By Arelis Hernandez
The UNITY News Online

At a time when the U.S. government reneged on promises of equal rights to Hispanics in the West, one young Californio named Francisco Ramirez advocated for his community with ink and paper.

In 1855, 17-year-old Ramirez founded El Clamor Público, a Spanish-language newspaper in California that sought to incite, instruct and inform his Mexican community.

“He’s a representative of journalism at it’s best,” said Felix Gutierrez, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. “He’s a great role model for all of us.”

Though he died 100 years ago, Ramirez’s vision for an inclusive news media persists with his induction into the National Association of Hispanic Journalist’s Hall of Fame alongside NAHJ co-founders Juan Gonzalez, a columnist for the New York Daily News, and Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

“They’ve all contributed in different ways as strong activists for our community,” said Ivan Roman, NAHJ executive director.

Gonzalez has campaigned for equality since he was a student, co-founding the New York chapter of the Young Lords organization, a Puerto Rican nationalist group. The Young Lords broadcasted their message of discontent through the pages of the “Pa’lante,” newspaper — one of his Gonzalez’s first experiences with journalism.

Through alternative media, Gonzalez worked his way up to becoming an investigative reporter and columnist at the New York Daily News. In 2002, he was elected NAHJ president, where he spearheaded a number of programs to increase diversity in the newsroom.

Longtime friend and colleague Felix Gutierrez said Gonzalez was always on the “leading edge of raising issues.”

When newsrooms failed to acknowledge the importance of diversity, Gonzalez made them listen, Gutierrez said.

NAHJ board member Kevin Olivas recalled his first year at NAHJ under Gonzalez’s leadership.

“He brought all these ideas and energy including the Parity Project,” Olivas said, who now directs the program that increases the number of Latinos in the media. “He is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. He is always solving problems.”

Gonzalez, along with William Sutton, former president of the National Association of Black Journalists, met together in 1988 hoping to bring together four media organizations of color. That initiative was later known as UNITY, Gutierrez said.

“All of this [UNITY convention] was their brainchild,” Gutierrez said.

In 2007, Gonzalez won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in exposing the health effects arising from Ground Zero’s air hazards. The admiration he has gained over the last 30 years has made him a name to know among elected officials and community leaders.

“It’s hard to think of another person that commands such immediate respect from so many people,” Olivas said.

Advocacy through journalism is not foreign to Rivas-Rodriguez. When she was working as a young reporter in the 1970s, Rivas-Rodriguez said she was often frustrated because she could only write about the change she wanted to see.

The news media were ignoring Latinos, and negative perceptions about her community abounded, but she had no way to correct it, she said.

“When I’d see something wrong, I would write about it,” Rivas-Rodriguez said. “But nothing changed.”

When NAHJ formed in 1982, Rivas-Rodriguez said she found a venue to channel her frustration and become a participant rather than an observer. Her work translated into the formation of a convention newspaper, The Latino Reporter, that was staffed by college students and guided by professionals.

Rivas-Rodriguez’s idea developed and became the model for the student projects that have evolved in each of UNITY’s associations. She said the project has come a long way from cutting and pasting pages and carrying plates to the printer.

“I’m really proud that we helped create something,” she said. “It has been refined every time. It’s amazing.”

As a professor, Rivas-Rodriguez concentrates on adding Latino history to the academic canon. She said history books, documentaries and journals have consistently omitted the stories of Latinos and their contributions. Recently, Rivas-Rodriguez led a campaign challenging the legitimacy of Ken Burn’s World War II documentary that did not feature Latino veterans.

“It’s not that we weren’t there, it’s that we were not read or written about,” she said. “There needs to be more outreach to the Latino community.”

Rivas-Rodriguez now leads a project to document the oral stories of Latino World War II veterans to augment an archive of Latino history that will be available for future generations.

“Maggie is somebody who through education and advocacy really carries the torch for the inclusion of Latinos in news coverage and media,” Roman said. “She advocates for fairness and educates young people in advocacy.”

topic: Industry Issues
tags: NAHJ

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