Fortuna Calvo-Roth Honored as New York State Senate 2014 Woman of Distinction

Fortuna Calvo-Roth was a pioneer in the field of journalism, who went on to have a broadranging career in academia, the performing arts and business. Born in Paris to Turkish-born Sephardic Jewish parents and raised in Peru, she moved to the United States in 1952 to study journalism at the University of Missouri. 

After completing her degree, Ms. Calvo-Roth began her career in journalism with La Prensa in Lima in 1955. She quickly left La Prensa after the editor told her women were not permitted to work in the newsroom, and attempted to relegate her to the society pages. She then moved to New York City and became a correspondent with Visao, the Brazilian newsweekly. Later, she transferred to Vision, the Spanish-language newsmagazine for Latin America, where she worked until 1969 in diff erent capacities, among them as a war correspondent, and eventually rising to editor-in-chief of the publication and editorial director of Vision, Inc. 

While raising a family in the late 1960s and 1970s, Ms. Calvo-Roth began a career in theater, serving both behind the scenes and as an actor. She has continued to be involved in performing arts, and has had a long career as a television actor that continues to this day. 

In the 1980s, Ms. Calvo-Roth taught politics at Hofstra University and New York University, while continuing to be involved in journalistic endeavors. Then in 1989, she founded the first company in the United States to offer audiobooks exclusively in Spanish. In 1993, she and her son Stephen founded Coral Communications Group, which expanded her involvement in the audiobooks business. 

Ms. Calvo-Roth is past president of New York Women in Communications, and was honored in 2002 by El Diario/La Prensa as one of their 50 Latinas of Distinction. She is married to Felix Roth, her husband of 57 years.

Ms. Calvo-Roth was also profiled in the East Side's local newspaper, Our Town, following her induction as a Woman of Distinction. Read the article here!