La Voz’ previous employees/interns have gone on to do great things.

La Voz newspaper has been a presence in Denver for 38 years and with its long history, comes a long list of individuals whose name is attached.

Scan through the pages of La Voz and you’ll most certainly find captivating images of the people and events that have left a mark in Denver. Many of those photos have come from the lens of a man who’s been doing it for countless years — James Baca. Baca, a self-proclaimed “local Denver kid from the projects,” began his relationship with La Voz in 1973 after meeting La Voz’ publishers during a Chicano rally. “ . . . that’s when our relationship started,” Baca said.

Baca worked for Rocky Mountain News in the ‘70s through 1980 and was then hired as a photographer over 30 years ago by Father Woody who was the editor of the Denver Catholic Register. He’s captured Pope John Paul II’s visit to Denver in the ‘90s, a touching photo of Mother Teresa’s feet as well as photos of local and national Latino community leaders like Cesar Chavez. “I think Mother Teresa had the biggest impact of all my assignments,” Baca said. He still contributes to other publications and nonprofits.

“I’ve always remained a contributor to La Voz. I’ve been very proud to be associated with them for almost 40 years now,” he reminisced. “The thing that I love about La Voz is that it goes directly to our community and that’s one of the things that separates it from other papers in the state, we talk about our people and we talk about our pride and the struggle.”

Joe Contreras is the owner and general manager of LatinLifeDenver.com and Latin Life Denver Magazine. Recently, Contreras contributed to La Voz as a writer. He began as an editor for La Voz right after graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Contreras said the experience served him as a launching pad, which eventually led him to work at KMGH-TV in several roles for over 30 years.

“I thank [La Voz publishers] for their mentoring and guidance and helping me stay focused on my career path and without them I would not be the person I am today,” Contreras said. After returning and working for La Voz for about a year, he said the opportunity helped him “… relaunch myself for a second career and I am forever grateful for that.”

Angela Cortez started her career as a paid La Voz intern and soon after became an editor for about a year. She is a graduate of Lincoln High School and the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Her career is marked by her work as a reporter for the Denver Post and a freelancer for several publications and has dabbled in other industries. She currently serves as Associate State Director of Communications for AARP for Colorado.

Chris Fresquez began his newspaper career working at La Voz. Fresquez established his family-owned newspaper, where he is the publisher, El Semanario in 1989 in an effort to bring attention to Colorado’s culturally rich Latino community. The weekly newspaper documents issues and events for a community whose roots are entrenched in this state.

Francisco Miraval served as editor of La Voz and also provided translation services to the newspaper. Miraval founded Project Vision 21 in 1997, which provides bilingual “news and information” services to numerous media outlets, according to their website. His other ventures include serving as program director of the nonprofit U.S. Hispanic Christian Chamber of Commerce Foundation and teaching at Colorado Christian University and Colorado Heights University.

Reporter, editor, teacher and T.V. personality are just a few titles associated with Sherri Vasquez. She is currently the host and producer of “Latin View” broadcast locally on KBDI 12 and airing on several markets nationally. The award-winning television host worked at La Voz as editor-in-chief in her mid twenties. Vasquez has also worked for other publications like Rocky Mountain News and as press secretary during Gov. Roy Romer’s re-election campaign, among other endeavors.

Representing the voice of an organization that addresses the issues most important to the senior citizen community in Colorado, to several individuals who’ve continued to work in the media spotlight in print and/or television, La Voz is and has been a career starting point for many of these talented people.