Reunited ... and it feels so good

LIFE IN THE TUNNELS Some residents camp out in drainage channels below Las Vegas, but resources are short. PAGES 4-5.

THE MONITOR & LATINO REPORTER

HEALTHY CHOICES: Las Vegas has a surprising number of restaurants with vegan and vegetarian menu items. PAGE 8.

LATINX SUPERHEROES After decades,

Latino and Latina characters are being seen in comic books. PAGE 10.

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ALEXANDRA MORA MEDINA / NABJ NAHJ

REUNITED … AND IT FEELS SO GOOD

National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists join up in person. PAGE 11 Conference-goers get a first look at the lights of Las Vegas.

Photos, PAGE 6-7

Cora Dickey, of Hartsville, SC, , left, hugs Barbara Ciara, right, of WTKR3 News in Norfolk Va on the first day of the NABJ/ NAHJ 2022 Convention and Career Fair in Las Vegas, NV.

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Looking for fun? Here are some options

THE MONITOR &

THE N A B REPORTER J MONITOR LATINO & T H E L AT I N O R E P O R T E R

2022 S TAFF

ARCADIA EARTH —This immersive experience uses augmented reality, virtual reality, projection mapping and interactive environments to provide a virtual experience without the goggles.

Through storytelling, the exhibit is designed to inspire guests to positively impact the environment.

KARINA BAZARTE YAW BONSU TONI BRYCE KENYA CAPEHART ALEXIS DAVIS

Beyond the botanical gardens is a giant chocolate fountain in the Bellagio Patisserie. That alone is worth the trip.

AMANDA DEJESUS JUSTIN EVANS

THE NEON MUSEUM — Las Vegas is not known for its sense of history, but one bit of its past, its most iconic neon signs, are preserved here.

NATALIA FERNANDEZ SANDOVAL JASMINE FRANKLIN KAYA FREEMAN DEANNA GILES ANNA GUARACAO NICHOLAS HERNANDEZ GRANT HINES NAYELI JARAMILLO-PLATA ZAKIYA JENNINGS

Spectators can enjoy the fountains outside. The “dancing waters” are choreographed to music. The show is every 30 minutes from 3-8 p.m. and every 15 minutes from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Inside, the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens offers a more peaceful atmosphere away from the casino to contemplate the work of the team of in-house horticulturists. The current installation’s theme is “Jungle of Dream.”

RAYSHAUN BAKER-LYNCH

SHANAÉ HARTE

THE BELLAGIO — Right next door to Caesars Palace, the Bellagio offers several features that can be admired for free.

Arcadia Earth is in the Showcase Mall, 3785 Las Vegas Blvd South.

The museum is open from 12-7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; from 12-9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and 12-8 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $31$39.

The Neon Museum is at 770 Las Vegas Blvd. North. It is open from 4 p.m. to midnight every day.

General admission is $10-$20, with guided tours and other experiences available. Advance ticket purchase is recommended.

– Toni Bryce

BROOKLYN JOYNER IVARELIS LÓPEZ MARTINEZ DEIDRE MONTAGUE WORTHINGTON MOORE ALEXANDRA MORA MEDINA CHRISTINA NORRIS HEIDI PEREZ-MORENO HARMONY PORTER CLAUDIA RIVERA COTTO TANYA VELÁZQUEZ DAYANA VILLANUEVA NATASHA WILLIAMS

CO N VE NTI O N H I G H LI G HT S • The Epidemic: Covering Mass Shootings & Their Impact on Communities of Color | Newsmaker Plenary 9:00 a.m.

Octavius Ballroom • Tragedy or Turning Point? The Pandemic Effect on Black and Brown Youth | Plenary

• Reckoning or Rhetoric? Holding News Media Accountable, a Roundtable Discussion

COVID-19 PROTOCOLS • No on-site registration.

• Masks are required in all sessions.

• Current Clear health pass required.

Some Clear health passes may have expired since you uploaded them with registration.

