NewsTaco

By Tomás Custer, HispanicTips.com

With the recent announcement that another Spanish-language TV network is launching (MundoFox). I thought it pertinent to take a look at the other side of the coin, the seemingly forgotten English-language Latino media. In case you didn’t know, the English-language Hispanic media arena has heated up a lot. New media sites and many independent ventures have entered the field in just the last 20 months. However, I am not talking about just any media companies jumping in. I am, in fact, talking about some of the largest media companies in our country.

NBC, the HuffingtonPost, FOX and Univision (and possibly ABC) don’t spend resources entering a market because they think it isn’t attractive. They know, what I hope is not a secret to you, that English-language Latinos represent a large market that is growing fast. In other words, they know what they are getting into and competing for, a big slice of the future pie.

Hispanics are only becoming a larger slice of this future pie. Over 1 million Hispanics are being born in the US every year. The Latino population is predicted to rise to 128 million in 2050 accounting for 29% of the US population. That is one big slice of pie.

These big media companies aren’t alone. At least six other independent sites have joined in to cater to this growing and previously ignored demographic and that is only if you don’t count the social media movement called Latism. These independents include HispanicallySpeakingNews, Being Latino, NewsTaco, Latino Rebels, Pocho and Voxxi. (If I forgot anyone let me know.) Of course, let us not forget the pioneers in the field of English-language Hispanic news. HispanicTips (my site) is still here and evolving now with over 95,000 posts (the world’s largest archive of Hispanic news). Latina Lista has recently redesigned and as always is producing great relevant content. (Again, if I forgot anyone let me know.)

All of these sites are competing for eyeballs. All have approached the market in slightly different ways. I have my own opinions about each but one cannot deny they are here, just as one cannot deny why. The numbers don’t lie. So while there are days when it can feel like an echo chamber because of all the duplication, I am very happy that a lot of good relevant content is being produced everyday.

When I began HispanicTips over six years ago, I really had to search long and hard to find much relevant news. It was spread out across the web and not always easy to find. That is why I started HispanicTips. Fast forward to today and there is a lot more relevant news. Now instead of scarcity the opposite is the problem. There is now so much news, how can anyone know what to read or who to trust? Luckily for you and me, the art of digital curation evolved to address this exact problem. With my expertise and experience in both curation and Latino news, HispanicTips continues to be a premier news service. It is trusted and comprehensive. But I am not really here to talk about myself or this site.

I really just want to highlight how far we have come in the English-language Hispanic news genre. The market is huge and I want everyone to know how big it is and that there is a lot of money associated with the demographic. I want every business and organization to realize how much is at stake and that if you don’t have plans on how to cater to this market then you had better start.

What happens to companies who don’t get into this market early enough or who don’t approach it with quality? These are the big questions but if you look at the numbers and what entities have already entered the field then you really should open your eyes, gauge the impact this will have on your organization and then perhaps even take action.

UPDATE: One day after writing this post WSJ reported: Disney’s ABC, Univision Mull News-Channel Launch – in talks to create a new 24-hour cable-news channel that will broadcast in English, in an effort to keep pace with changing demographics among U.S. Hispanics.

[Photo By Lisa Padilla]

Rubén Salazar was born in 1928 in Ciudad Juárez,, Mexico. Through his journalism career in El Paso and later Los Angeles, Salazar became the first Mexican-American to cover the Chicano community for a mainstream media outlet.

He was killed in 1970 when a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy fired a tear gas canister and it hit Salazar in the head while he was seated at a bar during the 1970 National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War.

After a short stint in the army and graduating from college, Salazar got his start as a journalist at the now-defunct El Paso Herald-Post. He later went on to work for several California papers before landing at the Los Angeles Times in 1959. After serving as a foreign correspondent in Central America, Salazar returned to the U.S. to cover the Mexican-American community and East Los Angeles, an area largely ignored except for crime stories. His stories were often critical of police treatment of Chicanos, especially after he clashed with them during the L.A. Walkouts.

Salazar continued his work at Spanish-language station KMEX, where he investigated instances of police brutality against Chicano protesters. After covering the Chicano Moratorium March, Salazar and a fellow reporter ducked into the Silver Dollar Bar and Cafe after the roughly 20,000 protesters clashed with sheriff’s deputies.

