Click a name to read more:

Carlos Amezcua, Marc Brown, Christine Devine, Laura Diaz,
Rick Garcia, Pat Harvey, Sylvia Lopez, Michaela Pereira

Christine Devine

Somewhere en route to being a Los Angeles news pioneer in May of 1992, Christine Devine slipped under the sociological radar when FOX-11 promoted her from weekend news anchor to weeknight 10 p.m. news anchor. Though viewers could see that Devine is not white, many people (including African Americans) were unaware of Devine's black, though not African American, genetic background. "I don't say that I'm not black," she said regarding her racial and ethnic background. "I say that I'm mixed. It's the truth, though. It's a blessing or a curse. Most people really don't know what I am.

"When I am with my Persian friends from Iran, they say I could be their sister. Some might guess Italian. I don't get identified as Mexican because my features are maybe more of a Brazilian Indian. So I don't tend to get pegged Latina or get invited to Latino functions because they don't see that. Because I am half-white--my mother is as Anglo as can be--I'm not totally adopted by the African-American community.

"Also because the black part of me is from a foreign country - Brazil. So, I don't have the African-American history, culture, roots, background, or family. My black heritage is from a foreign country. I never really fit in anywhere. So the beauty of that for me is that I don't fit in everywhere but maybe I do fit in everywhere. I try to be an example of it doesn't matter where you come from, your financial status, or your ethnicity. If you work hard and apply yourself, you can do a lot of what you want to do."

Devine comes from a background of people doing humanitarian work. Her Caucasian mother, Karen, worked with Peace Corps in Brazil and had a relationship with a black Brazilian man, who Devine declined to name. "The issue on that (her mother and biological father)," she explained, "is after the Peace Corps days, he came to the United States for a short visit and she decided not to continue her relationship with him. He went back to Brazil, started his life, she and I stayed in Buffalo, N.Y., with family and we started our life. I was conceived in Brazil and born in Upstate New York. I was told he looked like the soccer star, Pele.

"But I don't know my dad. We don't keep in touch. I don't know any family, I've never seen a photo," she says matter-of-factly.

Her mother married Dr. Jack Devine when the Afro-Brazilian girl was 2 years old. He legally adopted her and she became "Christine Devine." As a married couple living in Arizona, the Devines, both White, had another daughter. In addition, the couple adopted a Mexican boy and when Devine entered college her parents took in five Vietnamese refugee children. Living in Arizona, a state that has a notorious history in its race relations and policies, the Devines raised their racially/ethnically diverse offspring and adopted children in a strong cocoon-like environment. Because of this, Devine was oblivious to any racial tensions that may have existed during her childhood. She stressed that she felt no tension from the other people in the Southwest desert state. "I never noticed race until I came to L.A." she said. "We (the Devine family) always lived in semi-diverse areas--as diverse as you can be in Arizona.

"For example, my father was a principal on a Native American reservation, the Navajo reservation, for two years," she said. "That's a whole different ethnicity. My mom always taught in ethnic communities, if not inner-city schools, even back in Buffalo. So when I went to see my mom at work, there was a lot of diversity. My dad was a Head of Job Corps, which attracts a very ethnic student cliental. So I never really felt any kind of discrimination at all or noticed any animosity because I always saw a lot of different races and ethnicities of people."

Growing up in a United Nations-like household, Devine and her siblings were taught by their parents to love and respect all people regardless of race or ethnicity. "Through both my parents I have a compassion for humanity because they were in the Peace Corps," she said. "My dad worked in Tanzania, in very remote areas, as an educator. My mom worked in the slums of Brazil. Compassion for people who are hurting, suffering, don't have food, or experiencing violence, that was taught early on."

These and other factors combined to influence a universal, humanitarian outlook for the Arizona native. However, she did indicate that maybe she missed something in her upbringing. "The one influence I didn't have a large part of was the black influence in my life," the news anchor reflected. "There was not a large percentage of black people on the reservation or even in my schools.

"Ironically, given all the ethnicities and influences around me growing up, there was no strong black influence one way or the other. I didn't really ever think I was ethnic until people told me I was ethnic, as I got older. So when people would call me a certain ethnicity, I would say, 'Oh, I am?' Because I didn't know. Therefore, I kind of felt like one of my goals in life or career was perhaps to bridge the gap between the ethnicities. We didn't see that (black history/influence) in my family."

Devine has had an indifferent, at best, interest in trying to reconnect with her biological father. "Growing up, I had a father. I had a dad," she asserted. "But as I grew up and got older, I realized I didn't look like my dad. He was Anglo. As people would point out things, that's when it came to light. People would ask me, 'Do you want to meet your biological father?' I never thought about it until people would ask.

"Now, I am told by advisors and people who are my elders that I should go find him to ask him questions, get some answers so I can know myself better, etc., etc. To me, I always had a dad--Dr. Jack Devine! I had a dad!"

Her father would also be Devine's principal in high school, Tolleson Union High outside of Phoenix. It was there that Devine's interest in broadcasting developed, as well as a dedication to schoolwork and an enthusiasm for extracurricular activities.

