Conecta Arizona is an innovate nonprofit news organization committed to the community it serves, both in the United States and in Mexico, across the border (especially in Sonora). The Hispanic, migrant, border community is the base of our service journalism, which focuses on listening to our audience and offering resources for their daily lives and their individual and community development.
Founded by Mexican journalist Maritza L. Felix on May 11, 2020, Conecta Arizona was born in the midst of the pandemic as an innovative information service on WhatsApp, with the purpose of verifying information about COVID and fighting, with journalistic rigor, the misinformation and false news that circulated (and circulates) about the virus.
The project allowed to debunk hundreds of myths about the pandemic and to consolidate, day by day, a close, human and intelligent conversation with the community on WhatsApp and social media, which allows Conecta Arizona to offer verified information and be by the side of its community, to know their preferences, concerns, expectations, interests and values.
Once a week, La Hora del Cafecito is carried out on WhatsApp with a guest expert, to whom the group can ask questions. In two years, we’ve had the participation of experts in health, immigration, psychology, economics, art and entertainment, sports, meditation, digital security, social problems and leadership in organizations, among other topics.
Conecta Arizona believes in an honest search for quality information that allows contacting specialists or appropriate sources to understand and explain a topic in a simple way, contributing to the construction of a new narrative in relation to the Latino community in the United States, whose diverse faces and stories should be part of a media agenda that makes the values of the Hispanic community visible.
In all cases, the purpose of Conecta Arizona is to serve the community, to which it offers rigorous information, freedom of opinion and an environment of intelligent conversation about the issues of the moment and with the protagonists who deserve visibility in the public space, so that they can find useful resources for their daily lives and their community dialogue.
In short, Conecta Arizona understands journalism as a service, is passionate about the community it serves, believes in dialogue and pluralism, and renews its professional commitment to innovation and creativity on a daily basis. These values position the outlet, less than two years after its founding, as a reference for the Hispanic community in the United States and especially for the community on the Mexican border.
Our team
Maritiza L. Félix
Founder and director
Maritza is an award-winning freelance journalist, producer, and writer in Arizona. She is the founder of Conecta Arizona, a Spanish-language news service that connects people in Arizona and Sonora primarily through WhatsApp and social media. She is the creator of Cruzando Líneas, a podcast of new border narratives. She is co-producer and co-host of Comadres al Aire.
In 2022, Maritza was named Innovator of the Year by the Local Media Association and received the 2022 Cecilia Vaisman Award for Best Hispanic Multimedia Journalist from Northwestern University and NAHJ.
She is a senior fellow in the JSK Community Impact Fellowship program at Stanford and a graduate of the Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership in Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. She is also a fellow of The Carter Center, the Education Writers Association (EWA), Feet in 2 Worlds (Fi2w), IWMF’s «Adelante» and Listening Post Collective; she is part of Take The Lead’s 50 Women Who Can Change the World of Journalism 2020. Felix has twice been named «Arizona’s Best Spanish Language Journalist» and one of the «40 Hispanic Personalities Under 40 in Arizona.»
Gustavo Guirado
Editor
Gustavo is a journalist and university professor. He was born in Argentina and has a master’s degree in journalism (Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, 2007). He has been a journalist at Conecta Arizona since 2021 and a university professor in Argentina since 2007, in the areas of journalistic management, writing and journalistic practice. In Argentina, he practiced journalism between 1992 and 2018, gave conferences on journalism and carried out volunteer activities in institutional communication. In the United States, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the International Graduate Seminar «Young Leaders» at the University of Massachusetts (2008).
Daniel Robles
Art director
Daniel is a graphic designer with more than two decades of experience in visual arts, photography, illustration, advertising, and marketing. He is originally from Sonora, Mexico with a professional associate’s degree in Graphic Design and Advertising.
Winner of awards for his work in the design of advertising campaigns and audiovisual projects, Robles has been the creative director of Conecta Arizona since its founding.
In his spare time he likes to practice cycling and street and documentary photography.
Contributors
Celia Ramos-Montoya
Colaborator
Communicator and actress originally from the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. She was the host of Radio Tecate Baja California at station 88.5fm. She has resided in Phoenix Arizona since 2004 and studied Business at Phoenix College in Arizona.
She was part of the Toastmasters International organization where, in addition to developing communication skills, she served as vice president of public relations in two groups, La Voz De Oro and Los empresarios Toastmasters. She is an instructor at Fuerza Local, a nonprofit organization, where she teaches classes in communication, public speaking, and customer service. In her free time she likes to climb mountains, listen to podcasts, read and write. She has been part of the El llano en llamas poetry and literature group since 2017.
