Tammy Mendoza-Mayorga

Tammy Zoad Mendoza-Mayorga is a Nicaraguan journalist and editor, now living in exile in Texas. She spent nearly two decades in Nicaraguan media, at La Prensa - producing investigations, chronicles, and profiles on historic, cultural, and sociopolitical issues.

Tammy Zoad Mendoza-Mayorga

When the Nicaraguan government's pressure and persecution on journalists intensified, Tammy moved to Costa Rica and eventually relocated to the United States with her family, continuing to contribute to Nicaraguan outlets from abroad. To protect family members still in Nicaragua, she writes anonymously.

As a journalist and editor, her work focused on gender, migration, diversity, and Human Rights — issues that have driven her coverage since 2018, when the sociopolitical crisis exploded in Nicaragua, and the regime threats, repression, and violence forced more than 200 journalists into exile.

She is co-author of De Somoza a Ortega: Crónicas de Magazine (2024, La Prensa) and Otro periodismo es posible (2020, Oxfam Nicaragua), the latter used as study material for journalism students at Universidad Centroamericana. She has collaborated with international outlets including Proceso (México), Anfibia (Argentina), and Internazionale (Italy).

Tammy has served as a consulting editor for Fundación por la Libertad de Expresión y Democracia, mentoring journalists and media outlets across Nicaragua and Latin America. She also collaborated with Confidencial Nicaragua in a project to develop a social listening strategy aimed at reconnecting with their audiences, reaching new ones, and fostering civic dialogue.

From exile, Tammy seeks to relaunch her career while continuing to focus on gender, migration, diversity, and human rights. As a freelance journalist and consultant, she seeks to participate in communications programs, multiplatform productions, and transmedia projects for Latin American media outlets and multicultural communities in the United States.

Looking back on her recent experience with Alfred Friendly Press Partners, she notes: “This program meets the needs of a group of exiled journalists, exceeding expectations in terms of lessons beyond formal sessions and transcending and transforming professional relationships to build a community, a small family of journalists from all corners of the world who share a passion for reporting and telling stories that matter, with the purpose of contributing to our communities.”