Mandalit del Barco
Mandalit Del Barco () is an arts and culture reporter for National Public Radio (NPR). A fourth generation journalist, she was born in Lima, Peru to a Peruvian father and a Mexican American mother. Her stories are featured on all NPR shows, including "All Things Considered", "Morning Edition", and "Weekend Edition". Del Barco has also been published in numerous anthologies. After studying Anthropology and Rhetoric at U.C. Berkeley and writing for The Daily Californian, she earned her Masters in journalism at Columbia University, where she wrote her masters thesis entitled “Breakdancers; Who Are They and Why are They  Spinning On Their Heads?” She continued her career as a journalist for "The Miami Herald" and also spent time working for "The Village Voice". She first began working in radio while in New York. She moved to Los Angeles in 1993 from New York City, where she was a reporter for WNYC. She has lived in Los Angeles since 1993, and is a correspondent NPR News. Del Barco was raised in Oakland, California and has referred to it as her home town in interviews. She spent the year of 1999–2000 living and working in her native Peru as a Fulbright  Fellow and on a fellowship with the Knight International Centre for Journalists. While there she worked on a documentary project about the rise and fall of Alberto Fujimori as well as gathering the stories of those internally displaced during Peru's internal conflicts. Del Barco has had tremendous influence on many up-and-coming journalists. She has been a student mentor on all of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and Unity student projects as well as mentoring young journalists outside this venue. At its 2015 annual conference, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) presented Del Barco with  the Ruben Salazar Award for Communications, citing among her achievements, her "empowering young female journalists". In 2012, she was chosen by the public as having the "Best Name In Public Radio" according to a poll conducted by NPR.