Remembering Mia Navarro, Graduate of the Summer Program for Minority Journalists, 1979.

Remembering trailblazing journalist and graduate of early Maynard Institute programming Mia Navarro

Mia Navarro, former reporter for the New York Times and Editor-In-Chief of Brennan en Español at the Brennan Center for Justice, passed away this week after a long battle with breast cancer.

Navarro was a classmate of Maynard Institute Co-Executive Director Evelyn Hsu at the Summer Program for Minority Journalists in 1979.

“Mia was a classmate in the institute’s summer-long journalism ‘boot camp,’ the Summer Program for Minority Journalists. Her talent, ability and knowledge were obvious from the first day,” Hsu wrote.

Remembered by friends, family and colleagues

Navarro was remembered across social media platforms by friends and family and by the various outlets and professional organizations she worked for.

Friend and colleague Maite Junco wrote on Facebook: “We are heartbroken by the unexpected passing of our beloved friend Mireya Navarro, a fun-loving world traveler, fantastic cook and dancer, who journeyed in this world with impeccable taste and elegance. In the early 1990s, I’m pretty sure she was the only Puerto Rican woman reporter in the New York Times, elevating to the mainstream a gamut of hard and soft news stories, from women with AIDS to the ravages of hurricanes, from immigration to stepdogs and making traditional mallorcas.

She built a beautiful life with her husband Jim Sterngold.”

Junco also shared more information from Sterngold, who wrote, “I write to share the heartbreaking news that my wife, Mia Navarro, passed away yesterday after a 9-year battle with breast cancer. Mia was, through and through, a journalist and had a distinguished 28-year career at The New York Times.

She was very devoted to the paper, loved her years there, loved her close friends and colleagues and loved that she could contribute to the journalism on many important topics, from AIDS and the environment to 9/11 and public housing in New York. She wrote an article in the Times series, “How Race Is Lived in America,” which won a Pulitzer in 2001. She worked in Metro, was the Miami Bureau Chief for 5 years and worked in the Los Angeles bureau of the Times after we married so she could join me there.

Mia had a wonderful post-Times career, too. She joined the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU Law School as a senior media person then conceived, designed, built and then ran, as Editor in Chief, Brennan’s Spanish-language website, Brennan en Español. Her innovation significantly expanded Brennan’s reach into a community heavily impacted by the social justice issues Brennan illuminates and fights for.

And a brief comment for those of you – perhaps all – surprised to learn that Mia was fighting cancer for so many years. Mia made a decision after she was diagnosed that she desperately wanted to live the life she wanted to live, on her terms, without having to constantly answer for her disease with friends. She knew this was uncommon and would perhaps be unpopular – and she respected others who chose differently – but she reflected deeply and felt this was the path to the best life she could enjoy under the circumstances. She lived on her terms.”

Sterngold added that there will not be a funeral, but that details on a memorial service were forthcoming.

The Brennan Center wrote through LinkedIn: “It is with a very heavy heart that we share the news that Mia Navarro, our beloved colleague and the trailblazing editor in chief of Brennan en español, has passed. She has spent the last 8 years at the Brennan Center working to expand access to the democratic process to Latino communities, a cause she cared deeply about. We’re all heartbroken to lose her and will miss her brilliance, humor, kindness, humility, leadership, and friendship. We will continue to work towards her vision of an inclusive, diverse, multilingual democracy.”

Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, Chancellor of CUNY posted to Facebook, lauding Navarro’s coverage of the AIDS epidemic and her service as a role model for younger Latinx journalists.

“Saddened to learn of the passing of journalist Mireya Navarro after a long battle with cancer. A fellow Puerto Rican, she was a trailblazer at The New York Times in the early 1990s, covering the AIDS epidemic, the Caribbean and Central America before expanding her reporting to other beats. Through her pioneering work and example, she helped open doors for Latino journalists who followed,” Rodríguez wrote.

“After 28 years at the Times, she joined the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of their Spanish-language website.  She also shared her passion for journalism as an adjunct at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she created and taught a course on environmental reporting.

My heartfelt condolences to her husband, Jim Sterngold, a former CUNY Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, and to her colleagues, students, friends, and loved ones.”

Navarro was also remembered by NAHJ in a post that declared Navarro “a devoted champion of inclusive journalism, the Spanish-language and social justice in many forms.”

“A proud Boricua from the island, she also wrote fun features such as a story on the mallorca, a sweet, puffy, Puerto Rican pastry, and the ongoing debate between those who dance salsa on the two, versus those who dance old-school, on the one,” Former NAHJ President Evelyn Hernandez said.

“She launched the Spanish-language website Brennan En Español, a monthly newsletter, and as she put it, was ‘dedicated to informing the Latino community about issues of democracy and justice. We will remember her con cariño y orgullo.”