Our Production Team

• 

  Fernanda Santos



Fernanda Santos

Editorial Director

Fernanda Santos has focused her career on elevating the stories of underrepresented and misrepresented communities. As editorial director of Futuro Media, she leads a talented newsroom that produces Latino USA, In the Thick and Latino Rebels, giving voice and space to the new American majority.

She is a professor of practice at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post and a writing coach in the Poynter Institute’s Power of Diverse Voices, a program focused on elevating the voices of journalists of color. She is also a co-writer of ¡Americano!, a musical based on the life of an Arizona Dreamer that ran Off-Broadway in the spring of 2022.

Fernanda got her start in journalism in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, her home country. She has reported in three languages across Latin America and the United States. She is a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and vice president of The Sauce Foundation, which honors her late husband’s memory by raising money for journalism scholarships and pancreatic cancer research. Her first book, “The Fire Line,” about 19 firefighters killed in one of the deadliest wildfires in the U.S., won a first-place award from the Western Writers of America in the nonfiction category. She is currently at work on a memoir.

• 

  Hector Luis Alamo


Hector Luis Alamo
Senior Editor
A Chicagoan living on the edge of Las Vegas, Hector is the former deputy editor of Latino Rebels; the former managing editor of Gozamos, an art-activism site based in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood; and the former political editor at Being Latino. He has contributed to RedEye, a Tribune-owned daily geared toward millennials; Hispanically Speaking News; La Respuesta, a Diasporican online magazine; Prensa Irreverente, a Spanish-language newspaper in Chile; along with a number of other publications. His work has been mentioned in The New Yorker and TIME, on Good Morning America, Latino USA, and Al Jazeera America, among others. His writing was featured in Ricanstruction, a comic book anthology whose proceeds went toward hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico.
Hector is also the founder and editor of MANO, a Latino countercultural website, and the host of the podcast LATINISH.
Hector studied history at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where his concentration was on ethnic relations in the United States and he worked the student newspaper as its opinions editor.
• 

  Oscar Fernández



Oscar Fernández

Producer, Latino Rebels Radio

Oscar Fernández has been the host and producer of the Latino Media Collective on WPFW 89.3fm since 2006. He got his start in radio production through low-power Radio CPR in Washington D.C. before becoming an intern and eventual line producer for Voices with Vision.

He has contributed to programs on Free Speech Radio News and the DC Radio Co-op as well as special election coverage for WPFW and the Pacifica network. He has also been a contributor to Latino Rebels since 2016 prior to joining Futuro Media.

In addition to his radio work, Oscar has also worked in the non-profit medical care industry since 2007, fiercely advocating for patient rights in Washington D.C.’s health care system.

The son of Salvadoran immigrants, Oscar is an avid bike rider, punk-rock enthusiast, and a student of Latin American & Caribbean history. He attended Coppin State University in Baltimore with a BA in print & broadcast journalism.

• 

  Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco



Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco

Caribbean Correspondent

Based out of Puerto Rico, Carlos Edill Berríos Polanco is the Caribbean Correspondent at Latino Rebels. He got his start in journalism by posting on-the-ground coverage of Puerto Rico’s protests to social media after being inspired by the many citizen journalists who covered the George Floyd Uprisings in 2020. He mainly covers civil unrest, political corruption, and climate, while also researching the ways in which extremist groups use apocalyptic narratives to further entrench their members within their ideology.

Carlos previously worked for Comic Book Resources as a freelance features writer and has written for Uppercut! and the now-defunct JumpCut PLAY. His photography and video work has appeared in Latino Rebels, NBC News, Telemundo, Gizmodo, and the documentary El Apagón – Aquí Vive Gente. He’s a proud member of the International Workers of the World Freelance Journalists Union.

Under the banner of Wired for Weird, Carlos makes video essays that spotlight the intersection of cyberspace, philosophy, and conflict through detailed analysis of pop culture.

Our Administrative Team

• 

  Julio Ricardo Varela



Julio Ricardo Varela

President, Futuro Media

As President for Futuro Media, Julio (Julito) Ricardo Varela is responsible for the business side of the organization and plays a key leadership role in overseeing the company’s editorial vision, alongside Maria Hinojosa.

Previously, he was the company’s Editorial Director, leading the teams at Latino USA, In The Thick, Latino Rebels and the Community Podcast Lab. As Vice President of New Business Development for Futuro Studios, he headed up the division’s new business initiatives, which have received industry accolades and have positioned Futuro for continued, sustainable success.

In 2011, Julio founded Latino Rebels, one of the top U.S. Latino digital media sites in the world. In 2018, LR officially joined the Futuro Media family. He has hosted Latino Rebels Radio since 2014 and continues to do so. He also co-hosts In The Thick with Maria Hinojosa. He is a frequent contributor to Latino USA, and as Digital Director for Futuro from 2015–2020, Julio expanded the show’s digital footprint, overseeing historic gains in online and social audiences.

Currently, he is also an MSNBC Opinion Columnist.

Before joining Futuro, Julio was Digital Producer for Al Jazeera America’s “The Stream” and his work has been featured in many global outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC News, Quartz, Le Monde, WGBH, WNYC, Face the Nation, Fusion, Univision and Telemundo. He has made numerous national TV appearances throughout his career.

In 2015, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists honored Julio with its inaugural DALE (pronounced like Pitbull would say it) Award, “given to an individual or company that steps up and goes above and beyond to ensure Latinos are fairly and accurately represented.” A native of Puerto Rico, Julio spent his childhood between San Juan and the Bronx. He was also a contributing reporter at The Boston Globe and a top publishing executive. Julio graduated cum laude from Harvard College.

• 

  Stacy Parker Le Melle



Stacy Parker Le Melle

Interim Development Director

Stacy is an author, teacher, and non-profit administrator who previously served as communications director and workshop director for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. She served as primary contributor to Voices from the Storm: the People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath and created The Katrina Experience: an Oral History Project. She founded Harlem Against Violence, Homophobia, and Transphobia and co-founded and curates Harlem’s First Person Plural Reading Series. She previously served in the Clinton West Wing as both an aide and advance person