AUSTIN, Texas — Maria Martin, executive producer of the weekly radio show Latino USA, has won five national honors for achievement in journalism. Latino USA is a production partnership of KUT-FM and the Center for Mexican American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.
Latino USA is a weekly English-language program produced from a Latino perspective covering a variety of issues affecting Latino communities in the United States. The show is distributed by National Public Radio and broadcast on 175 stations nationwide.
Martin won two top awards from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Miami for a series of reports on the Guatemalan peace process. Susan Leffler was field co-producer of the series, Guatemala at the Crossroads. The association has awarded top honors to the UT-based radio show three times in the last four years. Martin, a former editor at NPR, has served as the show’s executive producer for the past five years.
Martin, born in Mexico City, also has won the Ruben Salazar Communications Award from the National Council of La Raza, presented annually to a journalist whose work consistently has brought new insights to national coverage of Latino issues. Martin was one of eight journalists nationwide to be awarded the Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Affairs at Ohio State University. Martin was field producer with a team of journalists winning the 1998 Gabriel Award for the radio short feature Make It Better, Grandmother.
