Courtesy of Anna-Cat Brigida

A ferocious reader at a young age, Anna-Cat Brigida says her career as a journalist was born out of an obsession with words.

“I was a book nerd,” she says, adding that she knew early on that she wanted to be a writer. That desire was realized in high school when she enrolled in a course that focused on journalism and women’s empowerment, and then later as she pursued her college degree.

Brigida’s work as a journalist has taken her all over Latin America. After completing school she headed to Guatemala, where she reported on issues within indigenous communities – including indigenous justice systems and medicinal traditions. Since then, she’s worked in Mexico, El Salvador, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador.

“It’s a privilege to hear people’s stories,” Brigida says. After nearly four years of freelancing she’s reminded that one of the most powerful aspects of being a journalist is sharing stories that otherwise might not be heard.

What kind of stories does she tend to focus on?

“A little bit of everything,” Brigida says, which ranges from gender rights to security issues, migration, and environmental stories.

As Brigida shares details about her past reporting experiences she adds that it’s the freedom to report on a variety of issues that keeps her motivated to stay in the field as a freelancer. Which is exactly why she’ll be heading back to El Salvador at the end of her time in Honduras, where she’ll pick up her work – and maybe even a new book.

– Kyana Moghadam, Adelante Honduras Fellow, 2019