Rutgers Revives Emmy-Winning Show Focusing on Latinx Community
Relaunch of groundbreaking Images/Imágenes on NJTV focuses on improving diversity in news media
In the early 1970s, Rutgers-Newark student William Sánchez rarely saw faces like his on TV.
“The only time the news went into a Latino community was to report on a crime or a fire,” said Sánchez. “It was a poor representation of the positivity and culture of our community.”
More than 40 years later, Rutgers-New Brunswick graduate student Alice Hernandez sees a similar lack diversity in the media.
“Growing up, I don’t remember seeing myself on screen except in Dora The Explorer,” she said. “I find myself counting the people of color – or rather the lack of people of color – on shows I watch.”
Today, Sánchez, an Emmy-winning producer/director, and Hernandez, an assistant with Rutgers’ Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, are working to change that. Together, along with a crew of staff and students at Rutgers iTV Studio, the pair resurrected Images/Imágenes – a New Jersey news program launched in 1970 to cater to the region’s burgeoning Latinx community. The first new episode aired in the fall on NJTV, and the second program airs March 25 at 8 p.m.
For more than three decades, Sánchez shepherded the documentary-style Images/Imágenes on the New Jersey Network. An up-and-coming playwright, he felt an overwhelming responsibility to accurately portray his community and create programing that would both inform and entertain them. The weekly half-hour long program featured business and community leaders, entertainers and spoke to issues that directly impacted a Latinx audience. By the time NJN closed in 2011, forcing Images/Imágenes off the air, the show had been nominated for 19 Emmy Awards – winning four – and reached an audience of 15 million viewers ages 15 to 55 weekly who were mostly women.
To Isabel Nazario, associate vice president for Strategic Initiatives in Diversity and Inclusion, letting the show lapse was a waste of a media vehicle with proven brand recognition. All it needed, she thought, was a jump start.
“Through my office, we’ve been in conversations with leaders representing other communities, and they agreed it would be an excellent idea to reimagine Images/Imágenes as a Rutgers production,” said Nazario.
That led to a partnership between Rutgers and the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of NJ to fund the show.
Rutgers’ ties to Images/Imágenes run deep, said Sánchez. During the show’s early years, Sánchez said it fed off the energy of the Puerto Rican community thriving at the former Livingston College. Livingston students interned on the show and one of the Riverside dorms became known as “Latin Images” because so many of the students living there participated in the production. Thanks to Sánchez’ connections there and the school’s proximity to NJN studios in Trenton, many poets, musicians, artists and activists who performed at the Piscataway campus were also booked as talent or interview subjects on Images/Imágenes.
“After NJN closed, I was worried I would pass away and the show would pass away with me. Seeing this go back on the air, I’m not going to lie to you, I had tears,” said Sánchez, who was recruited by Nazario as a media specialist in 2018 to oversee the reboot. “Images/Imágenes would not be where it is today were it not for Rutgers. Coming home to Rutgers, for me, was a return to where it all began.”
The new half-hour Images/Imágenes focuses on the arts, culture, education, entertainment, business, immigration, health and wellness and is cohosted by Ebby Antigua, CEO of Ebby Magazine, and attorney Jessica Ramirez. Correspondents, including Rutgers’ own Polk award-winning journalist Juan González, food/health entrepreneur Jimena Flórez and Carlos Medina, president of the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey also appear on the broadcast.
Nazario tapped Hernandez, who is studying for a master’s in labor and employment relations and works as program coordinator her office, to be Sánchez’s production assistant.
“We’re a great match because I can help him sort out what he’s thinking,” she said of the seasoned producer. “It’s inspiring. I could give a three-hour lecture about Willie; he’s done so much.”
The eclectic interests of Images/Imágenes’ cross-generational production team is reflected in the show’s line up. The first episode’s segments on Desi Arnaz and Gloria and Emilio Estefan offered a nod to older viewers, while interviews with Puerto Rican fashion designer Stella Nolasco and “Guardians of the Galaxy” actress Zoe Saldana appealed to younger audiences. Similarly, the upcoming show features a tribute to Rita Moreno, interview with actor Luis Guzman, a performance by Guatemalan musician Jesse Baez and sit down with Rutgers alumna Luz Towns-Miranda, a child psychologist and mother of Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“I am learning so much from the young people here who will be the future executive producers of Images/Imágenes,” Sánchez said. “I did the first 40, they will be doing the next 40.”
