Hi there
I can’t ask you to vote for me if you don’t know who I am
My name is Julio-César Chávez and I am a producer with Reuters working out of the Washington D.C. bureau. I moved here in April 2020, after spending five years as an on-camera reporter with KVIA, the top station in El Paso.
I’ve been an NAHJ member since 2015, when I was a college student in El Paso. I joined the organization to take advantage of the wide network of reporters available to help young aspiring journalists.
I really started to get into journalism in high school where I took broadcasting classes, and developed as a photographer when I worked four years at a wedding/quinceañera studio. When I was 20 years old, studying at El Paso Community College, my news director at KVIA offered me the initial weekend reporter job. I would stay at KVIA for a good while, growing in my role and covering immigration and border issues not just for my station, but freelancing for agencies visiting the area and doing some radio pieces for the BBC.
In 2017 I covered Hurricane Harvey, doing 14 stories in four days, still the assignment I’m most proud of. A couple of weeks later I embedded with the Army out of Fort Bliss to cover their relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. It’s there that I wrote my first piece for Reuters, and I stayed a stringer with them, doing regular work until I was brought on full time this year.
We all know journalism is an industry that regularly does not pay well, but we’re still in this. I think the bulk of our members, especially reporters living in poverty, those starting off, and those who have developed their careers but don’t have pay matching their work are the ones that need the most help. It’s time for fair pay in news.
I think we have an opportunity to expand the association’s responsibilities. That is why I decided to run for the board, to represent reporters like me, and I want to continue that work for one more term.