Posted on January 8, 2008 at 5:05 am

Immigration Stories in U.S. Media to Compete for $10,000 Award

Recently added, the new category extends the opportunity for any reporter or writer working in any newspaper in the U.S. to compete for a $10,000 prize

Judging the quality of the work, which includes categories in Print and Digital Journalism, has been charged to a panel of distinguished journalists from the Americas

The award ceremony will be hosted for the first time on September 30th, 2008 in Philadelphia. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2008

Philadelphia, PA–(HISPANIC PR WIRE – PR NEWSWIRE)–January 8, 2008–Due to the demand and increased interest in the newly unveiled Felix Varela Award for Excellence in Spanish-language Journalism, the category of “Hispanic Immigration Stories,” which will feature works published in any U.S. mainstream newspaper.

This category will be open to articles and stories written in English effectively covering or illuminating an aspect of the topic of immigration. This category will also be awarded a $10,000 cash prize like the other categories and be reviewed by the same distinguished panel of judges.

“The newsrooms in the United States are among the most respected and professional in the world, and the Felix Varela Awards strives to recognize the excellent work that they produce to keep their respective communities informed and engaged,” stated Hernán Guaracao, Chairman of the AL DIA Foundation.

“The addition of this category will open even wider the competition, but it will also show that the immigration issue has impacted the entire nation, both in English and in Spanish,” the AL DIA Foundation Chairman said. “Journalists from every newsroom across the nation who believes that they have written an insightful article on this topic, in either English or Spanish, is invited to submit their work for consideration.”

The award is named after Father Felix Varela y Morales, a Cuban Catholic priest who came to the United States in 1824, at 37 years of age, to escape political persecution in Spain. He found refuge in Philadelphia where he published in Old City “El Habanero”, one of the first Spanish-language newspapers in the nation, in which he passionately wrote for the independence of Cuba, well before the better-known Cuban writer and poet José Martí came to New York to pick up exactly the same flag and follow on the same intellectual pursuit.

To participate in the Felix Varela Award for Excellence in Spanish-language Journalism and have a chance to win $10,000, just follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to http://www.felixvarelaaward.com
Step 2: Click on Submission Form
Step 3: Click on the Download Form link
Step 4: Print out the form and fill out all information requested along with a copy of the submission to be reviewed.
Step 5: Mail all entries via U.S. Postal Service with postmarks by June 30th, 2008 to:

Felix Varela Award
1500 John F Kennedy Blvd., Suite 525
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Attn: AL DIA Foundation

For more information about the award, or AL DIA Foundation, please call 215-569-4666 Ext 116, or go to the awards website: http://www.felixvarelaaward.com.

About the AL DIA Foundation:

The AL DIA Foundation is a nonprofit organization, of the Philadelphia newspaper of the same name, incorporated in the State of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Guaracao is the former president of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP, Inc.), and a Fulbright Scholar with 25-year career in Journalism in the Americas. He has an undergraduate degree in Communications and Journalism from a prestigious University in Latin America, in addition to a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Iowa, in Iowa City.

He is currently the Publisher of AL DIA Newspapers Inc., one the leading Hispanic Publishing Houses in the nation, headquartered in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Current members of the Foundation Board, in addition to Mr. Guaracao, are Dr. Concetta Stewart, Ph.D, Dean of Communications of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, and Mr. Rudy Beserra, Senior Vice-president of Coca-Cola, USA, in Atlanta, GA.

The “Felix Varela” National Awards for Excellence in Spanish-Language Journalism in the United States (Full Details) THE LARGEST CASH AWARD IN THE U.S. HISPANIC PRESS

• The National Felix Varela Annual Awards for Excellence in Spanish-language Journalism in the United States will carry one of the largest cash prizes for journalism in the nation.
• In its first year, the contest will choose winners in only three
• categories: Hispanic Print Journalism, Hispanic Digital Journalism, Hispanic Immigration Stories
• Each category winner will receive a $10,000 prize each.
• Although there exist other awards with cash prizes such as those awarded by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), this prize is by far the largest of them all monetarily as well as in its scope.

THE JURY IN CHARGE OF SELECTION:

The jury will be made up of 3 prestigious practitioners of Journalism in the Americas:

• Albor Ruiz, Columnist of the New York Daily News, and member of the
• Hall of Fame of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ).
• Zita Arocha, Former Executive Director of NAHJ, and currently
• Associate Director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communications Studies at the University of Texas, at El Paso.
• Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Relations Secretary of the Mexican Government, and current syndicated columnist of El Pais in Spain, has been invited to be the third judge in this prestigious panel.

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:

In the first edition of the awards, the jury will accept entries of work published from January 1st, 2006, all the way to June 30th, 2008.

A formal ceremony, with guests from all across the Americas and Spain, to acknowledge the winners, will be hosted in a prestigious venue in the Washington-Philadelphia-New York corridor during Hispanic Heritage Month of 2008, which runs from September 15th to October the 15th.

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