Víctor Hugo Castillo is a multifaceted bilingual news reporter, specialized in the U.S.-México border, covering stories on immigration, border security, human trafficking, human smuggling, drug trafficking, politics, economy and news happening south of the border.

“Bound for the Border: Children on the Run” is a 21 minute documentary that just won an Emmy Award in New York. Victor Hugo Castillo was instrumental in field production, putting together a film production team and arranging interviews for Richard French in the Reynosa, Mexico, as well as in Roma, Hidalgo and McAllen areas.

In 2022, Victor Hugo won a National Headliner Award for his contribution to the Press Freedom Project “The Mechanism” for “digital presentation of a single features project,” with bilingual coverage of threats on journalists in Mexico, and the government’s attempt to protect reporters.

Also, he received the 2022 TELLY AWARDS BRONZE, General-News or News Feature for Television, for his contribution to the “Epicenter of the Immigration Crisis”

In 2014 Victor received the Alfred I. duPont Award for contributing to “Rape in the Fields” documentary for PBS Frontline, and for the Spanish version “Violación de un Sueño” produced for Univision Aquí y Ahora. This work also received several awards from different organizations.

Victor was also featured on Border Wars by National Geographic where he shared his experiences in covering news along the southern border.

As national news correspondent for MundoFOX he covered the influx of central american mothers with children coming to the U.S., and Castillo was instrumental to international and national news media representatives who came to cover this human tragedy in South Texas and northern Mexico border. He played a key role setting up interviews and ride alongs for Univision, Telemundo, Al Jazeera America and other European news media.

The United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime, invited Castillo to Colombia in 2012 where he made a presentation to national police and regional authorities representing 13 countries in Latin America, where he talked about human trafficking and illicit trade of undocumented immigrants along the Texas-Mexico border. Castillo, also in 2015 for a second time, was invited by UNODC to Mexico City as a panelist where he shared experiences to media representatives from Mexico and Central America during the launch of an awareness campaign on human trafficking.

Castillo’s knowledge and experience takes him to different countries where he trains news reporters on how to prepare investigative stories for television and other multimedia platforms. His work with Fórum de Periodistas in Panama was featured in national TV when his team captured an exclusive gunfire in Calle Uruguay while training reporters and conducting a special investigation.

Several times, he’s been invited by universities and colleges, like Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) in México, University of Texas Pan American, South Texas College, Universidad Mexico Americana del Norte (UMAN) and others, to speak with students about the news world.

Latino news reporter Victor Castillo tells us why he likes news reporting:
“I like meeting and interviewing people, because each and every person has a story to tell. The power of a story could help our viewers make a decision or simply be aware of something they never thought it would happen so close to home.”

At one point, he was president of Asociación Internacional de Comunicadores Hispanos, when he organized training for local news reporters, and advocated freedom of expression. He also launched and co-founded the Border Center for Journalists and Bloggers in the Rio Grande Valley, an organization that supports and trains those interested in learning the trade and advancing professionalism in news reporting along the border.

He was born in McAllen, Texas, lived in Reynosa until 13 years of age, then moved to Sterling, Illinois, where he went to high school and earn a college degree in Engineering Technology. In 1992, he returned to McAllen. While working in the manufacturing engineering field, Victor began his communications career in a Spanish Christian radio station in Edinburg, Texas. Years later, he joined World Radio Network producing his own show for most of the 19 affiliates and repeaters in the country.

He joined Telemundo as a news reporter, and later became a news anchor. Castillo then continued his career by having dual duties as a reporter and weekend news anchor for Univision. He also worked for Univision 48, Action 4 News (CBS), Fox 2 News reporting in english and spanish.

As national news correspondent for MundoFOX he reported on stories of both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. Victor also has written stories for several Spanish newspapers in the Valley, the United States and Mexico.

Living in McAllen, Victor has seen how South Texas has grown and has become a strategic area for all kinds of industries, not only important to Texas but to the nation. But the Valley also faces many challenges, in health, education, immigration and border security among other issues, and those are topics he likes to be informed about and report on them.