Click on Health Pass on the Clear app.

Use code EFATTENDEE4.

Hold the camera to get your photo.

Once the app confirms your identity, you will see a Health Pass screen.

Click on the green button Get Health Pass.

The screen will show your health pass with a QR code and your photo.

• Show the Clear health pass to pick up your registration badge.

WIFI INFO In-roof wifi Caesars_Resorts Password Room number and last name Conference area wifi NABJNAHJCon22 Password Attendee2022

LET’S CON NEC T

3:30 p.m.

Pompeian Ballroom III How We Did It | Powered by palabra 4 to 5 p.m.

3 p.m.

Genoa

Octavius Ballroom

– Amanda DeJesus

THE NABJ MONITOR

THE LATINO REPORTER

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Resources scarce for Las Drainage channels provide shelter for many but also pose dangers during floods

BY SHANAÉ HARTE

Just a week before NABJ and NAHJ members headed to Las Vegas, heavy rainfall, booming thunderstorms and flash floods pounded the city, disrupting the fastpaced daily life.

While most residents and visitors waited in their houses or rooms for the floodwaters to recede into the city’s flood drains, a notice of eviction was being served to folks that have made those drains their home.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development recently estimated that 7,090 residents of Las Vegas suffer from some form of homelessness.

However, this data failed to account for the hundreds of Las Vegas residents who experience homelessness out of the sight of census data takers: those who live in a network of tunnels beneath the city designed to catch floodwaters.

Robert Banghart, the Outreach Director of the Shine A Light Foundation and Program Manager at Crossroads of Southern Nevada, said that the tunnel dwellers predicted Las Vegas’ most recent floods and moved their camps under bridges so that they could survive. But, “everything they had was gone.

“Camps that I’m used to seeing underground that are like these miniature cities are just wiped out,” Banghart said. “Even though we may look at it and think it’s not a lot, it’s everything they have.”

The conditions of those living underneath Las Vegas first came to light with former journalist Matthew O’Brien’s 2009 book “Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas.” He discovered a community of 300 to 1,000 tunnel dwellers while researching a different story, and their warmness touched him.

“These people really welcomed me into their homes and shared their stories with me, and I wanted to give something back to

A photograph of an image in the office of Robert Banghart shows a network of tunnels underneath Las Vegas that are designed for storm drainage that house the homeless. Photograph by Shine The Light Foundation. Robert Banghart, left, outreach director of The Shine A Light Foundation, in his office Tuesday, August 2, 2022, talks about homelessness in Las Vegas, NV.

“I had no food, no water. I damn sure wasn’t going to drink that floodwater.

I was screwed.”

FROM “BENEATH THE NEON: LIFE AND DEATH IN THE TUNNELS OF LAS VEGAS.” BY MATTHEW O’BRIEN

SHANAÉ HARTE / NABJ & NAHJ

these people,” O’Brien said.

He founded the Shine A Light Foundation in hopes that the book’s recognition would cause the government or non-profit organizations to offer assistance to occupants in the drain.

The book did bring months of international media attention to this community, but then they were forgotten, O’Brien said.

Help was promised to the people who were driven into the tunnels because of some form of addiction, mental health issues or

just a lack of better options. But the help never materialized, O’Brien said.

Authorities did not want to taint the glamorized image of what Las Vegas is like for potential tourists, he said. That’s when O’Brien started the Shine a Light Foundation to fill the void.

Banghart used to call the tunnels home, sharing the space with 10-40 people at different periods. He said addiction and poor life choices brought him to the place where

the valley’s drains became his only option.

While living there, he saw friends die during floods.

O’Brien’s book documents many such instances. In one noteworthy experience, a man named Ernie stayed in a pipe in the tunnel network for up to three days without food or water to survive Vegas’ devastating 1999 flood.

