Celebrating the multicultural reporters of the future while honoring a Latino pioneer journalist of our time. Six members of the AL DÍA Foundation fellowship program were recognized by their peers August 31 at the Union League of Philadelphia.

The Foundation also honored Latino anchor and reporter John Quiñones with the first-ever Felix Varela Lifetime Achievement award for his over 40 years of dedicated service to the field of journalism.

Many people from far and wide came to the reception to hear his life story, get some advice from the fifth-generation San Antonioian journalist or maybe a quick conversation and a selfie to treasure for a lifetime. 

Among the people present were Romulo Diaz, Vice President, Governmental & External for PECO Energy; the Honorable Nelson Diaz; Pedro Ramos, President and CEO of the Philadelphia Foundation; Vivian Smith, PhD, Chair and Associate professor of Sociology and Criminology at Cabrini University; and Philadelphia City Representative Sheila Hess.

We congratulate Rodrigo Campos-Sánchez, Jennifer Hernandez, Renata Kaminski, Carlos Nogueras, Alan Nuñez and Eliot Olaya. We anticipate more impactful stories and showing us the best of the American multicultural experience. 

We also salute the inspirational John Quiñones, whose years of investigative journalism affected people from all walks of life. The man who young aspiring journalists would watch evening news specials to learn the craft from someone who looked like us and told impactful stories about us.

The pen is truly mightier than the sword. 

For more events throughout the Philadelphia Region go to www.aldianews.com