Anabel Hernández
| Anabel Hernández | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Native name | Anabel Hernández García |
| Born | 1971 |
| Nationality | Mexican |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | since 1993 |
| Employer | Reporte Índigo (online) and Processo (magazine) |
| Known for | investigative journalism |
| Notable work | Narcoland (2010) |
| Awards | WAN-IFRA's Golden Pen of Freedom (2012), Mexican National Journalism Award (2002) |
Anabel Hernández (born 1971) is a Mexican journalist who has confronted head-on – at significant personal risk to her and her family – corruption and the narcotics trade in Mexico, including the alleged collusion between the drug barons and elements within the Mexican political and administrative system. Her investigative journalism in numerous newspapers, magazines and books, including works on slave labor, sexual exploitation, political corruption and abuse of power. She won the Golden Pen of Freedom Award 2012, which is presented annually by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
She currently lives in Berkeley, California with her two children and has a fellowship on Investigative Reporting at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Hernández, who was born in 1971, is a mother of two children.
As a young child Anabel Hernández wanted to be a lawyer. Then, in 1989, Hernández happened to be in San Francisco when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit. Anabel was so impressed by the work that journalists were doing that she realized there was nothing in the world she wanted to do more than be a journalist.
When Anabel Hernández shared with her father her desires to be a journalist he said that journalism wasn't a profession, that it was an occupation for bums and that women who dedicated themselves to it were prostitutes. He was furious with Hernández at first as the journalistic profession at that time in Mexico had a reputation of being in the pockets of corrupt government officials.
In 1993, at 21, Hernández started at the newspaper Reforma (1993-1996) while still in school. The paper was newly created, and they wanted to start only with students so they could really shape them. The students were given very strict rules meant to break the vices of other papers. Hernández and her colleagues were told that they couldn't accept a single peso from anyone or they would be fired immediately. The only thing they could accept from a government office was a glass of water (not even coffee or soda). Hernández has stated that she is convinced that those rigorous standards formed her as a journalist.
Hernández first front-page story at Reforma was about electoral fraud in the city of Mexico. Three years later, Hernández got pregnant with her first child that put on hold her journalistic career. After which time she resumed her work with newspaper Milenio (1999-2002). Hernández eventually left Milenio because she was frozen under orders from the president's office; the paper wouldn't publish anything she wrote. And later, Hernandez had to quit at another paper, El Universal, after one of the managers told her if she wanted to stay at the paper she had to stop writing about President Fox and his administration.
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