Montesinos joins News + Record’s ‘La Voz’ project team

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Patsy Montesinos, a senior journalism student at UNC-Chapel Hill, will help produce multimedia stories for the News + Record’s La Voz de Chatham project, Publisher Bill Horner III has announced.

She joins lead reporter Victoria Johnson for La Voz, funded by the Facebook Journalism Project’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. The News + Record was awarded a $30,300 grant from Facebook for the project, designed to cover the impact of COVID on Chatham’s Latinx community.

“La Voz de Chatham was the perfect project for me,” Montesinos said. “I’ve always wanted to be part of a project that was about making an impact on the community, especially mine. I wanted to study journalism to find stories that matter, and that wouldn’t be told otherwise. In a time like this, with a pandemic, people have been more aware of the news, but that doesn’t mean communities of color are being prioritized. People need to know that Latinx folks are being affected at a higher rate, especially in North Carolina, and it’s essential to understand why. That’s what La Voz de Chatham is here to do; we aim to tell these kinds of stories.”

Montesinos has served as a producer for her school’s Spanish- and English-language newscast, produced a radio show and reported for her school’s sportscast. Her coverage of Venezuelans, which she reported from Colombia, won a national award from the Society of Professional Journalists. In addition, her coverage of a series of campus crimes won a regional award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Born in North Carolina to two Mexican immigrant parents, Montesinos moved to Mexico at age 10, and returned to North Carolina at age 15 and decided to pursue journalism.

“Patsy is a versatile and gifted storyteller, and we’re fortunate to have her as a part of this project,” Horner said. “She’ll work part-time for us throughout the fall as we continue to tell important stories from our Latinx community.”

Montesinos and Johnson — a 2020 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media and a native of Greensboro — have published a number of stories on La Voz de Chatham’s Facebook page and on the News + Record’s website. Some of the stories they have covered include a story about COVID-19 testing in Chatham County with an accompanying multimedia video, a narrative piece written by Lendy Cerna Carias, who immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala, and more. Johnson and Montesinos have also translated a number of evergreen pieces that were previously published by the News + Record.

If you are interested in submitting a story to La Voz de Chatham or would like to discuss what type of stories you’d like to see La Voz de Chatham cover, you can contact Victoria Johnson at victoria@chathamnr.com. You can also stay up to date with the project by following our Facebook Page, La Voz de Chatham.