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Former Eyewitness News reporter Gloria Rojas, NYC's first Latina broadcast journalist, dies

Friday, February 4, 2022

Gloria Rojas, former Eyewitness News reporter, diesGloria Rojas, New York City's first Latina broadcast journalist and former Eyewitness News reporter, has died.

Former Eyewitness News reporter Gloria Rojas, New York City's first Latina broadcast journalist, has died at the age of 82.

Rojas died Wednesday at a nursing facility in Cambridge, Maryland.

She made her Channel 7 debut in September 1974 and remained with the station until January 1986.

A no-nonsense, street-smart reporter, Rojas distinguished herself for her sympathetic and concerned treatment of stories, earning numerous community and broadcast awards.

Her subject matter was wide-ranging, handling politics, poverty, human interest and more. She also produced numerous special reports and a documentary examining whether Puerto Rico should remain a U.S. commonwealth, or become a state or independent nation.

"Big news stories are not always the most satisfying. It's the little stories where you can really make a difference," Rojas told WABC-TV in the early 1980s for a news release on her career.

In January 1980, Rojas was elevated to lead news coverage in New Jersey, covering issues such as the state's dramatic drought, problems with toxic waste and the role of women in New Jersey politics.

Rojas was a native New Yorker who grew up in the Bronx and graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Before arriving at Channel 7, Rojas worked at WABC-TV's sister station WLS-TV Channel 7 in Chicago as well as WNEW-TV Channel 5, working on the show "Midday Live." Prior to that, she worked at WCBS-TV Channel 2 and WNDT-TV Channel 13, the former name of WNET, the public broadcasting station. Her program on the educational station taught English as a second language. Earlier, she had been an elementary and junior high school teacher.

Rojas also accomplished one of her life goals, publishing a book, "Fire Escapes: A Fictional Memoir."

"Fire Escapes is titled "A Fictional Memoir" for good reason. Seeing her own life in youth as being fairly conventional, in Fire Escapes she re-invents herself as "Justine Trinidad," whose mother died in childbirth and was raised in poverty by a spiteful grandmother. In this book Justine looks back on her troubled, motherless youth while working in a newsroom as a broadcast reporter. Rojas brings it all together as an interesting blend of an imagined life and vignettes culled from real events," according to a description of her book on Amazon.com.

Gloria Rojas was a role model to many of us and we mourn her passing.

Watch the video below to see some of Rojas' reporting for Eyewitness News.