“Ten years after California’s Orange County Register named Yvette Cabrera a news columnist after the newsroom’s Latino Task Force complained that the paper’s white, conservative columnist wasn’t the “cross-section of columnist’s voices” the Register needed, Cabrera has been laid off,” according to the Maynard Institute, which was founded almost four decades ago to promote diversity in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices.
Cabrera won the David McQuay Award for Best Columnist award at the annual Orange County Press Club Awards Gala on July 20, 2011. She wrote for the Register for 13 years, according to Media Moves.
2-1-1 Orange County, a county referral system that connects people in need with local nonprofits that can help them, also honored Cabrera, last May, for her work raising awareness of health and human services needs in Orange County.
Cabreera’s work was also honored by OC Human Relations, a nonprofit agency that promotes diversity, and seeks to eliminate prejudice and discrimination, among OC residents, last May.
And per this KCET press release, she also recently won a Gracie Award for her work on SoCal Connected, which was reported by Media Bistro.
Cabrera was one of five Register newsroom personnel that were caught up in this latest round of layoffs. Cabrera is the current president of the Latino Journalists of California (CCNMA).
Cabrera was hated by many of the Register’s racist readers, as the OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano attested to in his recent article about her firing:
But because she was a Latina, Cabrera quickly became the most-loathed reporter in the history of the Register, her name becoming code among the Reg’s troglodytic readers for a story that dared show Latinos as human beings–in other words, the most disgusting abomination since the election of Barack Obama. A simple story she might do about Latinos–say, a student going to college, or mothers organizing to get healthy–unleashed waves of nastiness better suited for the message boards of Stormfront, and that was just the stuff that was out in public. Who knows what private insults she suffered–yet all along, Cabrera suffered these indignities with class, never lashing out at critics, always keeping that same radiant smile.
You can follow Cabrera on Facebook at www.facebook.com/columnistcabrera, and on Twitter at @YCabreraOC. She had this to say on Facebook, today, about her layoff:
My dear readers, last Wednesday the OC Register laid me off from my job as a local news columnist. For 12 years I’ve met and written about some of the most amazing people in Orange County. I’m so thankful that all of you were a part of what I saw as a dialogue for change in our community. Stay tuned. I will let you know where I land. Adelante!
Obviously the newspaper industry is hurting, but at a time when Latinos in Orange County are rising in number if not in influence, how can the O.C. Register lay off such a great reporter? It doesn’t make any sense. This certainly won’t sell more newspapers. I wish Cabrera the best and am looking forward to her next move.
Excuse me but didn’t you cancel your Register subscription? How do you expect the paper to pay salaries if you just read it for free on the Internet?
I cancelled the daily subscription but eventually signed up for Sunday delivery. That said, newspapers do have a dilemma. The printed news is old news.
I think she just ran out of people/organizations to write about. At some point it just becomes silly to try to dig up “heros”. How many times can your write about Rubon Martinez, the barber who used to cut hair but now sells Chicano books?
Yes, Admin we know that you favor internet news over print. We also know just how insensitive that you can be to the plight of different industries and work forces. The modern economy is going to continue to be unprepared for radical technological changes. How are we going to manage most of the further crisis? “Yvette Cabrera” Her name sounded familiar. I just looked up my Occupy archives and found this positive article that she wrote about one of my O.C.Occupy Brothers.
Thurs. Jan 20. She writes, “Like so many other Americans, Coveney, 43, has spent the past couple of years as a casualty of recession. In 2009, he lost a job overseeing shipments and deliveries …..
And now Yvette, we can count you to the list of recent corporate layoffs. See you at Occupy Santa Ana Yvette! We have a soul. Corporations do not.
I worked at the Register years ago, in production and in advertising. I love newspapers. But the print ship has sailed…
Most industries in America are being sent to drift Admin. The question is, who is capable of thinking Post- industry? The fact that some Americans if not most Americans are all completely brainwashed into thinking that American quality of life should be judged by some propaganda tool such as G.N.P. or G.D.P. is so sorry. Economic standards and measurements are tools of repression. Release yourselves! You are not material cogs for man-made mechanistic slavery. Grow Local. Buy Local. Blog Local. Starve the Financial Terrorist Beast. Did you save your home from forclosure yet, Admin. Write me. I’ll send you proof of the illegality of that whole banking-mortgage process in the last 15 years.
You have to keep up with the times. There are always opportunities to succeed.
I already told Homeland Security that you publish Occupy reports. So be prepared to be shut down. There goes your personal paper-less media industry. Cheers.
“I wish Cabrera the best and am looking forward to her next move.”……. Hmmmmm
Affirmative action as always.
good looking hottie she should’nt have problem getting a job anywhere…
If she owns a tight blouse and skirt she might try T.V. weather or traffic reports. There seems to be a high demand for the Hot Latina Tamales on local T.V. news
Cabrera could always be counted on for a one-sided, Save the Illegal stories about how hard these lawbreakers have it. Good riddance.
“This certainly won’t sell more newspapers.”
Her layoff certainly won’t sell LESS.
It’s nice to see all those emails to the editor paid off. Her writing is better suited to LA Opionion or a similar outfit.
What happened to Galvin?
Going on three weeks without a story, a post. Said to have scrubbed his FB PAGE and removed other “press” related data.
Did he lose his job, maybe because he falsified something? Perhaps a story? Strange. He was all the “Buzz” in Santa Ana (allthewhile living in Long Beach)and now not a peep.
Andy, Andy where are you??????
I am trying to get a hold of Yvette Crabera. She wrote an article of my grandfather back in 2003. If you read this please reach out to me.
https://www.facebook.com/reporteracabrera/