“I had no food, no water. I damn sure wasn’t going to drink that floodwater. I was screwed,” Ernie told O’Brien. “You’d think I’d have something in here for emergency

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Vegas’ hidden homeless Tracking the Las Vegas Tunnels Las Vegas’ geography makes it prone to flash floods, and over the decades, the Regional Flood Control District has built a network of drainage channels to move water east to Lake Mead. People experiencing homelessness have found shelter in these channels, including those that run under the Las Vegas Strip.

AREA OF DETAIL

LAS VEGAS VALLEY

NABJ / NAHJ

Source: Clark County Regional Flood Control District

situations like that, but in an emergency situation, you better not be down here or you’re dead.”

Ernie recalls the tunnels being dark and loud.

“There was two people who yelled, ‘Help!’” Ernie said. “But I didn’t see nothing, because I got as far back in my pipe as I could. Hell, I was starting to think about trying to dig my way out.”

Banghart said community members learned to predict the weather from their underground abode and move to higher ground before a flood. Some stubborn folks wouldn’t move and find themselves in trouble, he said.

Banghart left the tunnels after he was beaten and left for dead one night by people who disliked him. He went through therapy to recover from the injuries and then moved to Freedom House Sober Living, where he was given a 60-day scholarship to help him

in his sobriety journey.

During his treatment, he noticed familiar faces in the facilities and learned about the Shine A Light Foundation, which did outreach every Saturday to bring tunnel residents into treatment. The tenacity of those volunteers inspired Banghart to help those who were living just like him.

“As it was at that moment, it was like five to 10 people going out every Saturday trying to build relationships, and they were hitting six, eight tunnels. And it was this all-day affair,” he said. “And I said, ‘You know what? I want to help.’”

Both Banghart and O’Brien have seen changes in the way those in authority react to the drain’s occupants. The local police department now collaborates with social workers, and the city provides grants to help the homeless.

“But it seems like it’s never enough, that enough is not being done,” O’Brien said.

“Especially with the people in the tunnels, because you have to remember, there’s a lot of homeless in the Las Vegas area above ground and that are visible, and there’s not even enough resources to help those people.”

Banghart said a lot can be done if the state provided more resources to the nonprofit organizations that deal directly with those in the drains.

“We need more resources. We need more avenues to get people off the streets, where to place them, how to place them.” Banghart said. “It’s difficult. I think that we are making progress, but not at the pace it’s needed.”

The larger Las Vegas community also has a role to play, said Paul Vautrinot, executive director of the Shine A Light Foundation and program director at Freedom House Sober Living.

Vautrinot also used to live in the tunnels,

and he knows that mistrust of authority figures is a problem.

“The experience you have with authority during any period of homelessness does not help develop a trust in that particular resource, it has to come from somewhere that is driven by altruism and not policy,” Vautrinot said.

The state, he said, needs to be ready to provide the money so that resources are available when people are ready to come in from the tunnels.

“The most I believe that can be done is access to enough beds to house the amount of homeless in the city,” he said. “We have a bottleneck situation where people have to wait to be housed when they are ready, which does not help the situation, as it only creates more mistrust.”

Trust is central to the transition from homelessness, Vautrinot said. People are being moved from a place they find comfortable to a place of uncertainty where their expectations may not always be met.

“Imagine walking away from everything you have built, stuff, relationships, hustle, routine, for something that might work out, and if it doesn’t, you have to start over,” he said. “The greatest challenge is getting them to trust that the way out can work to keep them from having to return”.

Banghart and O’Brien don’t know whether a day will come when the drains will be solely used for their designated purpose.

“There’s no way that one organization or a group of people could go down there and sweep people out or offer assistance to everyone down there who needs help,” O’Brien said. “I think you’re always going to have people who are homeless in Vegas.

And if you’re homeless in Vegas, the tunnels, because it’s so hot in the summertime and so cold in the winter, the tunnels are always going to be an option for you.

“But my hope, and we’re getting kind of close to this, is that if you do live down there, you at least know that there is an opportunity to get out through Shine a Light or some other organization.”

