Juan Gonzalez

Juan Gonzalez, staff columnist with New York’s Daily News and a professional journalist for 28 years, is known for hard-hitting columns on the labor movement and problems of the inner city. Described by the Village Voice as the “most radical person in the above-it-all world of New York daily journalism,” Gonzalez won the 1998 George Polk Award for commentary and was twice named by Hispanic Business magazine among the country’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics.” Gonzalez is co-host with Amy Goodman of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! He has authored three books, including Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse and Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. A leader of the Young Lords in the late 1960s and founding president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in the 1980s, he chaired the Newspaper Guild strike committee during a successful five-month strike at the Daily News in 1990-1991. As president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Gonzalez was a key organizer of the UNITY: Journalists of Color 2004 Convention, which drew more than 8,000 participants to Washington, D.C., and he spearheaded opposition by journalists to the FCC’s attempts to loosen media ownership regulations.