Alumni Spotlight: Felipe De La Hoz '13

Using photos to tell a story came so natural to De La Hoz that he matriculated to New York University preparing for a career as a photojournalist. And while the saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, De La Hoz soon realized that a thousand words could sometimes tell a more complete story.

Now, 11 years later, De La Hoz is an investigative and explanatory journalist who specializes in immigration coverage for outlets such as “The New Republic,” “The Intercept,” and “The Daily Beast” while also lecturing at New York University and serving on the editorial board of the New York Daily News.

Needless to say, writing was a core aspect of the journalism program at NYU, but De La Hoz went beyond the student newspaper during his early years in college, also writing for local publications such as “The Village Voice.” It was one investigative piece in particular that pushed him down the road to being a writer.

“I spent about a month or a month and a half doing an investigation about the mishandling of a sexual assault complaint that had taken place among some students,” De La Hoz said. “I sat down with the university’s communications team in a relatively tense meeting and the upshot of that experience, of seeing the ability to ask questions and raise issues in that way, was definitely a big motivator toward continuing to pursue print journalism.”

One reason De La Hoz ended up developing a focus on immigration is because of his own immigration journey. His father worked for the Inter-American Development Bank and from the ages of 4-11, they lived in the Washington, D.C., area. From here they moved to Mexico City then Brasiilia. During his early high school years, he spent a summer as part of the Oxbridge Academic Programs in New York and realized he wanted to return to the United States to attend college. From there it made sense to finish his final two years of high school in America which led him to St. Andrew’s.

“I had my own immigration journey, springboarding between a few different visas,” De La Hoz said. “It was very long and tedious in the ways that these processes tend to be and that obviously leaves a mark on you.

“The character of the United States is most indelibly impacted by immigration. There is no United States without a history of immigration. When I first started writing about this in 2016 and 2017, it was, and it continues to be, a big issue politically. There were a lot of public conversations about enforcement and how do we handle this? Asylum really took off in the public consciousness. I just kind of started writing about it and then I got better versed in it and then I became known as somebody who wrote about the topic.”

While De La Hoz only spent two years at St. Andrew’s, there were aspects of his experience that left a mark on him. He visited Bokamoso, South Africa during his time in the Upper School and commented that “the oral history project is basically journalism.” He mentioned Kurt Sinclair’s theoretical physics class as briefly inspiring him to consider physics as a second major in college. As far as his future, De La Hoz enjoys being a freelancer and while he’s “not a five-year plan person,” he definitely sees himself continuing to teach journalism.

“I like having a hand in how the next generation of journalists is conceptualizing their work and their approach. That’s definitely something I want to do long term.”