ATLANTA -- Manuel Bojorquez comes to WSB-TV after years of working on the west coast as a general assignment reporter. He became part of the Channel 2 Action News team in August 2006.

His journey to Atlanta began long ago and in another country.

He was born in El Salvador, when the country’s civil war forced his family to flee to the United States with very little.

Growing up in south-central Los Angeles, he witnessed first-hand the 1992 Riots. It was that tumultuous event which inspired him to pursue a career in broadcasting; he was glued to the TV watching coverage of the riots, feeling one day he would like to be a story-teller on that scale.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Southern California in 2000 and was named Outstanding Broadcast Journalism Student of the Year.

From there, it was on to KESQ-TV in Palm Springs, California for his first reporting job. Another market in the southwest -- Phoenix, Arizona -- would provide yet another opportunity to grow as a reporter.

At KNXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, Manuel covered stories all over Arizona and the desert southwest. In both 2004 and 2005, he won the Associated Press award for best live reporting for his coverage of the state’s wildfires.

In 2006, Manuel traveled to Mexico City to cover Mexico’s presidential election. He also ventured into the world of Internet reporting – providing daily articles and photo essays of that historic moment for Mexico and the United States.

In his spare time, Manuel enjoys visiting his family and friends in California.

You can e-mail Manuel Bojorquez at manuel.bojorquez@wsbtv.com