One deputy, defying police protocol, fired a tear gas canister into the bar and struck and killed Salazar. Since then, many questions have surrounded Salazar’s death and made him a sort of rallying point for charges of excessive force used by Los Angeles law enforcement against civilians. The many honors bestowed upon Salazar after his death include being featured in a 2007 series by the U.S. postal service of five prominent American journalists.

References:

• http://documents.latimes.com/ruben-salazar/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%C3%A9n_Salazar
• http://www.latinopov.com/blog/?p=1120

Today CNN announced that Democratic strategist Maria Cardona has joined the the network for the 2012 election season, according to Sam Feist, CNN senior vice president and Washington bureau chief.

“Having spent all of my professional career in communications, public policy, and politics, I’m thrilled to join CNN as a political contributor, especially as we are entering the excitement of the upcoming 2012 presidential election cycle,” Maria Cardona said.

Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist and currently heads the public affairs practice at Dewey Square Group, where she founded the Latinovations practice that focuses on Latino strategic outreach on national, state and local levels. During the 2008 Democratic primary election, Cardona was senior adviser and spokesperson to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and served on the campaign’s Hispanic outreach team. During the 2008 general election, Cardona was a key surrogate for the Obama for America campaign. Previously, Cardona was a senior vice president for the New Democrat Network, and before that, the communications director for the Democratic National Committee. During the Clinton administration, Cardona served as a spokesperson at the U.S. Departments of Justice and Commerce. In addition, Cardona will also contribute to CNN en Español.

Conservative columnist David Frum was also named as a new CNN contributor.

Cardona and Frum join a deep bench of political contributors at CNN, which includes John Avlon, Paul Begala, Bill Bennett, Donna Brazile, James Carville, Alex Castellanos, Erick Erickson, Ari Fleischer, David Gergen, Roland Martin, Mary Matalin and Hilary Rosen, among others.

The most exhilarating and terrifying thing about doing something like NewsTaco is that there are no instructions. It wouldn’t have mattered because we’re not the type to read instructions — unless the illustrations are large and self explanatory. There was no such thing at the very beginning, an entire year ago. All we had was an idea, and a big empty space to see if it would work.

This month marks News Taco’s first anniversary. It’s a good time to pause, if only to thank you – if you’re reading this, you know who you are. For your patience, your loyalty, your ideas and for rooting for us — gracias.

Like most ideas that seem to click or resonate, this one was born of need, and frustration. We were frustrated to find that there was no place on the Internets that provided news, information and analysis for Latinos and from a Latino perspective. So we dared ourselves to do it.

Here’s what happened: we found a niche when we weren’t exactly looking for one. We found a space where there was a lack of Latino news, and started shoveling. Then we found that we weren’t alone; that there are many Latinos “out there” who felt the same information vacuum. The feeling is that we’ve got something of real value, but only because of our community. I’ll pilfer wholesale from the known axiom: If News Taco publishes on the internet and no one reads it, is it something?

A year ago it wasn’t more than an idea. Now it’s a growing community. And that’s something.

You encourage us when we’re on a roll, speak up when you think we’re wrong, roll your eyes and laugh when we make jokes that only our community can understand. For that we’re deeply grateful.

I remember when my children first learned to walk. They enthusiastically tried to navigate sharp corners without knowing how to take their speed into account. They’d miss the doorway, hit the wall, plop on their backsides and laugh at their own hilarity. That’s the best way I can describe the joy of something new.

If we have a regret, it’s only one. That our dear brother Carlos Guerra isn’t here to lift a glass with us — or to call us from the jetty in Port Aransas to talk endlessly about News Taco and pretty much anything and everything else. He would have liked what we’ve built. He would have liked you, our readers.

At the very beginning the idea of NewsTaco held us together — that and a sense of instigation and the joy of disruption. A year later there is a deep respect for each other’s talent, a shared vision and the love of the roller coaster day-to-day stuff that comes with doing what we do.

I’m going to make use of personal privilege to thank my fellow News Taqueros. Gilberto Ocañas for keeping us on the track and Sara Inés Calderón for keeping the machine going. Gracias.