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EXPLORING LAS VEGAS

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Below far left; NABJ member Ayana Gibbs-Okayas heads downstairs from the NABJ conference in Las Vegas, NV. Right ; Tourists visit the Bellagio Fountain at night in Las Vegas.

With enthusiasm and a bit of caution, NABJ & NAHJ come together on the Strip

JUSTIN EVANS / NABJ NAHJ

JUSTIN EVANS / NABJ NAHJ

Far left below; Attendees walk through the halls on their way to sessions on the first day of the NABJ/NAHJ 2022 Convention and Job Fair in Las Vegas, Nev., on Wednesday.

Left; Attendees pick up items at a souvenir table on the first day of the NABJ/NAHJ 2022 Convention and Job Fair in Las Vegas, on Wednesday, August 03, 2022.

Above; Tourists walking by Bally’s Casino at night in Las Vegas.

JUSTIN EVANS / NABJ NAHJ

ALEXANDRA MORA MEDINA / NABJ NAHJ

ALEXANDRA MORA MEDINA / NABJ NAHJ

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BY CHRISTINA NORRIS

1. TRUTH & TONIC WELLNESS CAFE THE VENETIAN (LEVEL 4), 3355 S LAS VEGAS BLVD.

Truth & Tonic Wellness Cafe, a nine-minute drive from Caesars Palace offers several nutrient-dense superfoods with gluten-free options.

PRICE RANGE: $10-30

2. MEDIET CAFE LAS VEGAS 7293 W. SAHARA AVE

15 places to find vegan & vegetarian Conventioneers looking for meatless and no-dairy options may have more choices on and near the Las Vegas Strip than they expected. Here’s a list.

MeDiet Cafe, about a 21-minute drive from Caesars Palace, has mushroom burgers, cauliflower tacos, mushroom tacos and plant-based cheesecake. PRICE RANGE: $10-25

8. SUSHISAMBA

3327 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

SUSHISAMBA in the Venetian, a fiveminute drive from Caesars Palace, combines Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian culture and cuisine. SUSHISAMBA’s vegan menu offers aperitivos, robata, sushi and rolls.

PRICE RANGE: $40-65

9. DIN TAI FUNG

ARIA, 3730 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

Din Tai Fung, a Chinese restaurant a sevenminute drive from Caesars Palace, specializes in soup, dumplings and noodles. Vegan dumplings, wontons and greens are offered.

PRICE RANGE: $25-50

10. WAZUZU ASIAN RESTAURANT ENCORE AT WYNN LAS VEGAS, 3131 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

3. THE MODERN VEGAN 700 E. NAPLES DRIVE

Wazuzu Asian Restaurant, a five-minute drive from Caesars Palace, draws flavors from Chinese, Japanese and Thai cuisine.

Vegan and vegetarian options are offered.

PRICE RANGE: $15-100

The Modern Vegan, a 10-minute drive from Caesars Palace, has an extensive vegan menu for breakfast, brunch and lunch served daily from 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

PRICE RANGE: $12-20

11. NACHO DADDY LAS VEGAS 3663, LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

4. VEGGY STREET

333 W. SAINT LOUIS AVE.

Nacho Daddy in the Miracle Mile Shops, a seven-minute drive from Caesars Palace, serves breakfast, Mexican-American collisions and a full vegan menu.

PRICE RANGE: $5-20

Veggy Street, a nine-minute drive from Caesars Palace, offers 100% vegan options that are free of any animal products. Its menu consists of burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, wraps, salads, appetizers and drinks.

PRICE RANGE: $11-30

12. IKE’S LOVE & SANDWICHES 3200 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

5. LIQUID

1735 S. RAINBOW BLVD.

Ike’s Love & Sandwiches in the Fashion Show Mall, a seven-minute drive from Caesars Palace, includes vegan, vegetarian, halal and gluten-free menu items.

PRICE RANGE: $8-12

Liquid, about a 19-minute drive from Caesars Palace,offers smoothies that are plantbased, vegan/vegetarian and halal friendly with no sugar.

