Rose Monique Varela Henriquez reports for El Nuevo Herald in Miami, focusing on the Spanish-speaking immigrant communities of South Florida. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Varela Henriquez is a bilingual multimedia journalist with experience covering social justice issues and economic disparities. She interned at the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico, where her in-depth investigation uncovered how the island’s government halted a plan meant to assist homeless people during the pandemic. She also created data visualizations and carried out fact-checks on Puerto Rico’s governor candidate for the 2020 election. While working for Pulso Estudiantil, a student-run news site at the University of Puerto Rico, Varela Henriquez developed her photojournalism skills, and she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, magna cum laude, in 2020.
Beat: Nicaraguan, Honduran, Dominican and other Latino communities
This Report for America corps member boosts El Nuevo Herald's immigration coverage by focusing on daily-life issues within the area's diverse Spanish-speaking communities. Although Miami remains dominated by a large Cuban exile community dating back to the 1960s when tens of thousands fled communism under the Castro regime, it's also a vibrant melting pot of tens of thousands of immigrants who emigrated from the Americas. Among them: Nicaraguans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Chileans, Guatemalans, Dominicans, Argentines and Spaniards. This reporter focuses on all aspects of immigrant life in South Florida, from family life to workplace.