To Chelsea McCullough, Elaine Ayo and Renée Saldaña, thank you for your talent and for believing in this little taco of ours.

To all of our contributors and partners, you that fill the NewsTaco spaces with your ideas and energy and words, gracias mil. For your creativity and patience, thank you.

I had breakfast this morning at the last place I shared a taco with Carlitos Guerra. It was morning, I was drinking coffee and the Margarita machine was unplugged. I think I heard him say thank you as well. He would have liked what we’ve done. I know I do.

So here’s a proposition as we start a second year. We’ll keep trying our best, doing what we’re doing, and you’ll keep coming back to help us grow our community. Deal?

[Photo by gusdrinks]

Every year I endeavor to advance the capabilities of a strategic sector of undergraduate students by providing leadership training, exposure to new Latino-based research findings and a multidimensional model for civic engagement. The majority of my pupils are derived from recent alumni of the National Hispanic Institute, but I tend to focus my attention on the emerging vanguard of this generation: young Latinas and Latinos from the U.S. and Mexico who are actively exploring opportunities to grow their collective capacities to serve regional and international Latino enclaves.

However, only lately have I attempted to mentor this sector of students to apply their critical investigative abilities with new media.

A couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me at the New Mexico State University Latino Leadership Summit that there is a tremendous desire among Latino undergraduate and graduate students to learn how to apply their embryonic skills with online social networking tools. As with their credentialed Latina and Latino counterparts, they have been under-prepared by each level of their academic training to pursue their own self-determined pathways as young innovators and entrepreneurs. Based on my experience, in order to create your own platform for consulting it is paramount that you learn by doing. In other words, leave the temple and wander the earth so that you may apply your training to benefit the world around you.

With this in mind, I worked with NewsTaco to arrange for two of my mentees, Zach and Arthur, to cover the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Texas this past weekend. [Above the pair interview Texas State Rep. and congressional candidate Joaquín Castro.] The idea was for them to highlight the coverage of each panel of experts for a range of Latino audiences, including Spanish-language readers which did not seem to be prioritized by the creators of this weekend-long event. Given that nearly half of the subject matter of this conference revolved around Latino populations, border dynamics and transnational relations with Mexico, this was the ideal environment to determine whether these two 20th century Latino men could handle both the rigor and responsibility that this complex event would provide.

From our drive together to the festival on Saturday morning until I departed after debriefing with my colleagues Sunday evening, I observed these two young men conduct interviews in English and Spanish, provide a live Twitter feed across seven panel discussions and network with experts, elected officials, politicos, journalists and even our treasured Texas demographer, Dr. Steve Murdock. They impressed me and so many others with their confidence and focus, and they provided more accurate coverage, at least from my point view, than the other news entities that were in attendance. Additionally, they took the initiative that the Texas Tribune had not — they drew on their cultural strengths and seamlessly flowed between English and Spanish during their interviews with panelists and other conference attendees.

By the second day, they were known as “those two dudes from NewsTaco” and people were seeking them out. More than one person told me over the weekend that they were following panels that they could not attend through Zach and Arthur’s tweets. Furthermore, the massive social capital that Zach and Arthur have accumulated through their undergraduate friends and sprawling international NHI alumni networks were also being informed about their issues as a generation born after 1990. Again, these two young men amplified the reach of the Texas Tribune Festival to a body of readers that were not being prioritized — currently enrolled Latino undergraduate students across North America.

No one knew they were only 21, in fact, they were being mistaken for everything but currently enrolled undergraduate students from Texas State and Saint Edwards Universities. NewsTaco and I can only take credit for encouraging them to attend, to look sharp and to ask direct questions during their interviews, but as you will discover in their coverage, Zach and Arthur performed superbly. As a result of their dedication to covering the festival, they are now better prepared through their NewsTaco exposure than what would have ever been achieved within their classroom training.

Follow their example, apply your leadership training and skills with new media so that a greater range of Latino audiences can discover your unique perspective and authentic recommendations for our transnational Latino community.

Latinos love sports, sports teams love Latinos, it’s an economic match made in heaven. Yet, a report from The Root shows that Latino reporters in the sports world are extremely and increasingly rare. The Root reported:

“. . . According to a study released recently, some 320 websites and newspapers that belong to the Associated Press Sports Editors slightly improved their racial hiring practices last year. The report showed that 97 percent of the sports editors at APSE newspapers and websites in 2010 were white, and 94 percent of sports editors overall were men.

