The sixth annual celebration of America’s Hispanic Heritage — the 2021 AL DÍA Archetypes event — will see 10 outstanding Hispanic professionals be honored with the 2021 Ambassador Manuel Torres Award.

The honorees will be distinguished across 10 categories. They are: public service, non-profit, education, corporate, entrepreneurship, sports, performing arts, philanthropy, media and health.

This year, the honoree in the media category will be Gabriel Escobar, Philadelphia Inquirer Editor and Senior Vice President. He was officially named to the post in November 2020, and is the first Latino editor in The Inquirer’s nearly 200-year history. 

Since 2017, he had been second-in-command of the newsroom before his promotion. Escobar is a long-time journalist who has helped manage a drastic transformation at the newspaper. 

This is his second stint with the Inquirer, having originally joined the paper in 2007 as metropolitan editor. He left the position in 2011 and worked a year at the Dallas Morning News on its editorial board and also taught journalism at Southern Methodist University, before returning to Philadelphia.

Prior to that, Escobar spent 16 years at the Washington Post, where he was a police reporter, an immigration reporter and the Latin America bureau chief and correspondent, based in Argentina. He was also the Post’s City Editor for six years. 

Escobar is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, before his family moved to Queens, N.Y. when he was seven years old. He earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Queens College, City University of New York, and a master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland. 

During Hispanic Heritage Month in September, Escobar will be honored as the 2021 AL DÍA Archetype: Ambassador Manuel Torres Award in the category of media. He will join Damian Rivera, Nathalie Rayes, Noe Ortega, Alejandro Bedoya, Pedro Ramos, Yvette Peña, Ángel Corella and Dr. Ana Diez Roux as nine of 10 honorees at this year’s event. 

The final remaining honoree will be announced shortly. 

The 2021 AL DÍA Archetype Hispanic Heritage Gala & Awards Ceremony is set for Friday, Sept. 24, 2021 at the Union League of Philadelphia. To reserve your seat at the premier celebration of America's Hispanic Heritage, click here.