With a message of unity through diversity, journalist María Hinojosa spoke at the Odessa College Honors Luncheon at the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center Tuesday.
OC Honors celebrates outstanding individuals and organizations who have contributed to improving education in the Permian Basin. Mary Kate Hamilton, who co-anchors the news with Jay Hendricks on First Alert 7, was the emcee.
The occasion included awards presented to Jay Hendricks for Outstanding Individual; John Wilkins, Outstanding Educator; JSA Architects, Outstanding Business; Crisis Center of West Texas, Outstanding Nonprofit; and Laurie Johnson, Community Impact Award.
In 2010, Hinojosa founded Futuro Media, an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in Harlem, NYC, with the mission to create multimedia content from a POC (People of Color) perspective. She has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad as the anchor and executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, co-host of Futuro Media’s award-winning political podcast In the Thick, and, most recently, her Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast Suave. Hinojosa has won four Emmys, The John Chancellor Award, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Overseas Press Club Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award.
Born in Mexico City, Hinojosa grew up on the south side of Chicago and has been in New York City for many years.
She is the author of four books: “Crews,” “Raising Raul,” “Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America,” and “The Young Reader’s version of her memoir Once I Was You.” Hinojosa is the Distinguished Journalist-in-Residence at her alma mater, Barnard College. These days her focus is deep accountability investigative journalism.
“You can’t separate the moment where we are. We’re just days away from an election, from speaking at a community college where a majority of the poulation is Latino and Latina. … It’s a moment when this population, which is celebrated and given an opportunity at a place like Odessa College, cannot, at the same time, be being torn down by hatred and charges that we are criminals as immigrants. I came to just say the hope of your college are these students. Many of them have immigrant roots … so the best thing to do is to tell the truth about who we are. We are not criminals. We’re community college students right here at Odessa College,” Hinojosa said in an interview after her remarks.
Hinojosa told attendees that the reality of the U.S. is that immigrants have always been coming and “we’re not going anywhere.”
“All of the data says that we bring more to this country, certainly, than we take. Even the Texas GAO (Comptroller) has said economically, the state of Texas benefits overwhelmingly by the presence of immigrants, whether documented or undocumented. So the message is, we are everywhere. We are you,” Hinojosa said.
“Specifically at a community college, why do you want to create a sense that these students who are descendants of immigrants, or immigrants themselves, or a fifth-generation immigrant feel negatively about themselves because of what politicians say? No, I think that’s why the message has to be, Odessa College has to be the leader of how we resolve this conversation and create the unity,” she added.
Hinojosa said she thinks OC is a welcoming place and she has a newfound admiration for the city.
“No one is going to be able to speak badly about Odessa, Texas, in front of me, not that they have, but what I have seen, and the commitment to bringing this community into Odessa College is real. I know that this place is a welcoming space, and so that’s why I’m like, it can be the model for the rest of West Texas,” she said.
Videos of the honorees and their accomplishments were shown before they received their awards. The one for Hendricks, who has been in television in Odessa and Midland for 46 years, didn’t work.
Wilkins has a bachelor of commerce degree from Rice University and a master’s in education from West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M). He began his teaching career in Cameron. He spent the next five years teaching and coaching in Littlefield and Amarillo. He came to Permian High School in the spring of 1971 and was named the Permian Panthers head football coach in early 1973. He stayed at Permian through the fall of 1985 compiling a record 148-16-6. He won two state championships.
Wilkins also served as athletic director and head football coach at Trinity School in Midland for four years. He also served numerous years on the Odessa College Education Foundation, acting as president his final year on the board. Wilkins and his wife Yollie have a combined 73 years in public education through their teaching, coaching and administrative careers, they both continue to be active supporters of the ECISD Education Foundation’s Bookworm project.
Wilkins said he has received some very big honors, but the OC recognition ranks right up there.
“It seems like every turn that I’ve taken to life has involved education. I’m proud to be a part of this … OC has done such a great job,” he said.
Cruz Castillo, president of JSA Architects, said he was very humbled by the award.
“We try to do our best work in everything that we do, from designing buildings to managing construction projects, to participating in a variety of partnerships within our community. We want everyone to win. If we’re doing well, we can help someone else do well. That means more people are going to benefit from it. We recognize that it’s an honor. But even without the recognition, we come to work with energy every day trying to make a difference and impact everybody in our community. Today’s just a highlight that we’re recognized for it,” Castillo said in the video.
Laurie Johnson and her husband Gary, a longtime OC board of trustees member, could not attend the event. Odessa Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Renee Earls accepted her award.
In her video, Laurie Johnson said the award is about the community.
“I just happened to be a name that was being recognized. But I can’t thank everyone enough,” Johnson said.
She thanked everyone for attending and hoped “that everyone leaves with a sense of what the community is really all about.”