“Just 5.5 percent of sports staffs, moreover, are black men, and only 3 percent are Latino men. Latino and Asian men increased by an average of .54 percent in sports desk job categories, except as sports editors.”

Mind you, this is going on at the same time that nearly every single large sports organization in the entire country is working to recruit Latino fans.

• The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) just launched UFCLatino.com
• The NBA is hosting Noches Latinas across the country, renaming teams Los Lakers or Los Suns for an evening
• Latinos are key to the NBA’s growth strategy
• The NFL is pushing to grow its Latino fan base
• Latinos also love baseball and hockey

So, when you take all of that into account, none of this makes sense. Unfortunately, it’s part of a bigger problem, that nationwide journalists are only 4.5% Latino. When you take it to a more specific market — sports in this case — that number is even smaller. This is a tragedy not only because many athletes are Latino, not to mention the fans, but it represents a pretty blatant prejudice in corporate media towards having white men cover sports almost exclusively.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Image Courtesy Iconspedia]

Rubén Salazar was a journalist critical of the powers that be in Los Angeles when he was hit in the head with a gas canister fired by a Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputy in 1970 and killed instantly — but it was all a bad accident, according to a report released to The Los Angeles Times. The paper received a copy of the 20-page report prepared by an L.A. Sheriff’s Office civilian watchdog that reviewed eight boxes of documents related to the Salazar slaying and found that there was no plot to kill Salazar for his lambasting of the Sheriff’s Department.

According to The Los Angeles Times:

The Sheriff’s Department “circled the wagons around its deputies, offered few explanations and no apologies” in the aftermath of Salazar’s death, the report states. “That posture fueled the skeptics.” The department concluded its investigation finding no wrongdoing by its deputies…

“Certainly, there was plenty of ‘ball dropping’ with regard to this part of the episode,” the report says. “Unlike with the protocols of today, no one in the department was ever held administratively accountable for the poor response of personnel to concerns that there was someone injured inside the bar.”

Overall, the report says, the outcome of the investigation into Salazar’s slaying would have been different if it had been conducted today. “A wider and deeper investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mr. Salazar’s death undoubtedly would have revealed more facts, better answered lingering questions relating to this incident,” the report said, “and likely would have held persons accountable for poor performance through the disciplinary process.”

In a word, this report is bull. The very fact that the Sheriff’s Department has been so reluctant to release this documents — 40 years after the fact — and that the only access the public gets to them is through an inherently biased agency (their jobs are pegged to the Sheriff’s Office longevity and success) begs the question: What’s in those eight boxes?

I want to know what’s in those eight boxes, I don’t want some bureaucrat who’s keeping tabs on what I “need” to know to tell me. I want to see it for myself. I find it pathetic that, in an era where there’s a Latino sheriff, Latino city council members, Latino journalists and Latino mayor in Los Angeles, that these sort of delay tactics are being tolerated. One of my favorite things about our founding documents is the freedom of the press, and what goes along with that, public records.

Why does it matter that these documents haven’t been released? To me, it’s very simple. If they did it to Rubén Salazar, and 40 years later, they can continue to do whatever they want with that truth, do you think they’ll do it to you? To your loved ones? Who else’s truth will fall victim to the L.A. Sheriff’s Department (or insert your sheriff’s office here) apparent need for control over something which Sheriff Lee Baca has “nothing to hide”?

Really? Nothing to hide? You sure got a funny way of showing it.

[Photo by Wikipedia]

Rubén Salazar was a Latino journalist in Los Angeles who was a loud critic of institutions that mistreated Latinos in that area and, mysteriously, in 1970 he was hit in the head with a gas canister and died. The gas canister came from an L.A. Sheriff’s deputy shot in East Los Angeles during a melee involving Chicano protestors and all sorts of police, but what exactly happened the day Salazar died has never been exactly ironed out.

