In the weeks before Aug. 29, 1970, Rubén Salazar had received dozens of letters from students of Delano High School, located in Central California farm country, talking about discrimination and their plan to protest, their efforts were intended to bring the most important Latino journalist to their side to write about their story. His words could make a difference.

Instead, on Aug. 29, 1970, Salazar was killed in East Los Angeles while covering the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War with his KMEX television news crew. He was shot through the head in the Silver Dollar Café by a tear-gas projectile fired by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

“This was an intentional death,” said Lisa Salazar Johnson who was 9 years old at the time of her father’s death. “They may not have known who they were killing in the bar but when they discovered who it was, there was no regret.

“I know it’s been 37 years but I still don’t know why this happened. There has never been a conclusive answer; only unanswered questions.”

There is a topic file, labeled ‘Chicanos,” Rubén had taken home days before. There is data on test scores from schools in California with his handwritten notes filling in the numbers for Latino surnames. There are stories from Denver and Riverside that he had clipped referring to Latinos as the “sleeping giant.”

There is a copy of “Stranger in One’s Land,” written by Salazar for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. It covered a 1968 hearing in San Antonio where more than 1,000 people were interviewed and 80 of them testified, as volumes of data were collected. In it, Salazar concludes, “The hearing may have helped bring home an obvious historical fact: Mexicans are not strangers to this land, especially in the Southwest.  They are indigenous to it…”

In the decade leading up to his death, Salazar covered the war in Vietnam and the riots in Mexico City during the Olympics. In the files are the stories and leads to stories that he wrote just the day before he was killed, stories that he never finished. There were conversations and actions that he took that lead some to questions whether he knew more than he let on.

With the announcement of a postage stamp in the name of Salazar, emails and calls have come in.

Ralph Arriola, now 72, said he had worked for the United Auto Workers, and in recalling the photos he shot that day including one of Salazar, he cried. Rubén’s former boss, Danny Villanueva, remembered his last conversation with Salazar at KMEX. Two organizers of the Chicano Moratorium talked about their meetings with Salazar leading up to the event.

We wonder, now, if his words and his influence were not shut down at age 42, what would’ve happened and how would his outspoken style played out. What would it be like today to have Rubén Salazar speaking out on the progress of the Latino community.  Frankly, he probably would not take the comfortable side of the conversation.  He would focus on the hard work that lies ahead.  He wouldn’t want anyone feeling too comfortable. 

Case in point: Johnson remembers how her father would love to invoke debate among dinner guests at their home. Just for fun, he would argue the side that would be the complete opposite of his guests. He wanted to hear the other side to get people thinking and talking. 

In an interview a few months before his death, he says “The press should question, study and probe why things are happening” and not write why things are so beautiful.

With the national attention the stamp will attract, people will ask: Who was Rubén Salazar?

There are two answers. 
One, an accomplished journalist.
Second, a father of three children, a husband to Sally and a brother to Luz McFarland.

We know he was tough in his storytelling and he had a great sense of humor. With the family, we are establishing an archive of his papers and personal items along with oral histories. We will debate why he died and document his life.

So, maybe someday no one will have to ask who was Rubén Salazar. Maybe we will open our history books and know. We will learn from his insight into the Latino community and, like him, ask the hard questions again.

Most importantly, the debate he always enjoyed will be ignited.  

(Briseño is director and founder of the Media, Democracy & Policy Initiative at the University of Arizona.  She also led the effort to petition the USPS to issue a stamp in honor of Rubén Salazar. Contact her at obriseno@u.arizona.edu.)

Column No. 4463                                       
HISPANIC LINK
10/07/07
©2007