PRICE RANGE: UNDER $10

13. HELL’S KITCHEN

3570 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

6. SINATRA ITALIAN RESTAURANT WYNN LAS VEGAS S., 3131 LAS VEGAS BLVD.

Sinatra Italian Restaurant, a seven-minute drive from Caesars, is a tribute to Frank Sinatra with mementos, swinging music and fine dining. It also has a vegan menu with pasta and dessert options.

PRICE RANGE: $50-100

NACHO DADDY

Nacho Daddy offers a vegan nacho plate, above.

Truth & Tonic Wellness Cafe has a fully vegan and vegetarian menu that includes a cauliflower, avocado and hummus toast.

7. SLICE OF VEGAS

3930 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

Slice of Vegas at Mandalay Bay, a 10-minute drive from Caesars Palace, offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options on its menu of New York-style pizza, pasta, salads and sandwiches. PRICE RANGE: $5-30

Hell’s Kitchen is Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant in Caesars Palace. It offers a vegan and vegetarian menu with several sides and a dessert option.

PRICE RANGE: $75-95

14. SW STEAKHOUSE

3131 LAS VEGAS BLVD. SOUTH

SW Steakhouse in Wynn Las Vegas, 11 minutes from Caesars, has both a vegetarian menu and vegan options that are robust for a steakhouse.

PRICE RANGE: $50-75

15. VEG-IN-OUT MARKET 2301 SUNSET ROAD

TRUTH & TONIC WELLNESS CAFE

Veg-In-Out Market is a vegan supermarket about a 15-minute drive from Caesars Palace. Every item is vegan. There is no meat department, and no label reading is required.

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NABJ & NAHJ: ‘It’s a giant family reunion’ 4,000 expected in Vegas for joint conference

BY CHRISTINA NORRIS & SHANAÉ HARTE

It’s a moment many have been waiting for since the pandemic began.

Members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) reunited this week, potentially surpassing total registration numbers exceeding the last joint convention six years ago.

Over 4,000 are expected to attend the NABJ-NAHJ convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, NABJ Executive Director Drew Berry said, adding that registration numbers aren’t likely to be final until later in the week. The previous joint convention in Washington, D.C. in 2016 brought out 3,225 attendees.

“For the first time in our history, we had to shut down on-site registration, and unfortunately, I had people hit me up saying ‘Can you open it back up?’ [But, we couldn’t] for the safety of our registrants,” said NABJ Treasurer Walter Smith Randolph.

Berry said there were only 20 cancellations, mostly due to COVID concerns and related issues. Those who canceled their registration were fully refunded.

Berry said the vast turnout shows that NABJ and NAHJ members “were hungry to get out and return to normalcy.”

NABJ President Dorothy Tucker said she is overwhelmed to see the turnout.

“I didn’t expect as many people to actually want to attend as we have,” Tucker said. “But I’m happy to see so many people who are coming, and it’s going to be recordbreaking numbers for even more joint conventions.”

Members arrived excited about attending an in-person convention, with Los Angeles-based freelance journalist and former NABJLA president Xavier Higgs calling it “therapy.“ “You find yourself doing work and maybe in an environment where you might be

the only Black person or just gives you a chance to kind of share ideas from a cultural standpoint,” Higgs said.

Juan Daniel Avila, a recent San Diego State University graduate, has been looking forward to attending his first convention in Las Vegas where Latinos are well represented — something he doesn’t see in newsrooms.

“As a graduate student, the one thing you want to pursue is a job, and obviously, learning as much as possible about the journalism field.”

Despite the excitement to return in

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEXANDRA MORA MEDINA NABJ / NAHJ

Above: Two attendees look for a conference room on the first day of the NABJ/NAHJ 2022 Convention and Career Fair in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Left: Attendees chat in the hallway on the first day of the convention and Job Fair in Las Vegas.

these successful Black people, the camaraderie and the fellowship. It’s a giant family reunion.”

person, some members were still concerned about their health.

