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Ruben Salazar

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Ruben Salazar
File:RubenSalazar.jpg
BornMarch 3, 1928
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
DiedAugust 29, 1970(1970-08-29) (aged 42)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationJournalist
Years active1956–1970

Ruben Salazar (March 3, 1928 – August 29, 1970)[1] was a Mexican-American journalist killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, California. During the 1970s, his killing was cited as a symbol of unjust treatment of Chicanos by law enforcement. Working as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Salazar was the first Mexican-American journalist from mainstream media to cover the Chicano community.[2]

Career

Salazar was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in 1928. He later moved across the river to El Paso, Texas. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army for two years. Salazar attended the Texas Western College, graduating in 1954 with a degree in journalism. He obtained a job as an investigative journalist at the now-defunct El Paso Herald-Post; at one point he posed as a vagrant to get arrested while he investigated the poor treatment of prisoners in the El Paso jail. After his tenure at the Herald-Post, Salazar worked at several California newspapers, including the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.[2][3]

Salazar was a news reporter and columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 1959 to 1970.[4] During his career, Salazar became one of the most prominent figures within the Chicano movement not only because of his commitment to covering the Chicano community in the news, but also because of the way his life was ended abruptly when he was killed by a tear gas projectile fired by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy Thomas Wilson, while covering a Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War in East Los Angeles.[2]

He served as a foreign correspondent in his early years at the Times, covering the 1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic, the Vietnam War, and the Tlatelolco massacre (the latter while serving as the Times' bureau chief in Mexico City).

When Salazar returned to the US in 1968, he focused on the Mexican-American community, writing about East Los Angeles, an area largely ignored by the media except for coverage of crimes. He became the first Chicano journalist to cover the ethnic group while working in general circulation media. Many of his pieces were critical of the Los Angeles government's treatment of Chicanos, particularly after he came into conflict with police during the East L.A. walkouts.[2]

In January 1970, Salazar left the Times to serve as the news director for the Spanish language television station KMEX in Los Angeles. At KMEX, he investigated allegations of police officers' planting evidence to implicate Chicanos and the July 1970 police shooting of two unarmed Mexican nationals. According to Salazar, he was visited by undercover LAPD detectives who warned him that his investigations were "dangerous in the minds of barrio people."[2]

On August 29, 1970, he was covering the National Chicano Moratorium March, organized to protest the Vietnam War, in which some believed that a disproportionate number of Latinos served and were killed. The march ended with a rally that was broken up by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department using tear gas. Panic and rioting ensued.[5] A coroner's inquest ruled the shooting of the tear gas canister a homicide, but Tom Wilson, the sheriff's deputy involved, was never prosecuted. At the time, many believed the homicide was a premeditated assassination of a prominent, vocal member of the Los Angeles Chicano community.

The riot started when the owners of the Green Mill liquor store, located around the corner from the Silver Dollar Bar on Whittier Boulevard, called in a complaint about people stealing from them. Deputies responded and a fight broke out. Later on that day, cadets from the nearby Sheriff's Academy were bused to the area and marched into the park. A fight ensued, with the untrained cadets being beaten up. This led to more rioting. The Green Mill liquor store is still located at the same place on Whittier Boulevard. The owners later denied contacting the Sheriff's Department.

The L.A. Times columnist was resting in the Silver Dollar Bar after the Vietnam War protest became violent. According to a witness, "Ruben Salazar had just sat down to sip a quiet beer at the bar, away from the madness in the street, when a deputy fired a tear gas projectile" at a crowd which went into the interior of the bar, hitting Salazar in the head and killing him instantly. The sheriff's deputy fired a 10-inch wall-piercing type of tear gas round (designed for use in barricade situations) from a tear gas gun, rather than the type of tear gas round designed to be fired directly at people (which produces a plume of tear gas smoke). The deputy was found to have mistakenly loaded the wrong type of tear gas round. The 10-inch tear gas rounds of both types were identical in size and shape.

The story of Salazar's killing gained nationwide notoriety with the publication on April 29, 1971 of "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," an article by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson for Rolling Stone magazine.[6] In February 2011 the Office of Independent Review released a report of its examination of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department records on the death of Salazar. After reviewing thousands of documents, the civilian watchdog agency concluded there is no evidence that sheriff's deputies intentionally targeted Salazar or had him under surveillance.[7]

Support for Chicano Movement

Salazar's strong support for the Chicano movement as a Mexican-American distinguished him early on from other journalists in mainstream media. With a strong disparity of racial minorities in news organizations nationwide, Salazar felt it was his personal and professional responsibility to give necessary attention to the actions led by his fellow Chicanos in East Los Angeles. In February 1970, just six months prior to his death, Salazar made his support for the Chicano movement particularly clear when he authored an article in the Los Angeles Times, titled, "Who Is A Chicano? And What Is It the Chicanos Want?" In this piece, Salazar not only describes the evolving identity of Chicanos and the historic importance of the movement, but he details his frustration with the lack of Mexican-American representation among the elected representatives in the Los Angles city council. Salazar writes, "Mexican-Americans, though large in numbers, are so politically impotent that in Los Angeles, where the country's largest single concentration of Spanish-speaking live, they have no one of their own on the City Council. This in a city politically sophisticated enough to have three Negro council-men."[8]

