Ricardo Quintana and Jesus Acosta, 2024 winner
In November 2023 the city of Tapachula, Mexico was in crisis. Tens of thousands of migrants, including hundreds of Cubans, making their way north to the United States, were stuck. The city just north of the border with Guatemala has become known as “America’s waiting room” and many would-be immigrants are forced to wait out their pending status in the Mexican town. Here, instead of passage north, many migrants face strict limitations on their movements, poor living conditions, and few job prospects…all while they wait for what could be years for immigration hearings.
To give their audiences a complete view of the situation, Ricardo Quintana and Jesus Acosta traveled to Tapachula to report on the crisis first-hand. Together, they produced a gripping five-part series for Martí‘s digital platforms. They also filed multiple daily “Facebook Live” reports, wrote stories for the Martí Noticias web page, and made daily appearances on Radio Martí newscasts and talk shows. Their reporting provided Cuban audiences on the island with critical information about the immigration crisis and the realities of the trek to the U.S. Together the team dispelled rumors and reported the facts, speaking to Cubans trying to immigrate north about their journey, the challenges, and outlook.
The team of Quintana and Acosta have had impact reporting on this topic before. In 2022, the pair won a Suncoast Regional Emmy for their documentary series reporting from the border town of Matamoros.