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

Michaela Pereira

Michaela Pereira joined the popular 7 a.m. "KTLA Morning News" program on Channel 5 in February 2004. Facing the formidable task of replacing the popular Giselle Fernandez, Pereira quickly established an on-air chemistry with her co-anchor Carlos Amezcua, weatherman Mark Kriski, and entertainment reporter Sam Rubin. She has helped KTLA reap critical acclaim as "Morning News" has won multiple Emmys during her short time with the program. In the process, she developed a fanbase with the Los Angeles market, in general, and the local black community, in particular. The favorable mutual response with Pereira and African Americans is interesting, given that she is African Canadian with a Jamaican blend. Equally interesting is the path that got her into television.

"I was in college (University of Victoria), and I had an opportunity to audition for an ad campaign about diversity," she explained, "It was a campaign called 'Imagine a World Without Contrast.' I jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this. From there, it sort of led from one thing to another. A year and a half later, I was asked to audition for an afternoon magazine-styled show as a fill-in relief host. When the regular host decided to leave permanently, I was the next person to step in."

Stepping in and hosting a television show was not in Pereira's future plans while in college. She saw herself going into something other than on-camera endeavors, such as teaching school or serving as a United Nations translator. Reflecting on her formative years, she can now see how she got to this point in her career. Pereira recognizes there were indicators.

"When I look back, I was the school reporter for the town's newspaper, on the debate team, valedictorian, I did the school announcements on the intercom in fifth grade. So I obviously had an aptitude for talking, storytelling, and communicating. At first I thought my landing in TV was random. But as you look back, you can see a mouse trail that led you to where you are," she observed.

Still, she had doubts that she could make it as an on-camera television newscaster. Despite doing print ad modeling in college, she felt that her appearance just wasn't what the general viewing public wanted to see. Growing up in Vancouver Island in Canada watching the local Canadian stations and getting some U.S. feeds by way of Seattle, Pereira saw no one in television she could really connect to or pattern herself after.

"I don't look like a newscaster. Let's be honest. I'm curvy, my hair is curly, in a lot of markets my skin is a little too dark--you know what I mean? I'm not a typical looking newscaster, so I didn't model myself after anybody. The first person to give me really great advice told me, 'be yourself.' She was Moyra Rodger. She is a friend and a mentor. She gave me my first TV job."

The newscaster's apprehension is understandable. Growing up in the western part of Canada, the Vancouver black population was small. Pereira indicated that the black presence has grown over the years in western Canada but does not rank with the eastern portion of the country. "The black community in Canada is largely in Toronto and Halifax. I didn't see blacks on TV news when I was growing up. I remember seeing women and that was something I could hang onto," she said. "But I don't know when it was that I first saw a person of color in Canada, growing up in the '70s and '80s. Maybe the late '80s."

Although she did not see Blacks often on television or in her childhood, she knew who and where they were. "The east coast of Canada," she stressed. "That's the community that you see in Toronto and Halifax. Those are Blacks that are the descendants of slaves from the Southern United States who came up to Canada during the time of the Fugitive Slave Act in the 1800s. Also in the east, there is a huge Black population from the Caribbean Islands, where my biological father is from. You also have blacks from African countries who have migrated over.

"Canada had Black government officials in the late 1800s," she continued, "who came to California and told the black people they could come to British Columbia and be free, have their own land. And for a while, there were settlers on some of the islands, on Salt Spring Island. There were several black families there. Some of them stayed, some of them left."

Pereira's adoptive parents, the Thomsons, were both from British Columbia. She characterized them as progressive, selfless people. They are white and embraced Pereira and her four other sisters, who were also adopted. While Pereira is black, her four adopted sisters are all Native American. "My parents were young in the late '60s coming into the 1970s," she said. "My father was a social worker and my mother a primary school teacher. They found themselves in these small communities with large Native American populations. The people there found themselves marginalized.

"My mom and dad are caring, God-fearing people who saw a need. Someone approached them about adopting a 4-year-old named Darlene. They adopted her and the floodgates kind of opened! Then they got a knock on the door and somebody says, 'We got an infant,' -- that was me -- 'would you like to adopt this baby?'"

Ultimately, the couple would adopt three more Native American girls (Sheila, Laurie and Mary Lou) after unsuccessfully attempting to get some boys. "So my parents ended up," the newscaster whoops with a laugh, "with a house full of girls!" Pereira's adoptive parents provided a solid, loving home and family that she feels fortunate to have grown up in. The family went on trips, looked out for one another, got odd looks, and some hostility from outsiders. Through it all, she appreciates her adoptive parents. "They opened their home to five little girls who -- by other people's definition -- would be considered trash, throwaway children," she said.

The knowledge and issue of her biological parents is a more difficult situation for Pereira to deal with. Her father was a Black Jamaican and her mother was a white Canadian. They had a relationship that resulted in Pereira and then the mother, who Pereira requested not to name, put the infant up for adoption. Because of the great relationship that she had with her adopted family, Pereira felt to look for her birth parents would be "breaking the mold, tempting the fates, uprooting history." She denied to all who would ask as well to herself that she wanted to find out about her biological parents.

