Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955-1970

by Ruben Salazar, Mario T. García (Editor)

Overview

This first major collection of former Los Angeles Times reporter and columnist Ruben Salazar's writings, is a testament to his pioneering role in the Mexican American community, in journalism, and in the evolution of race relations in the U.S. Taken together, the articles serve as a documentary history of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and of the changing perspective of the nation as a whole.

Since his tragic death while covering the massive Chicano antiwar moratorium in Los Angeles on August 29, 1970, Ruben Salazar has become a legend in the Chicano community. As a reporter and later as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Salazar was the first journalist of Mexican American background to cross over into the mainstream English-language press. He wrote extensively on the Mexican American community and served as a foreign correspondent in Latin America and Vietnam. This first major collection of Salazar's writing is a testament to his pioneering role in the Mexican American community, in journalism, and in the evolution of race relations in the United States. Taken together, the articles serve as a documentary history of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and of the changing perspective of the nation as a whole.

Border Correspondent presents selections from each period of Salazar's career. The stories and columns document a growing frustration with the Kennedy administration, a young César Chávez beginning to organize farm workers, the Vietnam War, and conflict between police and community in East Los Angeles. One of the first to take investigative journalism into the streets and jails, Salazar's first-hand accounts of his experiences with drug users and police, ordinary people and criminals, make compelling reading.

Mario García's introduction provides a biographical sketch of Salazar and situates him in the context of American journalism and Chicano history.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520301061
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/01/2018
Series:	Latinos in American Society and Culture , #6
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	322
Sales rank:	1,012,762
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ruben Salazar was a reporter and correspondent for the Los Angeles Times from 1959 until his death in 1970. Mario T. García is Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His most recent book is Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona (California, 1994).

Table of Contents

List of Articles

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One
El Paso, 1955- 1956
El Paso Herald-Post

Part Two
Mexican Americans, the Border, and Braceros, 1961- 1965
Los Angeles Times

Part Three
Foreign Correspondent, 1965-1968
Los Angeles Times

Part Four
The Chicano Movement, 1969-1970
Los Angeles Times

Index
Illustrations

Editorial Reviews

The first Mexican-American journalist to become prominent in the mainstream press, Salazar (1928-1970) was killed when Los Angeles police violently dispersed a Chicano antiwar protest and shot a tear-gas cannister through him. As Garcia, professor of history at UC Santa Barbara, points out in his well-sketched introduction, Salazar's subsequent martyrization by L.A. Chicanos obscures his contribution: he was no activist but a reporter translating parts of a changing America to itself. In this selection of journalism, Salazar's strength is not literary style; it is the sheer fact of his access and sensitivity to a community little understood by Anglos. There are barrio reports for the El Paso Herald-Post and, later, pieces for the Los Angeles Times in which Salazar covered issues of Mexican-American identity and growing political consciousness. The year he died, Salazar became a columnist, and his voice grew more assured and pointed, suggesting the increasing contribution he could have made had his life not been cut short. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In Salazar's short life he pioneered a role for Mexican American journalists in the mainstream media; after his death while covering an antiwar moratorium in 1970, he became one of the folk heros of the Chicano movement. Salazar began his journalism career at the El Paso Herald-Post in the mid-Fifties and in 1959 became the first Mexican American reporter to work for the Los Angeles Times. For this book, historian Mario T. Garcia (Memories of Chicano History, LJ 2/1/94) has selected pieces that encompass Salazar's career, including his coverage of the developing Chicano movement in California and his years as a foreign correspondent in Mexico and Vietnam. Garcia's introductory essay provides a biographical sketch and a valuable historical context for Salazar's work. In addition to being compelling journalism, this collection contributes to the growing field of Chicano history. Recommended for all multicultural journalism and Chicano history collections.Judy Solberg, Univ. of Maryland Libs., College Park

Library Journal

A collection of dispatches by the first Mexican-American to become a correspondent in a major English-language newspaper. Samples his early work for the El Paso Herald-Post and later for the Los Angeles Times. Salazar (1928-70) was killed by police while covering an anti-war demonstration in East Los Angeles. Includes an index but no bibliography; annotations clarify contemporary references. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews