🏜️ Building community across the Southwest
Inaugural Nick Oza Visual fellow Gabriela Campos traveled to Tucson in mid-May for her first meeting with mentor Roberto “Bear” Guerra.
The visit brought together the growing network of journalists, mentors, collaborators and community storytellers supporting Gabriela’s visual reporting project documenting women in New Mexico’s lowrider culture. Gabriela also spent time with Ruxandra Guidi, who will guide the project’s audience engagement strategy.
Gabriela’s trip became a reminder of what community-centered journalism looks like when local reporters and storytellers invest in one another. Gabriela connected with members of Las Fronterizas, a powerful network of Latina journalists across Arizona, including Altavoz Lab fellow Stephanie Casanova and freelance journalist Susan Alejandra Barnett, who is also collaborating with Altavoz Lab on an upcoming project.
The gathering also included time with colleagues from Arizona Luminaria, including Dianna Nañez and Beatriz Limón, as well as journalist Melissa del Bosque from The Border Chronicle.
Before returning home to Albuquerque, Gabriela stopped in Phoenix to visit the mural honoring Nick Oza, along with community spaces like Amor Collective and Fair Trade Cafe.
Moments like these reflect the larger vision behind the fellowship: building a network of visual journalists across the Southwest who are deeply connected to the communities they document, and to each other.
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