The best, o el mejor, Vida en el Valle judged country’s top bilingual newspaper

Vida en el Valle was named the country’s best weekly publication by the National Association of Hispanic Publications at its virtual conference last week.

This is the 13th time the newspaper has been honored with the José Martí Award as the best in its division since 1997.

Vida en el Valle has also won the top award in its category in 1992 (less than weekly publication) and 2007 (overall Latino weekly). The bilingual weekly category was shelved in 2006 before it was resurrected in 2010.

The newspaper, which is published by The Fresno Bee, also picked up two first-place José Martí awards during the association’s conference held Oct. 6-7. It added two silver awards and three bronze awards.

“We are thrilled to be honored for our work covering issues of importance to the Latino community,” said editor Juan Esparza Loera. “Our work on delivering the best news continues.”

The top awards in other categories went to La Opinión from Los Ángeles (daily); La Raza Newspaper of Chicago (weekly); La Mega Nota of Columbus, Ohio (less than weekly; and, Movida of San Francisco (magazine).

Reflejos of Chicago was the second-place winner for bilingual weekly.

The José Martí Awards were established in 1990, and are considered the most prestigious national awards for Latino print media. Vida en el Valle was first published in 1990, but did not participate in the NAHP awards until 1992.

Vida en el Valle won first places for editorial column/English (‘Trump shows little love for immigrants’ by Esparza Loera), and for national political story (‘To apply or not to apply remains a DACA dilemma’ by María G. Ortiz-Briones).

The silver awards were for local political story (‘Another Calderón, the fifth, joins state Assembly’ by Esparza Loera), and for news photo of the 2020 Fresno County Academic Decathlon by Esparza Loera.

Bronze awards were for health story (‘Comunidad indígena y los retos de la pandemia’ by Ortiz-Briones); entertainment story (‘Fuller House’ a huge adventure for Argentinian actor Juan Pablo Di Pace’ by Ortiz-Briones), and, for website.

Vida en el Valle has two zoned editions: One covering the Fresno, Merced, Modesto regions, and the other focusing on the Stockton region.

The NAHP, which was founded in 1982, has 232 members.

Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 11 de octubre de 2021, 2:52 p. m..