UA News

Olga Briseño, director of the Media, Democracy and Policy Initiative at The

University of Arizona, was involved in the national effort to advocate for the production and distribution of a U.S. Postal Service stamp to commemorate the work of slain Hispanic journalist, Ruben Salazar.

Briseño collected 1,300 signatures in support of the stamp and gathered resolutions from national Latino organizations and submitted them to the Postal Service's Selection Committee for consideration. The Postal Service will officially announce the stamp’s release date and artwork later this fall.

 

"This stamp and the tribute it brings to an important journalist and to an important aspect of Latino history is at the heart of MDPI's mission. To see change that is necessary, to work very hard to make it happen because you know it is right, and then to see your dreams become a reality-for everyone-is amazing," Briseno said.

 

Salazar was a Mexican-American reporter for the Los Angeles Times who was killed by police on Aug. 29, 1970, while covering the National Chicano Moratorium March to protest the disproportionate number of Hispanics killed in the Vietnam War.

 

The march ended in a rally that was broken up with the use of tear gas. Salazar had taken cover within The Silver Dollar Bar. The coroner’s inquest showed that Salazar died as a result of wounds from a tear gas projectile that was shot at his head from short range.

 

Salazar is recognized as a boundary-breaking pioneer. Mario T. Garcia , a Salazar biographer, lists him as the first Latino to work for the El Paso Herald Post, the first Latino journalist to cross into mainstream English-language journalism, the first Latino journalist to work as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and the first Latino journalist to become a foreign correspondent, having reported from the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Vietnam. His work was most influential when he became the first Latino journalist to have a column in a major English-language newspaper, the Los Angeles Times.

 

Briseño’s efforts to recognize Salazar’s work have led to the creation of the UA’s MDPI Salazar Archive. The Salazar family has donated his papers, articles, photos, typewriter and other person items, which will be catalogued at the MDPI.

 

Briseño’s work through MDPI aims to address issues that advance the image and identify of Latinos in American politics and media to add context to the Latino voice and their contributions to America.

 

"Each effort we make in MDPI intends to change the dynamic of the dialogue on immigration that has its roots in social justice and public policy reform," she said.

 

Amongst many projects, MDPI has developed the Learning Institute for Working Journalists. Its inaugural effort brought together dozens of national experts who addressed 10 selected journalists from throughout the U.S. to aid in their efforts to effectively cover immigration.

 

The initiative also has developed art exhibits that focus on immigration and this year Briseño produced the documentary film “Below the Fold: The Pulitzer That Defined Latino Journalism.” The film tells the little-known story of how a group of young Latino journalists from the Los Angeles Times shocked the newspaper industry when they won a Pulitzer Prize with their series “Southern California’s Latino Community.” The film, by UA graduate Roberto Guidiño, was recently accepted into film festivals in Los Angeles and Mexico City for October and November.

 

 

For more information on MDPI, visit http://mdpi.arizona.edu.