In response to a public records request made by The Los Angeles Times for eight boxes of “sealed” materials related to the Salazar case, a report by the Sheriff’s Office civilian watchdog agency, Office of Independent Review, is expected any day now. The Times reports:

The highly anticipated report is expected to shed light on the journalist’s death caused by a tear-gas missile fired by a deputy during a riot in East Los Angeles. Questions and controversy have continued to cloud the incident, even after 40 years…

Michael Gennaco, who heads the Office of Independent Review, the civilian watchdog agency that monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Monday his probe will be ready this week or next. ”There will be some interesting new information,” he said.

It’s unfortunate that the department can’t simply release the information — deputies and officials involved in the incident have long since retired while activists and Salazar’s family has remained in the dark — but I believe the release of this report will be a good step in getting ahold of those documents, not to mention truth and justice.

[Photo by Wikipedia]

Here’s a story that has been recently getting attention because of its lack of attention. The story of Brisenia Flores, a nine year old girl killed during a home invasion in Arizona, has been spreading through the Internet. News Taco first told you about this last week, it came to my attention again when a friend and colleague posted it on FaceBook; I saw it once more this morning and decided that I’d write about it again.

The case involves anti-immigrant extremists, drugs, and murder. As the Village Voice reports it:

…Shawna Forde, a troubled anti-immigration crusader, who stands charged with first degree murder for the 2009 killing of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in Arizona. Gina Gonzalez, Flores’ mother, was also shot in the botched home invasion; she testified Tuesday about witnessing her daughter’s death. And yet, despite the tragic narrative — including its cursory similarities to the death of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green at the hands of Jared Loughner, also in Arizona — plus the inclusion of other hot-button issues like immigration and extreme political discourse from groups like the Tea Party and Minutemen, which Forde identified with, much of the mainstream media continues to avoid the story of Flores’ death.

The narrative is that Forde, the Arizona anti-immigrant crusader, planned to steal cash from the sale of marijuana from the Flores home supposedly to fund her anti-immigrant “vigilante work aligned with the Minutemen group, who have since worked to distance themselves from Forde’s extreme measures.”

And yet no mainstream media outlet-local, regional or national-has covered the trial. Only on the Internet is the story getting attention. This from the Daily Beast:

“Latinos are still wondering why the murder of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores raised none of the outcry of rancher Robert Krentz’s killing, which fueled Arizona’s tough immigration law.”

No public condemnation, no interest from the mainstream media. Why’s that you suppose?

[Photo courtesy The village Voice]

This may seem like hanky-using, protruding-pinky-finger kinda’ stuff, but it’s bothering some people. A recent New York Times Book Review, in a collection of essays called “Why Criticism Matters,” extolled the virtues and place of critics and their ideas, with a glaring omission.

One of the people off-put by this was Randy Shaw, of Beyond Chron, San Fracisco’s alternative Online Daily. He writes:

“Citing the importance of the critic as cultural arbiter, the Times asked six critics to address the subject – none of whom were black or Latino. Further, the back page of the section cites seven cultural critics who inspired the issue’s theme: all seven are white men.”

Hanky and pinky and all, I read the Book Review and think that it takes a high opinion of one’s self and one’s publication to stand on the soap-box of cultural arbitration. Who are you to tell me what’s Culture and what’s not?  But if you’re gonna do it, and if you’re the NYT book review, I’ll read it. And yet:

“It should be considered remarkable that in 2011 the New York Times Book Review would put out an issue on cultural criticism that excludes no representatives of the leading ethnic and racial minority groups of the United States. Sadly, this exclusion, particularly for Latino critics, is par for the course.”

Shaw kinda’ flubbed a sentence there, “excludes no representatives” means that they included some, but they didn’t, which is what he was trying to say. Anyway, here’s the meat of the thing: the editors of the Review make a distinction, in this “age of opinion,” between “contentious assertion” and “genuine understanding.” An interesting way to sketch the divide between us and them.

Breathe deeply, take a sip of your beverage of choice, and dive in:

“African-American and Latino critics have long noted the disconnection between the nation’s values and constitutional principles and its actual policies and actions. Because these critics attack the hypocrisy of the elite, their views are often described as “ideological,” and to lack “genuine understanding.”

Yeah!…what he said.

Basically, Shaw thinks that not including Latinos in it’s critic’s-are-so-important edition was disrespectful to Latinos. What do you think?

