María del Carmen Mendizábal García (born 15 January 1976) is a Spanish journalist and television presenter who has worked for the television channel
LaSexta
La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...
since 2006. She began her career at the national radio station
Cadena SER
La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is a Spanish radio network established in 1924, with a regular listenership of 4,139,000 reported in 2018. The acronym SER stands for Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (Spanish Broadcasting Company).
Cadena SE ...
as a journalist and presenter before moving into public television with
Televisión Española
(acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in Equatorial Guinea.
T ...
in October 2004. Mendizábal joined the private television channel LaSexta in 2006 and has read the news and presented various programmes on the channel. She has won an
ATV Award for Best Communicator of News Programmes, an
Antena de Oro and the
TP de Oro
The ''TP de Oro'' were a series of Spanish annual television awards awarded between 1972 and 2011 by ''Teleprograma'' magazine.
History
Initially baptized as Los mejores de TP (The best of TP), they were called for the first time in 1972, six y ...
Award for Best News Presenter twice in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
Biography
On 15 January 1976, Mendizábal was born in
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
.
She was inspired to become a journalist by the likes of
Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci (; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for h ...
,
Rosa María Mateo,
Rosa Montero and
Maruja Torres.
Mendizábal graduated from the
Complutense University of Madrid
The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...
with a journalism degree.
[
Following the completion of her studies,] she began her professional career employed for the national radio station Cadena SER
La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is a Spanish radio network established in 1924, with a regular listenership of 4,139,000 reported in 2018. The acronym SER stands for Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión (Spanish Broadcasting Company).
Cadena SE ...
as a journalist on the morning radio programme ''Hoy por hoy
''Hoy por hoy'' is a Spanish radio program, produced by the news department of the Cadena SER. It is the most listened-to radio program in Spain with an average of about three and a half million listeners a day and is considered the most listened- ...
'' presented by Iñaki Gabilondo
José Ignacio Gabilondo Pujol (born 19 October 1942), better known as Iñaki Gabilondo, is a Spanish journalist and broadcaster. He is one of Spain's best-known news anchors.
Biography
The second-born in a family of nine, Gabilondo studied Phil ...
, for seven years.[ Mendizábal then presented the early morning weekend programme ''Punto de fuga'' but stopped hosting the show by 2005,] and also hosted the evening magazine show ''La Ventana'' when regular presenter Gemma Nierga was on maternity leave from mid-2005 until January 2006.[
The public state television broadcaster ]Televisión Española
(acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in Equatorial Guinea.
T ...
employed Mendizábal to be a presenter of the TVE1
(, ''The One'') is a Spanish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by (TVE), the television division of state-owned public broadcaster (RTVE). It is the corporation's flagship television channel and is known for broadcasting mains ...
political debate programme ' in October 2004.[ The programme enabled her to become a mediator of both debate and political news.][ In early 2006,][ Mendizábal left public television and joined the private sector when she was signed as a newscaster by the newly formed private ]LaSexta
La Sexta (; ; stylised as laSexta) is a privately owned Spanish free-to-air television channel that was founded on 18 March 2001 as Beca TV and began broadcasting on 1 April 2001. By 21 July 2003, the channel ran into debt and was shut down, bu ...
channel. She was assigned to read the news on the second edition of the ' news bulletin,[ and has covered for colleagues who became pregnant.] Mendizábal co-hosted the two-hour avant-garde journalism magazine programme ''Sexto Sentido'' with Helena Resano and Cristina Villanueva for one season commencing in November 2006. She presented the 2008 LaSexta fictional documentary series ' in which a theorised Republican faction victory in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
and its effects on Spain are discussed. Mendizábal moderated a programme on LaSexta following a debate between prime ministerial candidates José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. O ...
and Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...
prior to the 2008 Spanish general election
A General elections in Spain, general election was held in Spain on Sunday, 9 March 2008, to elect the members of the 9th . All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 264 seats in the Senate of Spain, Senate ...
. She worked as a special envoy reporting on the 2008 United States presidential election
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...
, which was won by Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
.[
In November 2008, Mendizábal was elected to serve as a vice-president of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain, which was a role she held until October 2009. She was replaced by Elsa González due to time constraints forcing her to skip other commitments.] Mendizábal began working as the main presenter of the evening news magazine programme ' on 29 October 2012. In May 2017, she was part of a sit-in at LaSexta to promote a social media backed campaign promoting awareness of the European migrant crisis
The 2015 European migrant crisis was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and Human migration, migrants into Europe, mostly from the Middle East. An estimated 1.3 million people came to the continent to request Right of asyl ...
in the Mediterranean. Mendizábal presented the investigative journalism series ''Scoop'' in 2018 , interviewing figures who were responsible for compling the investigations. She had proposed the concept of the programme, with she and the La Caña Brothers agency sent to LaSexta, who accepted it.
Mendizábal was signed to present the ' programme in 2019 in which she interviews notable Spanish figures about their life and background to how they were able to achieve success. The programme was first broadcast on LaSexa in February 2021 after being delayed from its late-2020 start. She, César Carballo, José María Gay de Liébana, Yayo Herrero and Ainara Zubillaga co-authored the book ''Adelante: Solo existe el futuro. Y es nuestro'' in 2020.[ In May, Mendizábal decided to stop presenting ''Más vale tarde'' because she wanted a change in her life and she wanted to do other projects. She also cited the ]COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
helping her to "see where I was and realize that life is one, that we forget." Mendizábal made her final on-screen appearance on the programme on 30 June 2021, and was replaced by and Cristina Pardo.
Personal life
She is in a relationship with the radio broadcaster and the two have been living together since 2013. Mendizábal has no children.[
]
Awards
In 2005, she was voted the recipient of the ATV Award for Best Communicator of News Programmes and the TP de Oro
The ''TP de Oro'' were a series of Spanish annual television awards awarded between 1972 and 2011 by ''Teleprograma'' magazine.
History
Initially baptized as Los mejores de TP (The best of TP), they were called for the first time in 1972, six y ...
Award for Best News Presenter in both 2006 and 2008.[ The Federation of Radio and Television Associations awarded Mendizábal an Antena de Oro accolade in the television section for her work on ''Más Vale Tarde'' in 2013. She received the ]Premios Ondas
The Premios Ondas (Spanish: literally "wave awards", also known in English as the Ondas Awards or simply The Ondas) have been given since 1954 by Radio Barcelona, a subsidiary of Cadena SER, in recognition of professionals in the fields of radio ...
Award for Best Television Presenter in 2014.
A jury from the Association of European Journalists
The Association of European Journalists (founded 1961, San Remo) is an organisation promoting the interests of journalists involved in European affairs. It is an NGO in operational relations with UNESCO and enjoys consultative status in the Coun ...
along with the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
and the European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
representations in Spain voted to award Mendizábal the Salvador de Madariaga Television Award for "exercising responsible journalism and committed to the reality of community institutions" and "her commitment to current news, his pulse to handle hot information." The Spanish Association of Women in the Media named her the winner of its media category at the IX Edition of the 'Press-Woman' Awards for her "ability to apply effectively, as director and host, in a generalist and daily program, 'Más vale tarde', the focus of gender in a transversal and repeated way and by applying parity in the participation of analysts in gatherings and debates."
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendizábal, Mamen
1976 births
Mass media people from Madrid
Living people
20th-century Spanish women
Complutense University of Madrid alumni
21st-century Spanish women journalists
21st-century Spanish journalists
Spanish women radio presenters
Spanish women television presenters
Spanish television presenters
Spanish radio presenters
Spanish non-fiction writers