“I am a little bit nervous about walking around and pretty much shaking people’s hands,” said Emmanuel Young, who is vaccinated and an active student member of NABJ since 2019. “However, at the same time, I know this is a risk I got to take because I need to be able to meet these people in person and network [with] them rather than just wait on my computer and talk to them over emails.”

Beverly White, a reporter at NBC Los Angeles and former president of NABJLA shared similar sentiments.

“It’s almost spiritual seeing people,

seeing not just their eyes over the mask, but getting the elbow bumps and the fist bumps,” said White I’m still not hugging and [shaking hands]. But it’s still just a blessing to be here.”

“I’m very excited that being in person is really going to make a big difference to connect and network with professionals,” said Jorge Flores, an NAHJ student representative who works at Telemundo 20 in San Diego. He attended his first convention virtually during the pandemic.

Amir Vera, NABJ vice president of digital, reflected this enthusiasm. He said it is, “Because [we] all see for lack of better words, how magical it is to be around all

SECURIT Y CONCERNS With one of the largest gatherings of Black and brown media professionals in the country at a time of racial reckoning and news disinformation, Berry said security protocols were definitely taken into consideration and “beefed up,” but he declined to elaborate.

“You hire more security. Yeah, definitely, we had to do that in Miami (2019) too, just because of the atmosphere of the country.

We certainly had several meetings with the hotel security, but we went to a third party security as we did in Miami.”

Berry added that attendees are urged to report any threats or suspicious activity during the convention.

“We’re prepared and we’re just asking everybody who sees something to say something,” he said.

Rayshaun Baker-Lynch and Karina Bazarte contributed to this report

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Latinx characters in comics take flight like La Borinqueña successful when people see themselves in my character whether they are Afro Latin or not,” Miranda-Rodriguez said.

Dawson said in an email statement that the collaboration felt personal for her.

“I see myself in her,” she said in the statement. “I’m Afro-Latina with Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage, and I believe like La Borinqueña that Puerto Rico can be a model for a transition to renewable cleaner energy.”

BY NICHOLAS HERNANDEZ

Janet Rodriguez spent her childhood escaping the harsh realities of her home in the Bronx for a world where she was strong, powerful, otherworldly.

The portal to that world was inside a comic book store whose shelves were lined with the newest installments of her favorite superheroes’ adventures. With her older sibling, Rodriguez would catch up on the stories of Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four. These stories transported her.

In these worlds, there were no bullies, no hardships. There were also no Latinas.

“You didn’t even see a comic book character with big curly hair or big hips,” Rodriguez said. “Just to have even one when I was growing up would’ve made a huge impact on me.”

Her search for a powerful Latina comic book character ended after stumbling on the Puerto Rican superheroine La Borinqueña. The comic book created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez in 2016 shares its name with Puerto Rico’s national anthem and depicts a woman who tackles the island’s social and economic challenges.

Strides towards a more inclusive and diverse comic-book industry have become more visible in the last decade thanks to Miranda-Rodriguez and other pioneers who want to create a space to showcase Latinx stories through comics and graphic novels. And they’re making readers like Rodriguez excited for the future of diverse comic book stories.

“It is a phenomenon for us as Puerto Ricans,” Rodriguez said. “I love for others to see Puerto Ricans as great people, strong and very independent.”

‘I SEE MYSELF IN HER’

It wasn’t until recently that faces of Latinx characters showed up in comic pages.

The 2018 animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” featured an AfroLatino character transforming into Spider-Man — a superhero who has been portrayed as white since 1962.

In April, Marvel announced that Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as

NICHOLAS HERNANDEZ / NABJ & NAHJ

Janet Rodriguez looks over copies of comic books for her 11-year-old daughter before buying them at Exile Comics in the South Bronx, NY, on July 30.

Bad Bunny, will play the lead in the upcoming “El Muerto” — the first Latinx actor to star in a Marvel live-action superhero film.

