Cecilia Vega Becomes First Latina Correspondent For ’60 Minutes’
We’re one month into 2023 and Latinas are already making major strides
Photo: Instagram/@ceciliavegaabc
We’re one month into 2023 and Latinas are already making major strides. Meg Medina and Gloria Estefan made history this year as the first Latinas in their respective industries to achieve a milestone and now veteran journalist Cecilia Vega joins the ranks. Vega, the former ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, is joining CBS News as a correspondent for the oldest news show on TV, 60 minutes. The Emmy-Award-winning Mexican-American journalist is the first Latina correspondent in the show’s 55-year history. “This is a dream come true. I am beyond honored to join the ranks of this legendary show and to work alongside the best reporters in journalism,” Vega said in a statement.
The Bay area native began her career in journalism as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. After leaving the Chronicle, Vega joined ABC in 2011 as a general assignment reporter. However, Vega steadily climbed up the ranks in ABC, and in 2021 she became the first Latina to be named chief White House correspondent of an English-language network.
As the first to graduate college in her immediate family and a granddaughter of Mexican immigrants from a working-class family, Vega’s journey into entering the White House is what she describes to ABC News as an example of the “American Dream.”
“My family never would have expected anyone in our family to end up working at the White House, what an example of the American dream. To have the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants working at the White House.”
At ABC Vega has reported on major political news stories like Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential Election where she served as the lead reporter and the Donald Trump Administration where she was appointed as the senior White House correspondent. She will officially begin reporting for 60 minutes in the spring where she will continue to be based in Washington, D.C.
We love to see Latinas reach notable positions in the world of journalism. As a Latina from a working-class family who worked her way up, it’s proof that anything is possible. 60 Minutes is considered the No.1 news program in the U.S. and with more than 60 million Latinxs in the U.S., this level of representation matters.
“Dream big. I mean this with all of my heart, If I can end up here you can end up right here too. And you should,” Vega told ABC News about what advice she would like to offer young journalists.
60 minutes aires every Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.
