by Maria Campos
News Reporter
Jo Ann Zuniga recalls, still with some resentment, the time her high school career counselor advised her to look into a secretarial or clerical school to further her education.
She said this angered her, but pushed her to work even harder in order to achieve more than was expected of her as a Hispanic female. With the help of scholarships, grants and various odd jobs, Zuniga said she was able to pay her way through college.
Her perseverance paid off. Zuniga, 39, is not in a clerical job today. Rather, the soon-to-be mother is a city reporter at the Houston Chronicle.
"I became a journalist because I wanted to portray Hispanics in the media accurately," she said. "People who understand the culture write on issues better."
Zuniga had her first reporting job working for The Daily Cougar while attending the University of Houston. Later, she transferred to The University of Texas at Austin worked as a news reporter for The Daily Texan.
While attending UT, Zuniga met and married her husband. She remembered her surprise at learning that the judge who was going to perform the marriage was a former UH Students' Association president whom she had interviewed often during her Daily Cougar days.
After graduating from UT, Zuniga moved to Corpus Christi to take a job at the Caller-Times, although her goal was to work in Houston. "I wanted to move to Houston and work for the Houston Chronicle," she said. "I knew the city, so I kept sending stories."
In 1985, the Chronicle hired her as a news reporter. Her perseverance in reporting didn't stop. While on her way to Houston from Los Angeles in 1992, the L.A. riots broke out and Zuniga said she decided to turn around and cover them for the paper.
"I was one of the first people to point out during the Los Angeles riots that most of the stores being burned were Korean, since there was a lot of animosity between blacks and Asians because of previous incidents," she said. "But it was not just blacks. There were also Hispanics and whites taking advantage of the situation."
James Newkirk, city editor at the Chronicle, has known Zuniga since she began working there. "Jo Ann is a good reporter and very knowledgeable of the city and dedicated to her craft," he said.
Besides reporting, Zuniga is a supporter of Hispanic issues and serves as the regional director of the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals.