VOA Spanish wins two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists

August 2, 2023

Washington, D.C. — VOA journalists Celia Mendoza and Veronica Villafañe each won awards for “Spanish-language Television News Reporting” and “Spanish-language Television Feature Reporting,” respectively, at the Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in television reporting.

Mendoza earned the award for her special report, “De frontera a frontera” (“From border to border”), which documented the migration of Ukrainian refugees to Tijuana, Mexico, as they fled from Russian forces. Villafañe won for her story about Mayan rapper Pat Boy as he seeks to preserve Mayan culture for future generations.

Award categories in print, radio, television, and online media recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2022.

“We are very proud of our VOA Spanish colleagues for this recognition of their work,” said VOA Acting Director Yolanda López. “Telling and sharing under-told stories with our audiences that would never hear them from other media sources is at the heart of what VOA offers to its television viewers. These awards spotlight our unique program offerings in a critical part of the world.”

Established by the Society of Professional Journalists in 1932, the Sigma Delta Chi Award originally named six honorees for their contributions to journalism. The current program began in 1939 when the Society granted the first Distinguished Service Awards.

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Voice of America reaches a global weekly audience of more than 326 million people in 48 languages. VOA programs are delivered on satellite, cable, shortwave, FM, medium wave, streaming audio and video and more than 2,350 media outlets worldwide. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.