I think this is more than a mere battle line. This is digging the trenches, filling the sandbags and raising the flag. There’s gonna be a fight.

A cadre of state senators from across the country (they won’t say exactly how many, so a cadre could mean three or four) will convene in Washington to declare their assault on the 14th amendment. They say its a defense of the amendment. In reality though, its the newest offensive on an old front; they’re taking the immigration fight to the states.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

“They are taking aim at the 14th Amendment, which grants U.S. citizenship to children born here even if their parents are in the country illegally. The lawmakers disagree with that practice, complaining illegal immigrants and their children are sapping taxpayer-funded services and attracting more illegal immigrants to the United States.”

The group of state legislators from 40 states who call themselves State Legislators for Legal Immigration-including Daryl Metcalfe, from Pennsylvania and Jack Murphy, from Georgia-are proposing measures at the state level that “could include legislation aimed at withholding state benefits and services from children born here to illegal immigrants.”

Metcalfe pulls no punches. He was quoted in the AJC: “Everyone who is coming to the press conference is supportive of the concept of ending the illegal alien invasion and ending the incentives that attract illegal aliens onto our soil.”

Invasion? MALDEF and the Asian American Legal Advocacy Center of Georgia are already preparing a defense. The idea, supposedly, is to take the issue to the US Supreme Court where it will cost the taxpayers money. The strategy is to make it a state’s rights issue; again, the states trying to supersede the constitution.

(Notice how I got through this entire post without using the term “anchor baby”…snap!)

[Photo by joewcampbell]

[Editor's Note: Roberto R. Calderón is my father and a professor of history at the University of North Texas. He was a fan and a friend of Carlos Guerra and wrote this tribute to Carlos when he retired last year, in September of 2009, right before he joined Carlos in Port Aransas for some fishing.]

Four days ago the last column of a great journalist in San Antonio, Carlos Guerra, appeared in the pages of the San Antonio Express-News. The original title to the column I saw was ”Time for New Ventures for This Old Columnist,” which was transformed to “Carlos Guerra Retires,” in the currently posted version of the same. Carlos worked as a columnist, as he explains in San Antonio for a total of 18 years, beginning with the now-defunct San Antonio Light, and when this newspaper folded, continued in the same capacity with the Express-News. In the many thousands of columns researched and written since and the hundreds of thousands of words that crossed his desk, goes a significant part of the history of San Antonio, the region, state, and nation. His was a particularly hard-hitting, sage, and always politically informed view of the world.

Originally from Robstown, Texas, Carlos was full of fight while still in high school where he was an academically high-achieving student who nonetheless participated in organizing what amounted to the first student-led walkouts at his town’s high school. He has many wonderful stories to tell of his experiences related to this set of events and many others that followed. He attended the then called Texas A&I University in Kingsville (now Texas A&M University at Kingsville - TAMUK), when A&I was a gathering point for many young Chican@ college students from throughout South Tejas who would later go on to leave their mark in the movimiento whether in the arts, politics, education, law, writing and more. Most of this Chicano generation, who attended college in the mid- to late-1960s, are now in their sixties. They continued and continue to achieve in their many different areas of professional and leadership activity. We know that Carlos Guerra will not go quietly into the night, but will instead find new and engaging projects and areas of writing and creative activity generally. It goes without saying that we are one with Carlos in wishing him the very best in all of his future endeavors.

I first began reading him when I returned to Tejas from California in August 1999. I didn’t meet him in person until several years later, and have been fortunate to share an ongoing periodic conversation with him since. Is that a scowl that appears in his photo? Or is it the look of a fierce determination? That of a journalist who always knew that words mattered and that his words, his stories that he told and shared with his tens of thousands of readers in particular, carried far beyond the boundaries of the various offices he occupied at the two respective newspapers during the nearly two decades long period that he served as this city’s leading columnist. And while Carlos’s columns ranged over a broad range of topics and it would be unfair to call him a strictly Chicano journalist — he was and is a writer above all — there is no denying that his formative experiences growing up in South Texas and later as a leading activist in the Chicano movement, ultimately brought a seasoned voice and a critical sense of justice to his varied perspectives and approaches taken whatever the subject.

