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

Sylvia Lopez

Many times the career one prepares for is not the career one ends up with. Such is the case with KCAL 9's Sylvia Lopez, the petite weeknight news anchor whose 9 p.m. broadcasts are sandwiched between those of KCAL's "First Lady," Pat Harvey. Lopez entered USC as a public relations major. But thanks to an insightful mentor, she is now one of Los Angeles' weeknight primetime faces.

"Fortunately for me, the School of Public Relations was within the School of Journalism. So you had to learn how to write," she said. "You got a good, strong background in reporting. There I met a wonderful man and mentor, Dr. Felix Gutierrez. He suggested to me that although I like public relations, I should look into an internship at KNXT-TV (now KCBS)." From there, it was the start of big things for Lopez.

The dark-haired Latina's sojourn started in the Ladera Heights area of Los Angeles. Her parents were a dental team: her father was a dentist and her mother was his assistant. The Lopezes had the future newscaster and followed her up with three younger brothers. The name of one of the brothers would shed a light on young Sylvia's future.

"My mother named one of my brothers 'Reuben,' after Reuben Salazar, the first Latino staff writer for the Los Angeles Times," she said, reflecting on her early influences in journalism. "There was really no one to look to connect to when I was growing up watching national or local broadcast TV. I did admire Reuben Salazar. He was someone who gave voice to people who were silenced. This was something my parents so believed in when I was growing up."

Lopez was raised in a devout Catholic family and attended Catholic schools throughout her youth. She attended St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey as a teenager and found the mixture of students appealing.

"My parents wanted to send me to St. Mary's in Inglewood," she said. "And I was like, 'Uh-uh. No way.' It was an all-girls school. St. Bernard was co-ed. There were a lot of surfer kids, African-American kids, a handful of Latino kids. It was a little bit of everything. Back then it was a really nice mixture of students from all ethnicities and we all got along really, really well."

After Lopez graduated from St. Bernard, she enrolled at Loyola Marymount University. She majored in public relations then transferred to El Camino College to wrap up her general studies. She then transferred one last time to USC where she graduated as a Trojan with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Almost immediately after graduation, she landed her first television job in Santa Fe, N. M. She returned to the Los Angeles airwaves shortly thereafter, becoming a part of the KCAL news organization in 1992.

In the years since then, Lopez has covered major national and international stories of importance. In 1995, she went to Washington, D.C. to cover the Million Man March. In 2005, she provided live reports from Cologne, Germany on Pope Benedict's first international trip. She has traveled extensively through Mexico. Lopez ventured through the southern border to report on Guatemalan refugees. Her journey through the northern border towns provided an investigative series on drug cartels.

Because of this type of work, Lopez has garnered numerous honors including Emmys, a Golden Mike, and an Associated Press Award for a special on homeless children living on the streets of Skid Row. Additionally, she received the coveted Imagen Award from the national coalition of Christians and Jews for a series of reports she wrote, researched, and produced focusing on significant issues facing Mexican Americans.

The 9 o'clock news anchor was especially encouraged by the passion and demonstration efforts shown by the Southland's Latino students focusing on impending immigration bills and laws the last two years. "Personally, I believe all students should be in school," she made clear. "But I'm glad that kids are learning and becoming active. They are getting involved and are generally aware of various issues that happen in their lives that affects them."

The fact that there were rarely prominent, non-white weeknight news anchors did affect Lopez as a young news observer in college. Most of the most diverse news teams seen during her collegiate years were and are still to this day on Saturday and Sunday news programs. "The weekend barrio or weekend ghetto," she cracked. However, she remained optimistic and continued to work hard upon entering the industry. Equally beneficial were great allies in the newsroom, she said.

"I've always had bosses that really support me and were willing to put me out there and give me fabulous assignments. They sent me to Europe to cover the Pope, Washington D.C. to cover the Million Man March, a few years back they helped me produce a very long series on Latinos called 'The Emerging Majority.' I have been really blessed with great bosses."

With the help and support of these administrators along the way, Lopez has created a very professional persona on screen. "I take that very seriously," Lopez said. "I see myself as a representative of many people in our community. Not everyone. But I know they see me [on television] and they see me as a representative of them. I really value that and take that seriously, especially for our young people."

Consistent with that frame of thought, Sylvia Lopez spends much of her time speaking at community events. She sits on the board of Families in Schools, a non-profit organization that works to ensure that parents are involved in their children's education. Her goal in being a part of the Southland community is really caring for the people of the community.

Click a name to read more:

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