"For 25 years I denied it," she said. "Then you get older, a little wiser. I realized I was lying to myself."

In the beginning of her search she discovered terrible news. Exactly a year and a week before her search, her biological mother had died of colon cancer. At the time of this knowledge, Pereira was 28.

"Turns out she had been sick for six years with colon cancer," she lamented. "Seems to me, when you are on your deathbed, that is the time you come clean with all your past stories and secrets. And it was painful for me because that was something that she was unable to do.

"Unfortunately, that closed the door for me because I am now unable to find out who my birth father is. That is frustrating because it is from him that I get my beautiful curls, hair, my shape, and face. That is very hard for me. It's taken a lot out of me emotionally."

Despite the mysterious element of the identity and knowledge of her biological parents and growing up with White adoptive parents and Native American sisters, Pereira strongly identifies with being Black. She offered an interesting perspective on being Black in the United States and being Black in Canada. "I feel more empowered as a Black person in the United States," she said. "Mainly because there are more of us around. There is a shared experience. There are people doing things. There are leaders, politicians, writers. Of course, athletes and entertainers but there are people of consequence doing things. People are going back into the community to make things right."

In Canada, Pereira indicated that the people considered the lowest and who endure the most hostility are Native Americans. She saw and got into fights defending her adopted Native American sisters. "They were called 'drunken squaws,' 'No good,' and 'trash,'" Pereira recalled. "It hurt me. I sympathized with them. I saw discrimination vicariously through them."

According to Pereira, African-Canadians rank higher in Canada's social class system. "Because of that," she said, "blacks in Canada have a different mindset. They don't see and are not constantly reminded that they can't do this or that or go here or there. Also, they have a different history than African Americans. History can shape your mindset, believe me. When you have the knowledge that your ancestors were forcibly taken from their homeland and enslaved and had to accept and endure inhumane treatment. That seed stays planted and can affect a community, a culture.

"Contrast that with someone whose ancestors escaped slavery to start a new, prosperous life or someone who willingly came from the Caribbean or somewhere in Africa. The person who came over unforced is more likely to have a freer, perhaps more relaxed, mindset and outlook."

In the early 1990s, after Pereira was out of college, Victoria celebrated its first Black History Month in a grand get-together festival. It was a special, energizing experience for Pereira. For one of the first times in her life she didn't feel highly different or unusual within a congregation of people. "I see all these black people up there celebrating," she beamed. "And I'm going, 'Where did you all come from?' 'I've never seen you before!' That was such a great sense of connection! Growing up as I did feeling that the people I am seeing aren't really like me, not with the color I have, always feeling different. Let me tell you, when I am around black people--whether it's in this community or that day in Victoria--I feel a part of something, I feel connected, and I feel at home."

In her home in Canada, Pereira started out playing a variety of roles on Canadian television. She appeared in commercials, documentaries, and music videos. She eventually landed a job co-hosting an afternoon magazine show as well as doing weather reports for the evening news and hosting a weekly entertainment show for CHEK-TV from 1994-98. TechTV saw her talent and hired her in May of 1998 to come down to the U.S., in San Francisco, to host "Internet Tonight." It was a humorous daily half-hour show whose focus were online news, community affairs and pop culture. She won two Emmys for her work. During that time, she also served as guest co-host with Roger Ebert on the nationally syndicated, "Roger Ebert at the Movies." Pereira says it was a "great thrill to see my brown thumb OKing or dumping a movie on national TV." Pereira went on to co-host "Tech Live," the station's live, daily news and information program that emphasized computers and the Internet.

Upon her arrival in Los Angeles after being hired to co-anchor "KTLA Morning News" in February 2004, Pereira was nervous as to how she would be received by viewers. Her apprehensions and doubts were immediately soothed by the Los Angeles community, in general, and the Southland black community, in particular. "The love has been tremendous," she says. "The black community has embraced me as one of their own. I felt like, 'I'm from Canada-they'll see me as an outsider.' I have been given so many hugs at community affairs with, 'Ms. Pereira, we are so glad to see you on the air,' 'We're so proud of you,' 'Thanks for representin',' 'Thank you for being part of our community.' It's like coming home. That is what makes L.A. feel like home."

There have been numerous blacks over the years who have anchored weekend television newscasts and weekday early morning (i.e., 5-7 a.m.) newscasts across the nation and here in Los Angeles. However, the promotion to prime anchor positions in local television news (i.e., mornings 7-10, evenings at 6, 10, and 11) in Los Angeles for black newscasters has been rare and elusive. This is why Harvey, Brown, Devine, and Pereira are so unusual. In addition, with the hiring or promotion of these individuals, viewers with knowledge of the Los Angeles history regarding black newscasters will take notice. This is especially true with black viewers.

With these four anchors, black news watchers can look at KCAL 9, KABC 7, FOX 11, and KTLA 5 and believe that these stations are truly committed to being successful by hiring or promoting the best personnel. And all people can appreciate the respective upper managements of these news organizations for taking that position. It shows that opportunity is real and something not just spoken.

Click a name to read more:

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