NAHJ members embrace the spirit of New Orleans, leave their mark
Before the brass band marched NAHJ members to the House of Blues or news companies opened their booths at the career fair here in New Orleans, journalists from across the country gathered around a table at a ceviche bar to decorate handkerchiefs — a tribute to the culture of the city.
Cecilia Méndez Comas admired the Puerto Rican flag she drew on a white linen fabric. At the table in front of her were markers, sticky rainbow gems and hot-glue guns to adhere beads and feathers.
Méndez Comas was one of dozens packed into the second floor of Tito’s Ceviche & Pisco, in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans.
The event was organized as a welcome to the Big Easy by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’s Louisiana chapter.
Gathered around the table, the journalists wrote messages on their flags or drew tributes to the countries and cities they were from. They would wave those flags the following night at NAHJ’s annual welcoming reception for its national conference that began with a second-line parade through downtown.
The second line is a New Orleans tradition that honors community, celebrates life and milestones. This is the first time a second line has ever been featured at NAHJ.
Abigail Segoviano is a recent graduate from San Diego State University. She aspires to write about the NBA one day and is an intern for La Voz, the Spanish-language publication of The Arizona Republic. Reach her at abigailsegoviano1 [at] gmail [dot] com.
