As a producer Alvear covered many major news stories; among them, the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s,[4] the Mexico City earthquake in 1985, protests and elections in Chile and Peru, the War on Drugs in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, the Mengele investigation in Brazil, unrest in Panama, two interviews with Fidel Castro in Cuba,[4] the Pan American Games in Havana, the Barcelona Olympics, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation rebellion in Chiapas, the Colosio assassination, and events that have affected the Los Angeles area in recent years: riots, earthquakes and the O. J. Simpson trial.
In 1999, she produced stories on Pope John Paul II's visit to Mexico, the earthquake that damaged Armenia, Colombia, and the turnover of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians.
While working at the CBS outlet, KNXT, as a producer for Two on the Town, she was part of a team that won the local Emmy in the best series category.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Alvear was a board member and vice president of the California Chicano News Media Association,[5] one of the first organizations of Latino journalists.
She frequently returned to the Galápagos, where she was helping to upgrade the public elementary school first started by her late father, the former military governor of the islands.