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MIGUEL PEREZ

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-- Professor and former Chair, Department of Journalism, Communication and Theatre, Lehman College of the City University of New York.

 -- Columnist, Creators Syndicate.
​

 -- Radio and TV Political Analyst.


Journalist Miguel Pérez, an award-winning reporter, columnist and popular radio and television talk-show host, has spent his 40-year career covering the issues and concerns of America's burgeoning Latino population, and chronicling the evolution of our Hispanic heritage.

On September 19, 2015, Perez was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The Hall of Fame honors journalists “whose efforts resulted in a greater number of Latinos entering the journalism profession or have helped to improve news coverage of the nation’s Latino community.”

As a columnist for the Creators Syndicate since January of 2004, he has brought a Latino perspective – with insight, sensitivity, and passion – to a national audience.

As a political analyst, Pérez has spent years examining the key issues affecting the Hispanic community on CNN, Telemundo, Univision, FOX, PBS, WABC-NY, The New Jersey Network, Bronxnet TV and a few other TV and radio stations.

As professor and chair of the Department of Journalism, Communication and Theatre, at Lehman College, CUNY, in the Bronx, Pérez has found the vehicle for passing his passion, knowledge and experience to a very diverse generation of future American journalists.

For the past two decades, Pérez has been passionately driven by his history project. What started as a series of columns on the history of Latinos in the United States, has reached more than 100 parts and it's still growing!

The series led to the creation of HiddenHispanicHeritage.com, a website that includes the columns, photographs, and videos of a 47-day, 9,000-mile journey across the U.S. in 2014, chronicling the fascinating but underreported Hispanic history found in cities from St Petersburg to Tucson. In the summer of 2018, he went on a California Road Trip to continue building his "Great Hispanic American History Tour."

He’s planning to publish this continuing work as a book and he frequently updates the site with new and compelling stories.

HiddenHispanicHeritage.com now includes a an constantly growing Hispanic American History Timeline, featuring dozens of essays written by students and edited by Pérez.

In his nationally syndicated columns (http://www.creators.com/features/miguel-perez), Pérez covered Latino contributions to American society, the fight to protect democratic rights in Latin America, immigration trends across the United States, and many other issues of concern to America’s Hispanic population.

Pérez writes about those who are misunderstood, ignored and often discriminated against, serving as a bridge to non-Latino Americans who receive his columns as educational and conciliatory.

"He teaches the Anglos important lessons about our community," stated Latin New York Magazine in a profile of Pérez, "and tries to instill a sense of pride in Latinos."

Born in Havana 68 years ago, Pérez came to the United States as a refugee at the age of 11 in 1962. He didn't speak a word of English. But he went on to become sports editor of his high school newspaper, editor of two college papers, a reporter for The Tampa Times and The Miami Herald, and a staff columnist for the New York Daily News and The Record of Hackensack, N.J.

He has been the host of three radio shows and four television programs in both English and Spanish.

Pérez has been covering the New York metropolitan area’s Latino community since 1978, when he received his Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Before that, he was a reporter for The Miami Herald, covering Miami’s Hispanic community. Upon graduation from Columbia, he went to work for The New York Daily News, becoming, at that time, one of the few English-language Latino columnists in the nation.


For his Daily News columns on the city's Latinos, in 1982 Pérez won the Mike Berger Award, considered the top print journalism prize in New York City.

​After 13 years at the Daily News, Pérez became a columnist and reporter at The Record, where he won two consecutive Deadline Club Awards – Minority Focus category – from the New York City Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2005 and 2006. 

On television, Pérez has hosted programs in two languages. From 1993 to 2001, he was the host of Images/Imagenes, a weekly English-language, Hispanic public affairs talk show on the (PBS) New Jersey Network. For his work on that program, he received two regional Emmy nominations, in 1995 and 1997. In 1989, he hosted Primera Plana (Front Page), a Spanish-language talk show on New York's WNJU-TV Channel 47, an affiliate of the Telemundo network. In 1983, he was co-host of Tiempo, a weekly English-language Hispanic program on WABC-TV Channel 7 in New York.

Many of the shows he hosted, as well as many of his TV appearances as a political analyst, are now part of a YouTube archive of almost 500 videos covering more than 30 years.  Now he has his own Youtube channel,
Miguel Pérez TV.

