top of page

Meet the face
behind the posts

I am Yndiana Montes-Fogelquist, a Venezuelan-American journalist. I've been a travel writer for more than 30 years. Venezuela was so close to the Dutch-speaking Caribbean that I started covering tourism for these Islands first, and then the Anglo-speaking Caribbean. From Aruba to Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, these Caribbean island destinations were like home to me.

 

In 1990, I founded my own company, SoloCaribe Inc., to participate in a more corporate way in conferences, and to organize press trips and diving trips. The Internet gave me the opportunity to create digital newsletters and websites, while developing content and translating and disseminating press materials providing another dimension to my work. I did all of this to promote the Caribbean in Latin America, including in Brazil.  I specialized in sustainable tourism; natural wonders, cultural traditions, best practices, and conservation initiatives are what I love to showcase in my work.

 

Throughout the years, I have received many awards and acknowledgments from organizations such as the Jerry Award of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA), and most recently the OMPT 2021 Award (Organización Mundial de Periodismo Turístico) and the "Excellence in Communicating Sustainable Development” award specially created by the faculty of the Sustainable Development Department of Appalachian State University for the work I did when I was an undergraduate student.

 

Currently, I'm enjoying managing a local social media platform for North Carolina (besides my International one), and working on a Master's degree in Appalachian Studies here at ASU. At my age (I’m turning 65 this year,  I’m fine with traveling abroad only once or twice a year, and I’m more eager to travel by car. I’m enjoying a much quieter life here in the Appalachian Mountains, embracing sustainable living, sustainable development, sustainable tourism, and engaging with food security campaigns, community based research, climate change activism, jazz and folk festivals in the state, and a healthy life style.

 

Having spent years making experiential videos, one of my goals is to learn documentary film making in order to document some of the amazing things I’ve seen in my life. I have two in mind: one about Maako Shiratori, a Japanese violinist who has become an accomplished old-time fiddle player and who was a fellow graduate student in the Appalachian Studies M.A Program at  Appalachian State University M.A. Maako is now in the Ph.D. program in ethnomusicology at Duke University. The other about my brother-in-law, Mark Fogelquist, who has had a fifty-year career performing and teaching mariachi music, who was recently inducted into the mariachi hall of fame, the only non-Mexican ever to receive the award.

 

Most of all, I’m a reporter. As a Hispanic writer and communication specialist, in this phase of my life I find myself caring about all things Latinx in Appalachia, but also about the region itself.

 

My App Latinx platform is intended to support the initiatives that take us into consideration. My husband, a professor of Spanish at Appalachian State University, now partners with me on several of these social media platforms, bringing his eclectic knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world and language skills to the table.

 

Yndiana Montes-Fogelquist

Yndie site.JPG
bottom of page