Sam Quinones honored for reports on Latin America

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Managing Editor Davan Maharaj’s announcement to staff:

Congrats to Metro writer Sam Quinones for winning the the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for outstanding reporting on Latin America and the Caribbean. The Cabot gold medal is the oldest international award in journalism and honors journalists who have furthered inter-American understanding.

Sam was recognized for his vast body of work on Latin America. That includes his two books and his pieces for radio, television and newspapers. Many of those stories appeared in the LA Times, including:

• The story of Gerardo Rodriguez, the palm tree trimmer who suffocated in a tree just out of reach of his co-workers. The story dealt with one of the most hazardous jobs in California, made so by homeowners’ desire for lower priced tree care. It also dealt with Rodriguez’s village from a part of Durango, Mexico where all the men are landscapers or tree trimmers in Los Angeles.
• A piece on Jose Luis Bonilla, a Mexican immigrant, who years ago bought a broken-down ranch in the Cuyama Valley. Over the years, he and a crew of immigrant workers used oil pipe and rock to construct a magnificent Mexican village, complete with bandstand, rodeo arena, pond, and much more -- rivaling the Watts Towers for sheer improvisational strangeness. But when county inspectors discovered what he’d built, they asked for permits. In a huff, Bonilla returned to Mexico and vows never to come back to finish his masterpiece.
• For 20 years, Alfredo Rios Galena -- aka Arturo Montoyo -- hid out in Huntington Park. By then, he had become a fervent Christian and preached often on street corners. At times he sang mariachi Christian songs. Yet for a decade before that, he had been Mexico’s Public Enemy #1, having robbed numerous banks, broken out of prison three times, and stolen millions of pesos. While robbing banks, he led a double life as a mariachi singer, appearing with masks and known as the Mariachi Misterioso.

Judges with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which awards the prize, praised Sam for writing with ‘an exceptional eye for cultural and personal details that delves into the humanity and sociology of his subjects, the places they live and their experiences.’

‘Quinones’ original, empathetic and patiently crafted, on-the-ground reporting has undoubtedly contributed to better understanding of life in Mexico and the special challenges of crime, drugs, poverty and racial integration faced by underprivileged Latino communities in the United States,’ the judges said.

Sam and other winners will receive their prizes and a $5,000 honorarium on October 16 at a ceremony in New York.

Congrats, Sam!