Andrea Quijada, the Executive Director of the New Mexico Media Literacy Project (NMMLP), is working hard to address the issues that are important to her community.

“New Mexico is one of the poorest states in the country, so issues of poverty, hunger and accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate
healthcare are very relevant to our community. Universal access to broadband plays a role in addressing these problems.”

Andrea’s work has found its way into her personal hobbies in the form of a sitcom on the media justice movement that she is co-writing. Andrea is also currently enjoying walking her dog in the Sandia Mountains, working on a 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and maintaining birdfeeders for migrating birds. “Hummingbirds are my favorite and they are starting to head south for the winter so I’m sad to see them go.”

NMMLP is particularly concerned with how media impacts communities of color, so they are addressing these issues in a number of ways. “We are working on getting a hate speech ordinance passed in Albuquerque, and we’re working on presente.org's campaign to remove Lou Dobbs from CNN.”

I asked Andrea what was on the horizon for NMMLP. “We are changing our name to the Media Literacy Project (MLP) and unveiling our new logo before the end of 2009. We are also developing our media justice organizing arm and creating a new web site.”