That same month, Miranda-Rodriguez and actress Rosario Dawson partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council for a new edition of La Borinqueña centered on climate change. The fictional character, Marisol Rios De La Luz, will team up with Dawson to support expanding solar energy for Puerto Rico.

Miranda-Rodriguez, who created La Borinqueña in 2016, said he knew his character needed to be strong and female.

He looked to Puerto Rico’s past for inspiration, like Mariana Bracetti, leader of the Puerto Rico independence movement in the 1860s and creator of the first Puerto Rican flag.

He also drew from his own upbringing.

Raised by a single mother in the Bronx for a short time and mentored by Iris Morales, a member of the Young Lords — a group of revolutionaries who fought for social and civil rights for Latinos and Chicanos in the 1960s and ’70s — he said the character is a reflection of Morales and his mother.

“That is at the core what makes a project

A MULTI-GENERATIONAL CONNECTION Comic book characters of color have allowed fans to connect with characters in a new way.

Rodriguez’s 11-year-old daughter Elena said she finds the La Borinqueña series powerful. Elena said she struggles to speak up because she is shy, but thanks to La Borinqueña, who Elena says she tries to emulate, she is breaking out of her shell.

The comic book also introduced Elena to Puerto Rican culture and traditions.

The illustrations depict Puerto Rican and New York landmarks that make her feel closer to her two homes. Rodriguez also said the comic books allow for a motherdaughter connection that she wishes she could have forged with her own mother.

Miranda-Rodriguez has expanded La Borinqueña’s reach by creating action figures, the first Afro-Latina superhero toys.

He added La Borinqueña shows that “diversity isn’t just for the underrepresented; it’s for everyone, because great stories convey our shared humanity.”

WHO GETS TO TELL LATINX STORIES? In Texas, a Latino-centric comic book convention has taken off thanks to Hector Rodriguez III, a fifth-grade teacher who helped found Texas Latino Comic Con. “When was the last time you saw Batman eating empanadas or Superman eating pozole?” Hector Rodriguez asked.

The lack of representation led Rodriguez to create his own hero: El Peso Hero, a Mexican superhero who sought to fight the criminal organization of the cartels.

“I was not going to wait for somebody to

represent me,” he said.

He slowly developed the character over eight years, independently publishing it in 2011. The deportation of one of his students’ father pushed him to release the comic.

As he consoled his student, Hector Rodriguez said his eyes opened to the challenges facing Mexican immigrants. The first stories he wrote for El Peso Hero focused on tensions at the U.S.-Mexico border.

His students read the comic book and he said they saw themselves in the story. The comic book sold 5,000 copies the first year.

“I wanted El Peso Hero to be grounded, where he resembled a tio or abuelo,” he said.

THE FUTURE OF REPRESENTATION IN COMICS Comic book illustrator Mike Hawthorne’s goal is to bring Latinx characters further into the mainstream. The Puerto Rican artist has worked on artwork for SpiderMan comics, Wonder Woman comics and the storyboard for “Paws of Fury: Legend of Hank.”

Early in his career, he self-published the comic “Hysteria” in 2004, which took place on a fictional Caribbean island with an allLatinx cast. While he said the book failed, he recalled a publisher expressing that they had “no idea how to market this.”

Hawthorne said he bases characters on his own family. Eleanor Camacho, the daughter of super-antihero Deadpool, a Marvel comic book character originating in the ’90s, is based on his own daughter, he said, and the character’s grandmother was based on his Puerto Rican mother. He also is conceiving of new ways to infuse Spanish into the comics, like making Massacre, a supervillain who primarily appears in Spider-Man publications, speak only in Spanish.

“I think we have an obligation to try to push for that at every turn, where it makes sense, and try hard to make the characters as rich and nuanced as we can,” Hawthorne said. “It’s a new world, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. ... I feel privileged to get to be working in comics at this transitional time, and can’t wait to see what the next generation of kids grow up to make.”

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