His wit, humor, wisdom, and singularly unique storytelling will be greatly missed. His record will be one that those who call themselves historians of Texas history, of Mexicano South Texas history, why not, will always have to come back to as they work and weave future narratives of what happened in these parts during and since 1991, when he first began to tell it his way. Without question Carlos’s accumulated writings comprise a valuable source for future historians of Texas and of Chicano history in the state and region.

For those who are not familiar with what the Light and Express-News represented during this long turn of the century period, know that these newspapers were widely distributed and widely read across the South Texas region, especially the Saturday and Sunday editions of these newspapers. The audience stretched clear across Tejano South Texas, and from there to the world, lustful wanderers and migrants that we are who hail from this region as we all know.

With that said, le enviamos un abrazo al camarada y gran periodista y ademas le deseamos hoy y siempre que siga logrando todas sus metas y no falta decir, que siga escribiendo para poder seguir leyendo.

[Photo By Roberto R. Calderón]

[Editor's Note: Juan Perales is an attorney and childhood friend of Carlos Guerra's.]

When I was a junior in high school some of my classmates were talking excitedly about a recent college graduate from Texas A&I in Kingsville who was scheduled to speak at a rally after school that evening. I didn’t know who the speaker was but I overheard some students talk about him as if he was some type of a star while he was in college. They weren’t talking about a college sports star. One student kind of characterized him as an “intellectual” star; a nerd, I thought.

My friends convinced me to attend the rally and when Carlos was introduced, I met a man with a small frame who certainly didn’t appear to be a football or basketball player. But Carlos didn’t look like a nerd either. Actually, he looked preppie wearing a brown corduroy sport coat with a handkerchief around his neck—but his long hair and mean look let you know he meant business. Carlos was introduced as one of the founders of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) who was trying to recruit new members from our town. I remember when I first heard Carlos speak at the rally — the speed of the words he uttered appeared to almost match his racing thoughts, all while he marched back and forth and hypnotized you with his focused expression and high pitched, “rebel yell” that exuded energy and motivation.

After his presentation at the rally, I introduced myself as “John” to Carlos and he related to me how he was known as “Charlie” while he was in high school. I explained to Carlos that my nickname was given to me by one of my elementary school teachers so that he could distinguish me from two other “Juanes” in my class. That evening, Carlos convinced me that I should change my nickname from “John” back to my given name, “Juan.” A few weeks later, Carlos returned to visit our newly formed MAYO organization and convinced me to run for student council president. After I filed to run, the high school principal forbade me to run under the MAYO banner and explained that it was “too political” and could incite a student walkout. The principal referred to the numerous student protests that had been staged throughout the country by students who demanded change and immediate improvements — including better facilities and relevant curriculum in their schools. After telling Carlos of the principal’s decision, he merely christened our group with a new “nickname” to use for the school election campaign — M.C.R. or Movimiento Chicano de Robe.

We didn’t win the high school election that year but Carlos had already planted the seeds of enlightenment in our community. A year after I graduated from high school, students staged a massive walkout at Robstown High School at a nearby park that marked the event forever — La Lomita. In the years to follow, citizens in our community who had been impacted in some way by Carlos’ philosophy successfully campaigned and were elected to the school board and city council in Robstown. Older citizens in Robstown claimed that they could always tell who followed Carlos’ “revolutionary” philosophy, because when asked, a follower would respond as being from “Robe,” a nickname that Carlos often used when referring to his hometown.

Carlos was a mentor and inspiration to many who met him. Carlos also made a lasting impact on me. I was fascinated by the way Carlos could speak his thoughts at such a fast rate that would demand the listener’s total attention to keep up with him and make you unable to resist the argument he expressed in a very logical and convincing manner. Naively, I figured that I could go to college and major in a similar degree that maybe taught Carlos to be such a speaker. After my first semester in college I learned that few could compete with Carlos who continued to hone his bilingual speaking skills as he travelled to countries like Cuba, Mexico and South America. Carlos eventually moved to San Antonio and turned his thoughts into words as a columnist in major newspapers that allowed him to expand his reach and impact millions of readers’ minds.