"At first, I wanted to be a teacher, as my parents had become educators," she said. "Then I thought, 'Hey, in broadcast news you always know what's going on, you're always learning, you're always part of the world.'" In school, Devine was active on the School Improvement Committee, participated as a Pom-Pom girl, played on the Girls' Tennis Team, and served on Student Council.

But her interest in broadcasting started to grow. She hosted an on-campus high school television program called "Spotlight Tonight" and was voted Most Likely to Succeed by her senior class. And she knew she wanted to be a newscaster.

Aware of her ethnicity and her role as a woman at this period in her life, she developed an on-air persona, styled herself, and chose her influences accordingly. "Jayne Kennedy was an influence in that she was an African American, a woman of color, that you didn't always see," Devine commented. "She was so extremely beautiful as well as talented at her job. I thought that was kind of a rare combo. When you saw a lot of the other broadcasting ladies, they had the short bob and had very conservative suits on, as to where Jayne was GORGEOUS!

"There was a Phoenix reporter named Bill Mosley, who was African American, and Deborah Pyeburn, an Anglo woman. I kind of watched them. There weren't a lot of people of color on TV in Phoenix, black or Latino, during my childhood. There just weren't. So I never watched news in Phoenix and saw me," she lamented.

Upon graduation from Tolleson, Devine enrolled at Arizona State University. She majored in broadcast journalism. During that time, she worked various internships in the journalism field, utilized her athletic dancing talents as a cheerleader for the Arizona Wranglers/Outlaws of the mid-80s United States Football League, and worked in local Phoenix radio as an on-air personality. As the 1980s and her collegiate career were coming to their respective completions, Devine was clearly faced with some acknowledged racial friction. Politics focusing on issues of importance to African Americans in Arizona were in the ASU campus awareness and upon her graduation (B.A. in broadcast journalism) she faced a stinging incident with a colleague on her second broadcast job. "In dealing with the race issues in Arizona, you have to remember I was a kid," she explained. "So as a kid if people don't point those (subtle and overt instances of racism and prejudice) out to you, you don't know they exist. Perhaps that's a lack of my knowledge of history. Arizona is a relatively new state in relation to U.S. history. You don't have the history that you have in the South. You don't have the memories of the days of slavery or the Civil War. You don't have that in a place like Phoenix.

"I was in college during the Martin Luther King Holiday issue [Ed. Note The proposal for a King Holiday in Arizona was consistently voted down in Arizona until 1992]. But in college you're still a kid. To me, I experienced more racial friction in Los Angeles than Arizona, especially after I saw the riots in L.A. in 1992."

However, Devine faced an ugly display of racial friction as a broadcaster for WVOA-TV in Tucson, Ariz. "I was on my second job. I don't remember exactly what was done or said to trigger this but this photographer said, 'Devine, you're merely a token.' I just thought, 'I can't wait to prove you wrong.'"

Responding to this and other challenges both real and imagined, Devine joined FOX 11 in 1990 as weekend news anchor. Since that time, Devine has emerged as one of the best news anchors in the nation. She has won multiple Emmys for her broadcast work as well as other numerous awards. In combining her talents with her veteran weeknight co-anchor John Beard, the Associated Press named them Best Anchor Team in 1996.

Critical acclaim on projects has steadily come Devine's way since her promotion to weeknight news anchor at FOX 11 in 1992. Her multi-part news series "African-American Pioneers" received a second-place Greater Press Club Award in 1993. "The Black History Project," Devine's profile of outstanding Los Angeles individuals and groups during February 1993, received three awards: 1993 News Winner, National Black Programming Consortium; 1993 Los Angeles Local Emmy for Best Serious Mini-Documentary; and a 1994 Golden Eagle Award.

In September 1995, she wrote, anchored and produced "Dreambuilders," a half-hour news special that focused on Habitat for Humanity's blitz week in the Watts area. The building blitz led by former President Jimmy Carter resulted in the building of 21 new homes for Southland families. This piece netted Devine the Golden Mike for Best News special of the Year.

In 1997, she was nominated for a National Emmy award for hosting the half-hour special, "Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt: 27 years to Freedom," which included exclusive interviews with the former Black Panther following his release from prison.

Regarding her on-air presence as a black woman in a weeknight anchor position, initially Devine viewed her numerous accolades from Los Angeles' black community on a universal plain. However, during this interview, she was willing to reconsider her thinking. "If [African Americans] did congratulate me regarding my promotion, my presence, or my work, I just thought they were saying it because I was just a person doing a good job. I never thought anything deeper was happening (with their compliments). I guess . . . maybe it was," she shrugged with a bashful grin.

Her efforts in producing and hosting Wednesday's Child segments for the Wednesday night broadcast of FOX-11 News has garnered her much praise from child adoption agencies across the Southland. During this segment, Devine regularly profiles children hoping to be adopted into a family. She is often requested to host and/or speak at various community events.

With her thoroughness, compassion, and stoic demeanor, Devine has helped FOX-11 News accomplish critical acclaim and a loyal viewership. Along with its edgy lead-in programming, Devine has also made a solid contribution in sustaining FOX's popularity.

Click a name to read more:

Carlos Amezcua, Marc Brown, Christine Devine, Laura Diaz,
Rick Garcia, Pat Harvey, Sylvia Lopez, Michaela Pereira