Trailblazing TV journalist Gloria Rojas is dead at 82

Gloria Rojas — billed as New York City’s first Latina broadcast journalist — is dead at 82, according to reports.

News of the groundbreaking reporter’s death was confirmed by WABC/Channel 7, where she worked from 1974 to 1976. She was also an on-air reporter at WNEW/Channel 5, WCBS/Channel 2, and WNBC/ Channel 4.

Rojas (photo) died in a Cambridge, Md. nursing home last week, WABC said.

Rojas began her TV news career with WCBS in 1968. She worked at WLS, an ABC affiliate in Chicago, and on the “Midday Live” program at WNEW before she joined WABC.

The Bronx native graduated from Hunter College High School on the Upper East Side, got her degree in education in Albany and later attended Columbia University. She spent nearly a decade as a schoolteacher before making her television debut hosting a bilingual teaching program on public television in 1964.

Among those mourning her death was longtime reporter Geraldo Rivera, who she helped bring to ABC in 1970.

“So sorry to hear of passing of television journalist #GloriaRojas a true pioneer as NY’s 1st Latina reporter,” Rivera tweeted upon learning of her death.

Longtime newsman Ernie Anastos told the Daily News that he’ll remember Rojas, who worked with him for about a decade at ABC, as a fine person on and off camera.

“She was, in my opinion, an exceptional human being,” he recalled. “Someway, somehow she and I would always find a way to giggle about something ... we would always find a way to push away the sadness of some of the stories of the day.”

Anastos also remembers Rojas as being a part of a uniquely diverse TV “family” that included Italian-American anchor Rose Ann Scamardella, African-American reporter Anna Bond, and later, Chinese-American broadcaster Kaity Tong.

“That made us stand out as being different,” he said. “A bit ahead of our time.”

He said Rojas was “very proud” of her Latina heritage and her family at home as well.

Rojas’ son Chris told The New York Times his mother died from kidney failure and complications from cancer. She is survived by two brothers and a pair of grandchildren, according to the Times, which writes that she was preceded in death by her husband, Arthur Maier, in 2003.