Migration and Naturalization Process

Born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Salazar was brought to the United States with his family in 1929, only one year after he was born. Like many who migrate to the United States without authorization, Salazar began his citizenship application at a very young age, but experienced a long and difficult naturalization process that is often overlooked in comparison to his many accolades during his career as a journalist. Salazar began the naturalization process on October 15, 1947, when he officially submitted his application for a certificate of arrival and preliminary form for a declaration of intention of citizenship. Similar to many undocumented youth who are brought to the United States by their family at a very young age, Salazar lived and felt like an American, even though he did not have lawful status.

In addition to issuing handwritten letters and statements to immigration officers in regards to his case, Salazar also had to submit multiple legal documents and application forms in order to gain [awful status. By the time that Salazar turned 19 and was pursuing his undergraduate degree at Texas Western, the District Director at the El Paso Immigration and Naturalization Service offered Salazar advice, suggesting that he enroll in specific classes to prepare for the citizenship exam.

Even after Salazar entered the U.S. Army in October 1950, his naturalization process was not yet completed. There is great irony in the fact that Salazar had committed to actively serving the United States when he made the decision to join the U.S. military, but due to bureaucratic red tape, was still unable to become an American citizen for some time. Even though Salazar tried to continue his naturalization application while he was stationed in Friedberg, Germany, he received a notice that he would not be able to be naturalized until he returned to his legal residence in the United States.

In its entirety, Salazar’s naturalization process from start-to-finish took over six years and consisted of him repeatedly filling out necessary forms and applications describing himself, his contributions to the U.S., and how he was brought to the U.S. as an infant. Even after providing proof of his service abroad with the U.S. Army, Salazar’s path towards becoming a lawful American citizen was met with multiple roadblocks along the way.

Legacy and honors

A plaque honoring Ruben Salazar mounted in the Globe Lobby of the Los Angeles Times Building in downtown Los Angeles.

Post-Salazar's Death

Although Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy Thomas Wilson was identified as responsible for Salazar’s death, he publicly claimed that “he did not know, and under the circumstances was not concerned about, what kind of tear gas projectile he fired” at the Chicano march protesting the Vietnam war.[17] Furthermore, after several days of testimony, the jury returned with a split verdict and in the end, no charges were filed by the District Attorney. However, three years after Salazar’s death, the Los Angeles County issued a settlement of $700,000 to Salazar’s family as a result of the sheriff’s department not using “proper and lawful guidelines for the use of deadly force” during the anti-Vietnam War march in which Salazar was killed. At the time, this was the highest settlement recorded in Los Angeles county history.

See also

References

  1. ^ "NNDB". NNDB.com. Retrieved 2010-04-01.
  2. ^ a b c d e Juan Gonzalez (August 31, 2010). "Slain Latino Journalist Rubén Salazar, Killed 40 Years Ago in Police Attack". DemocracyNow.org. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  3. ^ Gustavo Reveles Acosta (August 29, 2010). "Ruben Salazar killing left impact on Hispanics, journalism". El Paso Times. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  4. ^ Pilar Marrero, "Homenaje al periodista angelino Rubén Salazar," La Opinión Newspaper, 22 April 2008.
  5. ^ Chavez, Ernesto (2002). Mi Raza Primero! (My People First!): Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966-1978. University of California Press. p. 70.
  6. ^ Perry, Paul (2004). Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson. Thunder's Mouth Press. pp. 153–54. ISBN 1-56025-605-2.
  7. ^ Robert J. Lopez (February 19, 2011). "No evidence Ruben Salazar was targeted in killing, report says". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-02-20. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ "Who Is A Chicano? And What Is It The Chicanos Want?". Los Angeles Times. February 6, 1970. p. B7.
  9. ^ "Three Times Reporters Win Awards". Los Angeles Times. June 25, 1965. p. A8.
  10. ^ "Times Assigns Second Reporter to Vietnam". Los Angeles Times. August 8, 1965. p. A1.
  11. ^ Notable Latino Americans: a biographical dictionary by Matt S. Meier, Conchita Franco Serri, Richard A. Garcia. Greenwood Press, 1997 ISBN 0-313-29105-5
  12. ^ Laura Pulido; Laura Barraclough; Wendy Cheng (2012). A People's Guide to Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 4. ISBN 9780520270817.
  13. ^ Radio station KPCC
  14. ^ Sheryl Kornman (September 28, 2007). "UA educator succeeds in getting stamp for Hispanic journalist". Tucson Citizen. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
  15. ^ Documentary on Life, Not Death, of Ruben Salazar ABC News, 2014-04-29.
  16. ^ Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle PBS, 2014-04-29.
  17. ^ Dave Smith and Paul Houston, "Deputy Says He Did Not Know Kind of Missile," Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1970.

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