**Reclaiming the Border Narrative**

Grantee Profiles

About this project

Reclaiming the Border Narrative is an effort to penetrate and shape the national attention on migration and the United States-Mexico border by supporting authentic storytelling by affected communities on the cultures and socio-political dynamics that comprise the region.

Ford Foundation partnered with the Center for Cultural Power, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures on this initiative.

Through NAHJ, I wrote profiles of grantees who completed projects and incorporated their experiences and personal narratives to show how their work transforms and reclaims border narratives.

Explore below to learn more, listen to the interviews, and read through early drafts of these pieces and the final profiles published by NAHJ palabra.

Cora Cervantes-Orta was born in México and raised in Los Angeles. Growing up within a diverse community taught her to understand issues from different perspectives. She completed her undergraduate studies at Columbia University and her Master's degree in Multimedia Journalism at New York University. Her work has been published by NBC News Digital, Al-Jazeera, NPR's Latino USA, Salon, NAHJ: palabra and Narratively. She has produced stories for MSNBC and NBC News NOW. During her time at NBC Universal she has worked as Diversity Coordinator for NBC News and MSNBC, and as an Associate Producer for MSNBC’s Politics Nation with Al Sharpton. Currently, she is an Associate Coverage Producer for NBC News. Cora is passionate about equity in representation in media. She currently serves on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Los Angeles Chapter. She resides in East Los Angeles, California.

MORE ABOUT ME

More about my experience writing these pieces

As a journalist who has covered immigration extensively, I think it is important to expand the scope of how we cover immigration to give people a more accurate, fair, and nuanced portrayal of the relations, challenges, and opportunities at the U.S.-Mexico border and beyond. The grantees presented a lens that explores this large system through a human lens that incorporates photography, food, narrative, and video -- I think that is incredibly powerful and important to showcase.

  NAHJ palabra is an important and needed space to highlight pressing issues through a nuanced lens that uplifts the work of Latinos in journalism and beyond.

I appreciated speaking and interviewing all grantees because I could see their process and moment of reflection not just as grantees but as people who were also transformed by their projects.