Cindy Gonzalez: Omaha’s Voice, Latino Stories, Relentless Integrity

For more than 35 years, Cindy Gonzalez has been one of Omaha’s most trusted storytellers. An Omaha native, she has carved out a career not just writing headlines, but shaping how we see our city and ourselves.

Cindy’s reporting has spanned business, real estate development, city politics, immigration, demographics, and the stories of diverse communities, including Latinos. Her beat is expansive, but what ties it all together is her commitment to fairness, nuance, and giving voice to people often left out of the daily narrative.

She was one of the first women in her newsroom to cover City Hall, a landmark not just for her but for the representation of all women, especially Latinas, in journalism. Over her decades in newsrooms, especially at the Omaha World-Herald and now at the Nebraska Examiner, she has weathered the changes, the challenges, and has mentored others along the way.

Cindy’s work has particularly mattered to the Latino community in Omaha. She has reported on immigration, civil rights, housing, workforce issues, and how policy decisions at City Hall affect people in our barrios, not as abstractions, but as neighbors, families, people whose lives are touched deeply by those decisions.

She also brings her identity, and lived experience, to her reporting. Because she’s somebody who grew up here, who understands the cultural context, she knows when to ask the right questions, when to hold power accountable for underrepresented voices, and when to simply listen. Her presence in the newsroom has meant more Latino representation, not only in coverage but in who gets to tell the stories.

Cindy’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. She’s won awards from the Associated Press, SABEW (Society for Advancing Business Editing & Writing), Great Plains Journalism, and others. Her reputation is one of integrity, doggedness, and heart.

More than that, though, is the impact known by people who’ve seen themselves in her pages, who’ve had a local issue finally covered with respect and depth, who’ve been given voice. That kind of impact matters; it builds trust, civic engagement, a stronger community.