Since 1996, Damian Trujillo has been a NBC Bay Area News reporter, host and producer of “Comunidad Del Valle,” the longest running public affairs program in the Bay Area. Comunidad Del Valle now also airs in Spanish on Telemundo 48.
Damian has been honored with awards from the Associated Press, the Radio and Television News Director's Association (RTNDA), and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Damian was named "2004 Reporter of the Year" by the Associated Press Television and Radio Association for California and Nevada and five times nominated for an Emmy Award.
Damian grew up in Greenfield, about 2 hours south of San Francisco on Highway 101. While in high school, Damian worked in the agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley, with his family, to help make ends meet. He picked garlic, broccoli, cucumbers, and strawberries.
As a former farm worker, Damian now honors his first job, on the Cesar Chavez Holiday. Every March 31, Damian’s family hosts family, friends, and students. They make sacked lunches at the Trujillo home, and distribute them to roughly 250 farm workers in the South Bay. The gesture is a “thank you “ to farm workers, for their tireless work. In addition, each year, the Trujillo family awards a college scholarship to the son or daughter of a farm worker in Greenfield.
In 2012, Carolyn Brown, professor at American University in Washington D.C., produced a half-hour documentary on the life of Damian Trujillo titled “From the Fields: An American Journey”. Damian has screened the film at Stanford, Georgetown, and Harvard universities, at The National Steinbeck Center. And April 2013, Congress invited Damian for a special screening on Capitol Hill.
Damian and his wife Monica have a daughter, Malyna, and twins Isela and Michael Damian.
Follow Damian on social media: @NewsDamian on Twitter, @NewsDamian on Instagram and on Facebook.
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