On Spanish-language radio, Pérez was the host of award-winning "Sin Censura" (Uncensored), a daily two-hour talk-radio program – one of New York’s most spirited and popular – on WADO Radio in 2001-2002, on WSKQ Radio in 1991-1992, and on WJIT Radio in 1989-1990. In 2002, Pérez won the two most coveted prizes for Spanish-language radio broadcasters in New York: The Achievement In Radio (A.I.R.) Award as the “Best Hispanic On-Air Personality” in the news/talk format, for his coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. “Sin Censura” also won the ACE Award as the “best radio talk show in the city” from the Association of Entertainment Critics. Pérez has also served as a guest commentator, in English, on National Public Radio’s “Latino USA” program.

On the Internet, Pérez was the editor of NYNJLatinos.com, an online daily newspaper for New York and New Jersey Latinos, owned by The Record, from 1999 to 2001. Currently, he hosts two websites, his own www.miguelperez.com – featuring links to his articles and columns
– and www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com, devoted to his history project.

Pérez is a street reporter who gets involved.
Clippings below covering everything from riots to World Cup celebrations.

In 1979, he was instrumental in helping police persuade three Spanish-speaking gunmen to release two-dozen people who were being held hostage in a Brooklyn supermarket.

​In 1980, at a time when dissatisfied Cuban exiles were hijacking airplanes back to Havana, by carrying bottles of inflamables, Pérez tested airport security by boarding airplanes with a bottle whisky in is back pocket. See story below.

In 1980, he spent three months disguised as an illegal immigrant and wrote a four-part Daily News series on "Sweatshops: The New Slavery," for which he won the Public Service Award of the Public Relations Society of America, New York Chapter.

For The Record, again pretending to be an illegal immigrant, Pérez crossed the Rio Grande and a New Mexico desert for a 1995 series of articles on "Border Wars." In 1994, he flew with the "Brothers to the Rescue" pilots in a small aircraft searching for Cuban rafters lost and adrift in the Florida Straits and traveled to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to expose the conditions at Cuban and Haitian refugee detention camps.

In 2000, he went back to the roots of his youth in Miami, to explain to his readers why Cuban-Americans felt so emotional about Elian Gonzalez. In 1999, he accompanied a group of doctors to earthquake-devastated Armenia, Colombia, for a series of columns that served to reconnect broken umbilical cords between Colombian-Americans and their motherland.

In 1997, he won a fellowship from the Newspaper Association of America to study Interactive Media at the prestigious Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fl.

Pérez has pursued a journalism career since high school. He served as sports editor of the Miami High Times. He was editor-in-chief of The Falcon Times of Miami-Dade Community College, which, for his tenure, received the Pacemaker Award, given to the top six college papers in the nation.

He was also the founder and first editor of The Good Times of Florida International University, from where he graduated in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Four years later, he received a Master’s from Columbia University.


Most recently, in 2016, Pérez received the Illustrious Award for Journalism from the Institute for Latino Studies.
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ON THE RADIO

ON TELEVISION

MY COLLEAGUES 

MY STUDENTS

ON ASSIGMENT

WITH CELEBRITIES

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AWARDS

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MY GREAT HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TOUR

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SOME CLIPPINGS:

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To enlarge these clippings, click on them! 
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So what do you think? / ™Entonces, qué piensas?
Please join our dialogue on Facebook / Por favor únete a nuestro diálogo en Facebook
Hidden Hispanic Heritage

​And to share, please click on these buttons:

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                   CHAPTERS/CAPITULOS

1. Our Pre-Mayflower Thanksgivings
Nuestros Días de Acción de Gracias Pre-Mayflower
               
2. A Tale of Two Cities
                 
3. Our Pre-Hispanic Heritage
              

4. The Black Legend Returns

4. La Leyenda Negra Regresa
                
5. Even on HBO, The Black Legend Lives
                   
6. Our Spanish Heritage
                     
7. Exalted or Offended?
                    
8. We are all 'Americanos'
                  
9. Latinos are Failing
                  
10. Hispanic, Columbus or Indigenous Day?
10. 
™Dia Hispano, De Colon o Indigena?
                   
11. Two Good Places to Rest
11. Dos buenos lugares para descansar
                  
12. Whitman's Prophetic Letter
12. La Carta Profética de Whitman
                  
13. America’s Cradle
13. La Cuna de America
                 
14. Our Quincentennial is Coming!

14. ´Nuestro Quinto Centenario Se Avecina!
                   
15. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 29
                
16. A Time To Welcome the Spirits
                  
17. A Hispanic Christmas
17. Una Navidad Hispana
                  
18. JOSE MARTI:
     His Legacy Lives Here
     Su Legado Vive Aquí 
                
19. Hyphenated and Proud!
                   
20. Politicizing Education

21. Speak Any Spanish Lately?
              
22. Happy Three Kings Day!
22. ​
´Feliz Día de Reyes!
               
23. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 29

24. A Long-Overdue Museum
                 
25. America's First Christmas was celebrated in Spanish
25. La Primera Navidad Americana fue celebrada en español

26. The Grand Canyon
and the Bucket List
 Of Hispanic Heritage
26. El Gran Canyon
y la Lista de Lugares de la Herencia Hispana

                  
27. Now That Fiesta Month Is Here,
Can We Talk About Heritage?

27. Ahora que el mes de fiesta hispana esta aquí,

​™Podemos hablar de nuestra herencia?
                  
28. Our Hispanic Heritage: On Exhibit and Yet Hidden
28. Nuestra Herencia Hispana: En Exhibición y Sin Embargo Oculta

29. Florida's Birthday Should Be a National Holiday

             
30. A Local Celebration that Should be National               

31. 
This chapter was merged with Chapter 30               
​

32. The Conveniently 'Forgotten War'
32. La Guerra Convenientemente Olvidada

33. Guantanamo Has a History  June 4, 2013

34. Exposing the Social Media Bigots  June 18, 2013
34. Exponiendo a los Intolerantes
     de los Medios Sociales June 18, 2013

35. Thinking of Cusi On the Fourth of July
35. Pensando en Cusi en el Cuatro de Julio

36. The Discovery of White Hispanics
36.  El Descubrimiento de los Hispanos Blancos

37. Let's Build a Timeline Of Hispanic-American History
37. Vamos a Construir una Cronología
     De la Historia Hispanoamericana

38. In the Name of Heritage
38. En el Nombre de la Herencia

39. Hispanics or Latinos?
39. ™Hispanos o Latinos?

40.  Hollywood's Hidden Hispanic Heritage
40. La Herencia Hispana Oculta en Hollywood

41. Obliviously Living in ‘The Land of Estevan Gomez’
41. Viviendo Inconscientemente
       En la ‘Tierra de Estevan Gómez’

42. Marking America's Birthplace
42. Marcando el Lugar de Nacimiento De Estados Unidos

43. Hispanics in Denial Should Be Infamous
43. Los Hispanos en Rechazo Deben Ser Infames

44. 
Gay Marriage's Hidden American History
      Started in Spanish
 CABEZA DE VACA'S JOURNEY
44. La Historia Oculta del Matrimonio Gay
      En América Comenzó en Español
        EL VIAJE DE CABEZA DE VACA​

45. Super Bowl Coke Commercial
       Draws Out Ugly Americans

45. Comercial de Coke en Super Bowl
     Hace Relucir a los Americanos Feos


46. 
The 'Discovery' of Self-Loathing Hispanics
46. El ‘Descubrimiento' de los
     Hispanos que se Auto Desprecian


THE GREAT HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TOUR 
June 2014 - January 2015


