06/30/2026
Remembering Henry Mendoza, a Lion of Journalism
CCNMA Latino Journalists of California mourns the loss of its former executive director Henry Mendoza, a lion in Southern California journalism. He passed away earlier this month.
Mendoza was an educator and journalist who helped pave the way for a generation of reporters. Under his leadership in the early 1990s, CCNMA provided thousands of dollars in scholarships to Latino college students pursuing journalism careers and held workshops and job fairs for reporters of all backgrounds.
“One of the things I appreciated about Henry was that he was very well connected and very good about establishing relationships with journalists and management. … He was a real mentor,” recalled Jesus Rangel, a former San Diego Union and New York Times reporter and CCNMA member who met Mendoza in the 1980s.
Mendoza built a decades-long career during the heyday of newsrooms as a journalist at the Riverside Press Enterprise, the Los Angeles Times and Oakland Tribune. He was also an assignment editor for KABC TV. For years, he taught journalism at Cal State Fullerton, where he influenced a generation of new journalists.
In 1978, Mendoza played an instrumental role in helping CCNMA land its first grant — $25,000 from the Gannett Foundation, according to longtime members Félix Gutiérrez and Frank Sotomayor.
Sotomayor had submitted the grant application to the foundation and was seeking $20,000. At the time, Gannett owned the San Bernardino Sun and sent the proposal to the newspaper’s publisher, asking if he knew about CCNMA. The publisher forwarded the grant to Mendoza, who was on the sports desk. Mendoza was not part of the group, but he saw the names of CCNMA’s board members on the cover letter.
“If you want to do something with Chicanos in journalism, these are the people you should do it with. And you need to give them more money,” Mendoza told his supervisors, according to Gutiérrez.
The Gannett Foundation provided CCNMA with $25,000, which CCNMA leveraged to obtain other grants, Sotomayor said. With the funds, the organization hired Gutiérrez as its first executive director and later held its first job fair. And the rest is history.
Mendoza will be missed. CCNMA sends condolences to his wife Kris.
At this time, no memorial services are planned.
Photo: L to R: CCNMA members George Ramos, Henry Mendoza, Bob Navarro, Félix Gutiérrez, Maclovio Perez, Frank del Olmo, circa early 1990s.
