Oscar Lopez

Oscar Lopez is a Mexican writer and freelance journalist living in Mexico, where he covers violence, politics, and human rights. Most recently, he spent two years reporting for the New York Times in the Mexico City bureau. Prior to joining the Times, Lopez was Americas correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, where he covered LGBT+ rights in the United States and Latin America. As a freelancer, he has reported in more than a dozen countries for the likes of the Guardian, Time, the Times of London, the Washington Post, and many more.

While at Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Lopez is working on a book project examining the phenomenon of forced disappearance in Mexico. Using the shocking abduction of 43 students in 2014 as a point of departure, the book will reveal how the disappearance of more than 100,000 people in Mexico is inextricably linked to the forces, policies, and lives across the border.

Lopez is a graduate of both the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford, where he obtained a master’s degree in creative writing. He has received numerous accolades for his journalistic work, including a 2016 GLAAD Media Award and a 2019 Excellence in International Coverage Award from the NLGJA: The Association of LGBT+ Journalists. In 2020, The NLGJA named Lopez Journalist of the Year. Also a Livingston Award finalist, Lopez was named the 2023 Josephine Patterson Albright fellow by the Alicia Patterson Foundation.