Press Pass
- Description
- Black fabric cord lanyard with two press passes, attached with a clip, issued to Sofía Lachapelle. The first is a pink NYPD-issued Working Press pass dated 2001 with a head shot of Lachapelle. The second pass is an NBCUniversal press pass for the 9/11 America Remembers event, dated 2015.
- Historical Notes
- TV journalist Sofía Lachapelle reported on the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center for Univision, an American Spanish-language broadcast television network. Originally scheduled to interview New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani about the day’s primary election, Lachapelle; her cameraman, Humberto Acosta; and the driver of their satellite news truck, Orestes Telles, were reassigned by the network to report from the scene of the disaster. NYPD-issued press credentials identified Lachapelle and her team as members of the media covering breaking news and allowed them to gain access to the area. Working in the vicinity of the South Tower, Lachapelle and Acosta fled to the truck as the building collapsed, reporting and filming as they ran from the cloud of dust and debris. Before resuming her reporting, Lachapelle was examined in a nearby ambulance but refused further medical attention to allow responders to treat those in greater need of assistance. The team was again forced to seek shelter when the North Tower began to collapse. They found temporary refuge in a belowground parking garage. The three-member news crew remained on site for many hours, continuing to report on what they were observing. Reporting from Ground Zero remained a key part of Lachapelle's work for the next few months.
Lachapelle received a new credential in September 2015, when she returned to the World Trade Center site to share the story of her day as a reporter and survivor with viewers of NBCUniversal Telemundo.
Curator's Comment
The press credentials of Sofia Lachapelle, a Dominican-born journalist, helps to tell the story of how media reporters and other non-responders were unintentionally caught in the chaos of the Towers collapsing. It also notably situates Univision as media outlet that offered intimate early coverage from the World Trade Center to Spanish-speaking household nationwide. In 2001, Univision was the top Spanish-language news station in the country, reportedly watched by more than 80% of Latino households during prime time. For many who tuned into Univision’s broadcast, Sofia Lachapelle’s coverage offered some of the clearest information about the attacks and the most shocking images of their aftermath.
- Accession Number: C.2019.86.2
- Dimensions: unavailable
- Source: Sofía Lachapelle
- Credit Line: Gift of Sofía Lachapelle
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