Prof. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez receives the Leadership Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ)

   WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez,

a journalism professor who helped spearhead a grassroots campaign for

meaningful inclusion of Latinos in the upcoming Ken Burns documentary

titled THE WAR, and Maria Burns Ortiz, a college soccer columnist with

ESPN.com and one of the newer Latino voices in the country's newsrooms, are

among those to receive the prestigious n Awards next month from the

National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

    Rivas-Rodriguez, from the University of Texas at Austin, and Burns

Ortiz will receive the Leadership Award and the Emerging Journalist of the

Year Award, respectively.

    Others honored with n Awards include Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning

News for her thoughtful and sincere coverage of immigration, Gary Coronado

of The Palm Beach Post for his stunning photographs chronicling the

physical risks Central Americans take jumping trains to go north and enter

the U.S., and Rebecca Aguilar of KDFW-TV Fox 4 in Dallas for her reporting

work that gives a voice to those who typically don't have one in the media.

They will receive the Frank del Olmo Print Journalist of the Year Award,

the Photojournalist of the Year Award and the Broadcast Journalist of the

Year Award, respectively.

    All the n Award recipients and winners in 14 other categories will be

honored at the 22nd Annual Noche de Triunfos Journalism Awards Gala on Oct.

4 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., NAHJ's signature event during

Hispanic Heritage month. Gloria Campos Brown, news anchor at WFAA-TV

Dallas, the evening's honorary gala chair, and master of ceremonies Antonio

Mora, anchor at CBS 2 News Chicago, will host the event attended by

journalists, Latino leaders and the community at large.

    The work honored with the Journalism Awards that evening -- produced

all across the country from Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina in the east

to Salinas and San Diego/Baja California in the west -- range from an

editor's impassioned defense of undocumented immigrants in the deep South

in his commentary to a documentary investigating California's rural gangs

and their devastating effect on Latino families.

    The award-winning work also chronicled the emotional journey of a woman

diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer during her fifth month of

pregnancy, investigated the little-known, yet incredible story on the U.S.

military's contingency plans to invade Mexico, and descriptively narrates

in literary style a woman's story of sexual violence on both sides of the

border and the forced silence of undocumented abuse victims who have little

hope of finding justice.

    "Immigration was a big issue in 2006 and in our journalism awards, it

shows," said Ivan Roman, NAHJ's executive director. "Much of the winning

coverage went way beyond the huge immigration marches to deeply explore

other aspects of the debate and tell simply heart-wrenching stories

conveying much of the emotion with such wonderful writing that as

journalists, they make us proud. It's bound to be an inspiring evening."

    The five n Awards honor journalists for their professional achievements

and their leadership in bringing greater awareness to issues affecting the

Latino community, while NAHJ's Journalism Awards are given out to honor

Latino journalists for excellence in their specialized fields of work or to

any journalist, regardless of ethnicity, for their outstanding coverage of

the Latino community.

    The gala's presenters include Janet Murguia, president of the National

Council of La Raza, Gilbert Bailon, publisher and editor of Al Dia (Dallas)

and current president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Maureen

Bunyan, anchor of WJLA-TV in Washington, Miguel Almaguer, a reporter with

WRC- TV in Washington, and Renay San Miguel, senior vice-president/senior

media strategist with Weber Shandwick/WCTV public relations firm and former

anchor of CNN Headline News.

    For information on purchasing tables, tickets or other sponsorship

opportunities, please contact Azuree Salazar, NAHJ Development Director, at

(202) 662-7482 or asalazar@nahj.org. The deadline to confirm a sponsorship

option is Monday, September 24, 2007. Sponsors to date include: Freddie

Mac, Continental Airlines, Chrysler, Hearst Newspapers, State Farm

Insurance, Disney, Harrah's Entertainment, Prudential Financial, Toyota

Motor Sales USA Inc., Univision Communications and Western Union.

    For more information about all the winners and winning entries, please

go to

http://www.nahj.org/sponsorship/specialevents/2007/noche/07awardwinners.shtml

    For general information about the Gala event, presenters and

sponsorships, please go to

http://www.nahj.org/sponsorship/specialevents/2007/Noche/07nochedetriunfos.shtml

    NOTE TO EDITORS: When the 2006 n and Journalism Awards are referenced,

please note the n should have the tilde symbol over it.