Reporter Franc Contreras is a second-generation Mexican-American from Tucson, Arizona, whose grandparents migrated to the United States from the border state of Sonora during the Mexican Revolution. He has been reporting from Mexico City and around Latin America since 1996. Along with The World his stories have also been broadcast on NPR, the BBC, and CBC Radio in Toronto, among others.

Franc covered Mexico's historic presidential election in 2000, which ended 71 years of one-party rule. He has reported from each of Mexico's 31 states, providing analysis of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, indigenous rights and cultures in Oaxaca, drug trafficking in western Sinaloa state, and he has covered immigration all along the US/Mexico border with a special focus on human rights.

Central and South America have also been on Franc's map. In recent years he reported on the 2003 presidential elections in Guatemala, the coffee crisis in Nicaragua and produced a special series of reports leading up to the historic hand-over of the Panama Canal in 2000. Franc was in Caracas, where he covered a violent national strike in 2002 by Venezuelans opposed to President Hugo Chavez. Covering that story won Franc and The World's Senior Editor William Troop the annual radio reporting prize from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in 2003. He also covered the historic referendum vote on the Chavez presidency.

Before moving to Mexico City, Franc was a founding producer and news editor for Austin, Texas-based "Latino USA," distributed by NPR. He lived in Washington, DC in the early 1990's, working as a segment producer for NPR's flagship broadcast, All Things Considered.

Franc began his career in journalism in 1988 at public radio station WSUI-AM in Iowa City where he studied for a master's degree in journalism with an emphasis on Latin America. He also worked as Production Director at KUNM-FM, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he won numerous awards from the Associated Press for his feature reporting and radio documentary productions.