of interviews with gang members in New York City; and Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America, her experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago and as an adult witness to the US immigration crisis. In addition, she interviewed various notable Latinos(as) for Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' 2011 HBO television special The Latino List. The special inspired the publication of a photo book, The Latino List/La Lista De Latinos, co-authored by Hinojosa that includes transcriptions of their interviews. The Latino List: Volume Two premieres on HBO on September 24, 2012. Hinojosa began hosting the National Public Radio show Latino USA in 1995 and continues to host today. Latino USA is produced exclusively by The Futuro Media Group. Hinojosa's first journalism experience was as host of a Latino radio show while she was a student at Barnard College, where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Latin American studies in 1985. Hinojosa has a cameo in 2021's In the Heights film, playing the part of a protest leader at a DREAMer immigration rally. Personal life Maria Hinojosa was born in Mexico City, the daughter of Berta Maria Ojeda Y de Teresa and Dr. Raul Efren Hinojosa Prieto. She moved with her family to the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park in 1962 after her father was appointed to the surgical faculty at the University of Chicago. She currently lives in Harlem with her husband, the Dominican painter German Pérez, and their adult son and daughter. In a 2021 episode of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Hinojosa learned that her 11th great-grandfather on her father's side was Diego de Montemayor, a Spanish conquistador and the founder of the Mexican city of Monterrey, and that her third great-grandparents on her mother's side, who lived in Cuba, were members of the Spanish nobility. It was also found that her direct matrilineal line is indigenous Mexican. Honors and awards Hinojosa has won numerous honors and awards for her work, most recently the 2012 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism. Other recognition includes the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Reporting on the Disadvantaged, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Radio Award, the New York Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Award, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club, the Sidney Hillman Prize, the National Council