MIAMI.- Nicaraguan Alex Mena, who came to the United States at the age of 11, became the first immigrant executive director of two of the main Florida newspapers, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, this Monday. This second in Spanish, reported both newspapers.
“Today is the day that the American Dream of an immigrant comes true. And it is my dream. I am now the executive editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald and the Florida regional editor for McClatchy (the publishing company),” Mena, 50, wrote on social media.
Mena went from answering phone calls at the Herald headquarters as a teenager to directing the newspaper’s complex newsroom as managing editor and, from there, to the position of executive director of the Herald and el Nuevo Herald, an appointment that was made public this Monday.
In this way, Mena “becomes the first immigrant executive editor of the Miami Herald,” the newspaper stressed.
This is a story of overcoming and effort. The vicissitudes of a Nicaraguan elementary school student in his country who crossed the Rio Grande on his father’s shoulders in the late 1970s, fleeing Sandinismo, according to Mena in a column published in the Herald last May.
“Alex is the right leader to maintain the highest level of journalistic excellence that the Herald has long been known for,” said Monica Richardson, McClatchy’s vice president of local news.
Richardson praised Mena’s professional career, noting that the journalist “brings a passion and a strong commitment to serve not only the diverse local communities of Miami, but also readers throughout South Florida.”
Mena, who lives in the city of Hialeah, near Miami, has also become the first graduate of Miami Dade College and Florida International University (FIU) to take the reins of the Herald.
“It was a long road. It’s exciting and sometimes I run out of words to say how I feel,” said the Nicaraguan.
His priorities, he said, will be “growing the Herald’s tradition of exceptional accountability journalism and strengthening news teams’ connections to our community.”
“We have one of the best newsrooms in the country. The Herald has done a great job in the past and we have much more to accomplish,” added Mena.
Mena had also held editing positions in the sports and “metro” departments (the city’s news and events section) of Nuevo Herald, as well as in the design and production areas since she began working as a journalist in this medium. At age 19.
The new CEO is also president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and vice president of the Florida Society of News Editors.