47. My Pilgrimage to San Xavier
47. Mi Peregrinaje a San Xavier

48. The Great Hispanic American History Tour
48. La Gran Gira por la Historia Hispanoamericana

49. On the Trail of Conquistadors
49. En el Camino de los Conquistadores

50. Beyond St. Augustine
50. Más Allá de San Agustín

51. A Hidden Hispanic Role Model
51. Un Modelo Hispano Oculto

52. The Hispanic Flank of the American Revolution
52. El Flanco Hispano de la Revolucion Americana
​

53. New Orleans Has a Spanish ‘Ne Sais Quoi’
53. Nueva Orleans Tiene Un ‘Ne Sais Quoi’ Español

54. Galveston: Still the Isle of Misfortune?

55. Extracting Compacted History
     Unveils Hidden Hispanic Heritage

56. 'Remember The Alamo' Was a Spanish Mission

57. San Antonio: The Showcase Of Our Hispanic Heritage

58. There Was Compassion On the Spanish Mission Trail

59. A Hidden Latina Role Model

60. Time Portals on the Road

61. The First Thanksgiving
     In the (Southwest) United States

62. The World's Biggest Statue
of a Nameless Horseback Rider


63. A River Runs Through Our Hispanic Heritage

64. A Beacon of Hope On a Border Mountaintop

65. A Mexican-American Town
65. Un Pueblo Mexico-Americano

66. The Crossroads of Conquistadors

67. Hiking In Search of Coronado's Trail

68. The Real American Pioneers

69. Keeping My Pledge to San Xavier

70. If They Knew Arizona's History,
     They Wouldn't Be So Xenophobic

71. 'Tucson' is a Spanish Adaptation

72. Under a Utah Lake, Hispanic Heritage Lives

73. A Hilltop View Of Hispanic Heritage

74. Searching for Coronado's Quivira

75. The Spanish Savior of St. Louis

76. 
Jefferson's Spanish Library

WASHINGTON, D.C.
February-June 2015

77. When Galvez Came to Congress
77. Cuando Gálvez Vino al Congreso


78. A Tour of Our Extraordinarily Hispanic U.S. Capitol

79. Searching for Not-S0-Hidden
Hispanic Heritage in Washington, DC


80. Smithsonian Omits Hispanics In U.S. History Exhibit
80. Smithsonian Omite a los Hispanos
     en Exhibición de Historia de EE.UU.
MIAMI - August 2015
​
81. Finding Dad in a Museum
81. Encontre a Mi Padre en un Museo


​CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP - 2018
82. International Friendship Park ​at U.S.-Mexico Border
​- A Jagged Corner of the World


83. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
​
84. Cabrillo National Monument

85. ​It took more than 2 centuries

86. Presidio Park: The Birthplace
of the Spanish Colonization of California


87. Junípero Serra Museum Transcends the Story of a Great Man

88. Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá:
California's First Spanish Mission


89. Old Mission (Padre) Dam: California's First Aqueduct

90. Even at the beach in San Diego, you can't avoid Spanish history

91. Chicano Park: Mexican-American ​painted under highway ramps

92. Balboa Park: Candy for your eyes amid a painful controversy!

93. San Diego: An American Town
Named After the Saint from Alcalá

93. San Diego: Un Pueblo Americano
Lleva el Nombre del Santo de Alcalá


94. San Luis Rey de Francia: The King of the California Missions
94. San Luis Rey de Francia: ​El Rey de las Misiones de California

95. San Antonio de Pala:
A Sub-Mission to Reach
 the Natives of the Interior
95. San Antonio de Pala:
Una Asistencia para Alcanzar los Nativos del Interior

96. San Juan Capistrano:
The Home of the Mission Swallows
 from Argentina
96. San Juan Capistrano:
El Hogar de las Golondrinas Desaparecidas ​de Argentina

97. San Gabriel Arcángel: A Mission that Launched Cities
97. San Gabriel Arcángel: Una Misión Que Lanzó Ciudades

98. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles:
Hispanics had to be imported

98. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Ángeles:
Hispanos tuvieron que sen importados


99. La Plaza de Cultura y Artes:
A Walk through Mexican-American History

99. La Plaza de Cultura y Artes:
Un Paseo por la historia 
​mexicoamericana


100. Strolling the Hispanic Walk of Fame
​100. Caminando por el Paseo Hispano de la Fama

101. San Fernando Rey de España Teaches
California's Colonial History

101. ​​San Fernando Rey de España Enseña
la historia colonial de California


​102. Mission San Buenaventura Survived Earthquakes and Pirates
102. Misión San Buenaventura Sobrevivió Terremotos y Piratas

​103. Father Serra Cross: On a hill,
​overlooking ​the land he shepherded

​103. La Cruz del Padre Serra: En una colina,
​con vistas a la tierra que pastoreaba


104. The Birthplace of Santa Barbara
104. El Lugar de Nacimiento de Santa Barbara

105. The Queen of the Spanish Missions
105. La Reina de las Misiones Españolas

106. Mission Santa Ines: Built to relieve other overcrowded missions
106. Misión Santa Inés: Construida para aliviar otras misiones superpobladas

107. Mission La Purísima Concepcion:
​Going back in time ​to Spanish California

107. Mision La Purísima Concepción:
Retrocediendo en ​el tiempo a la California española


XXX. Saluting an exile: ​Father Félix Varela
XXX. The Meaning of 'Sotomayor'
SPECIAL SECTIONS
• Great (pro-Hispanic) Americans
​
• 16th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
• 17th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
• 18th Century in the Hispanic American History Timeline
​
• Spanish-American expeditions before Jamestown
• NYC ​Hispanic Landmarks
• NYC Hispanic Art
• Do You Know/Sabes?
• Garita Art
​
• Do You Speak Spanglish?
HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY TIMELINE
​1513 Ponce de Leon Discovers North America, Names Her 'Florida'