As a young activist, Carlos was sometimes called the “revolutionary Charlie War” by some of his classmates who teased him in high school. After college, Carlos was often described as a revolutionary in the Chicano movimiento. Carlos eventually became national chairman of MAYO and later led a delegation to the 1970 Los Angeles Moratorium Riots against the Vietnam War and protests against the disproportionate number of Chicano soldiers in the front lines. Carlos was indeed pursuing a revolution. Carlos later became a gifted writer, journalist and newspaper columnist he attempted to make change, and as he wrote in one of his last San Antonio Express-News columns, he “tried mightily to address matters that weren’t getting adequate attention and sought to find sources other than the usual ones to shed new light on issues of the day.” That’s certainly a very revolutionary goal.

After his recent retirement, Carlos developed a loyal following of Facebook fans who looked forward to his daily dose of witty comments and gems of wisdom. The comments left on his Facebook page reveal how Carlos touched the lives of so many people of all ages and from different walks of life. Many of his followers described how saddened they were to hear that Carlos had passed away. My daughter, Marisa, met Carlos a few months ago and I could tell he had also made some an impact on her. When I gave her the bad news, she also expressed her disappointment—but more towards me because she said that I should have introduced her to Carlos a long time ago. Some people wrote final and touching farewells to Carlos noting that he had an impact in their lives despite the fact that they never personally met. Marisa was fortunate to have a recent picture of her meeting with Carlos that she proudly posted on his Facebook page. Indeed, Carlos caused quite a revolution — and I hope it continues.

[Photo By Sara Inés Calderón]

So many of you were excited to share your memories of Carlos Guerra that we had to do a second version of memories of him, to follow up the first one. Thanks again to those who came out to the event Saturday.

Lluvia Mares was mentored by Carlos Guerra for several years and Carlos frequently told me about her (“That’s her real name! Isn’t that great?!”). She shares her memories of him with us:

“My mom once said ‘Ese no tiene pelos en la lengua.’ He was so tough and aggressive when it came to getting the truth out and telling the story. That’s what a real reporter was — someone who wasn’t afraid to tell the world what mistakes where being made and by whom. To Carlos, it wasn’t about being liked; it was about telling the truth no matter what. He was the type of journalist I wanted to be. I was a teenager when I met Carlos. It was during the floods of 2001. My mom encouraged me to write an email — I have to admit his column picture was a little scary — telling him that I wanted to meet him and show him my work. To my surprise he wrote back. If Carlos were here, he would say he thought some of his friends made me up as a type of joke. My email conveniently came during the worst rainy season San Antonio had ever seen. When I showed up, Carlos was a little shocked that I was a ‘real’ person. For at least the first half-hour he kept looking around to see if one of his friends popped up, they never did. He graciously read my work and offered some advice and asked me what kind of writer I wanted to be. I wanted to be like him, and I still do. He would always tell me to ‘work three times as hard and do three times as much research, and never be afraid.’ That’s how I met Carlos. Since then, Carlos has been an amazing mentor and an even more magnificent friend. He inspired me, encouraged me, and helped me work my way up to becoming the journalist that I am today. I love him very much and will miss him every single day of my life. He truly was an amazing person and one in a million.”

Carlos’ friend Armando Villarreal remembered his friend as the consummate cook:

“I was just back in Corpus from Peru and Carlos was staying at my place. I walk in and there he is in the kitchen at the stove working a pile of julian green bell peppers on a number 12 iron skillet.’Hey Mando— ¿Como te fue en Perú?’  He said it like I was just back from the HEB. He had thin slices of fajitas on a dish and an empty bowl next to itwhere he dumped the now wilted peppers. He covered the peppers, then re-oiled the skillet and added onions, and molcajete ground ajos y cominos. Of course the aroma flew everywhere. He turned the heat upand added the fajitas, stirring wok-style, and placed a cover on theskillet and turned the heat down. ‘¿Y Perú, que ondas?’ he asked pouring some wine. He was helping me ona strategy for Mario Vargas Llosa’s campaign for president. I gave my general impression of things. We hit on that Vargas Llosa was being dragged down by manyorganizations, empty ranchitos, each hankering to be the pack leader,demanding too much, and no customers. Carlos turns to the stove and uncovers the skillet, turns the heat upand adds the wilted peppers on top of the fajitas and gives it a quick stir and turns the heat off.”

[Photo By Sara Inés Calderón]