapped in the smoke of fear. It has also been a time when journalists themselves have been persecuted for their profession. So to talk about gratitude might feel unfitting, yet I think more than ever this is a time to be grateful for what we are growing and seeding together, to be simply grateful for the power of togetherness. 

As we close out this year, we’re grateful for the creativity and passion of our Altavoz Lab fellows and mentors who remain focused on meeting the moment with care, compassion and journalism on their side. We’re grateful to every single person committing acts of journalism, regardless of their experience level. Journalism is a public good and there’s a lot of humanity in those doing it.

We’re grateful to have the honor of mentoring, supporting, and strengthening trusted local journalists. Thanks to funders that believe in our mission, this year marked significant milestones: we expanded our team to deepen our reach, launched the inaugural Community-Based Journalist Altavoz Lab Fellowship for 2025, and established the Nick Oza Visual Fellowship for mid-career photojournalists in the Southwest. These fellowships exemplify how our core mission — investing in local journalists who don’t just report on their communities, but are of them — generates work that empowers audiences, strengthens civic life, and drives meaningful change. Each fellowship represents our belief that when we support journalists who understand the nuances, languages, and lived experiences of the communities they serve, we help create the conditions for more informed, engaged, and equitable civic participation. We’re honored to walk alongside these storytellers as they illuminate the issues that matter most to the people who call these communities home.

Altavoz celebrates its big and small wins with gratitude for our community. We celebrate solidarity, empathy and the power of fellowship. 

—Valeria Fernández, Altavoz Lab Founder and Executive Director 

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