April 22, 1513 ​Alaminos discovers the Gulf Stream

1517 De Cordoba, wounded in Yucatan, stops in Florida

1518 Grijalva Reaches Galveston Island

1519 De Pineda confirms Florida ​is not an island​

1521 Ponce de Leon Returns to Florida, Falls Mortally Wounded

1524-25 Estevan Gomez Explores North America's East Coast

1526 Ayllón lands in S.C., settles in Georgia


1528 Narváez expedition succumbs to storms and natives

1528-36 Cabeza de Vaca treks across North America

1537-42 Cabeza de Vaca Returns to Spain, Writes 'La Relación'

1539 De Niza Searches for Golden Cities of Cibola
​

1539-42 De Soto celebrates first American Christmas

1540 Hernando de Alarcon Reaches California

1540-42 Coronado Explores the Southwest,
Cardenas Discovers ​the Grand Canyon


1542-43  ​Cabrillo explores California coast​

1559 De Luna Builds Santa Maria de Ochuse​


1565 Pedro Menendez de Avilés Establishes San Agustin

1566 Santa Elena Built in South Carolina

1598 ​Juan de Oñate Explores New Mexico

1602 Sebastian Vizcaino ​explores the West Coast

1610 Pedro de Peralta establishes Santa Fe

1610-26 The Birth of San Miguel, oldest church in the U.S.A.

1613 Juan Rodriguez becomes the first Manhattan immigrant

1633 Misión San Luis de Apalachee is born in Tallahassee

​1682 San Antonio de la Ysleta becomes first mission in Texas

1691 Father Eusebio Kino builds Tumacácori and Guevavi

1692 ​Father Kino builds San Xavier del Bac 

1692 Diego de Vargas leads ​'Bloodless Reconquest" of Santa Fe

1695 Castillo de San Marcos ​Completed in St. Augustine

1718 Mission San Antonio de Valero is born
​- long before it became The Alamo
​

1738 Runaway slaves establish Fort Mose,
​the first free African-American community​


​1738 Francisco Menendez Leads Fort Mose

1742 Spanish Soldiers ​Open Fort Matanzas

1752 Spanish Soldiers Build Presidio de Tubac

1763 Spanish Florida Goes to England

1765 Juan Antonio Maria de Rivera ​explores ​Colorado and Utah
​
1769 
Father Serra opens ​San Diego de Alcalá,
California's first ​Spanish mission


1771 Father Serra establishes San Gabriel Arcángel

1772 Good hunting determines site
​of ​Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa


1775 Captain Hugh O’Connor
​builds Presidio San Agustin del Tucson


​1776-83 Hispanics in the American Revolution

1776 The Birth of San Francisco

1781 Spanish troops defeat the British, capture Pensacola

1781 Pobladores of Los Angeles are imported

1791 ​Alessandro Malaspina Alaska Reaches Alaska

1797 Fermín Francisco de Lasuén
Establishes Misión San Fernando Rey de España


1797 The Birth of Villa de Branciforte

Herencia Hispana Oculta de America:
La Lista de Lugares, Ideas, y Evidencia Historica para Reconectár a los Americanos con sus Raíces Hispanas

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America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage:
The Bucket List of Places, Ideas and Historical Evidence to Reconnect Americans with their  Hispanic Roots
  • HOME
  • ABOUT US/QUIENES SOMOS
  • CHAPTERS/CAPITULOS
  • EN ESPAÑOL
  • ON FACEBOOK
  • IN THE NEWS/NOTICIAS
  • ACCOLADES/ELOGIOS
  • VIDEO LECTURES/CHARLAS
  • MY STUDENTS
  • MIGUELPEREZ.COM
  • ABOUT/SOBRE MIGUEL
  • VIDEOS WE LIKE
  • CONTACT US/CONTÁCTENOS
  • TIMELINE/CRONOLOGIA
  • THE HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM
  • THE GREAT TOUR/LA GRAN GIRA
  • CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP
  • NYC HISPANIC LANDMARKS
  • NYC HISPANIC ART
  • ON THE ROAD AGAIN
  • EN EL CAMINO OTRA VEZ
  • OUR MEDALLIONS SAGA