Gulf Coast Life

Hispanic Heritage Month: Voices from SW Florida’s Latino Community

By John Davis,

Published October 3, 2018 at 1:13 PM EDT

Lucy Maldanado, Fiscal Manager for the Lee County Board of County Commissioners: Visitor and Convention Bureau. Maldanado is featured in WGCU-FM's weeklong "Hispanic Heritage Month" series

We are now more than halfway through National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 through October 15. In recognition of those of Hispanic heritage here in Southwest Florida, WGCU reporters Rachel Iacovone and Andrea Perdomo are featuring the voices and perspectives of local Latinos from across the region from all sorts of professions, genders and backgrounds. We’ll get a sneak preview of the weeklong series, airing weekdays at 8:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and at 5:45 p.m. during All Things Considered.

Tags

John Davis

jrdavis@wgcu.org

See stories by John Davis

Rachel Iacovone

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

See stories by Rachel Iacovone

Andrea Perdomo

Andrea Perdomo is a reporter for WGCU News. She started her career in public radio as an intern for the Miami-based NPR station, WLRN. Andrea graduated from Florida International University, where she was a contributing writer for the student-run newspaper, The Panther Press, and was also a member of the university's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.

See stories by Andrea Perdomo