Message to news media: Embrace diversity if you want to survive and thrive

Editor’s note: This commentary is part of Borderzine’s continuing series about the growing urgency to transform newsrooms into diverse work places. By Hugo Balta

Diversity doesn’t happen easily. It is slow progressive change. The pundit who asks, “why don’t they just hire more _____,” fails to understand the fiscal constraints in which media companies operate under. Newsroom budgets continuously contract in the ever-changing new technology economy.

Changing the complexion of news media calls for revolución

It’s time to shatter the myth that young Latino journalists won’t leave home for jobs in news media. This thought and others flashed in neon across my mind as I sipped white wine recently in a San Antonio ballroom to celebrate 30 years of tilling the soil to transform newsrooms into diverse work places by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. As the speeches and awards played out on stage, I recalled the offensive words of a top news media recruiter not so many years ago.  The recruiter, in his early fifties, had come from Washington, DC to UT El Paso, where I teach journalism, to meet with our journalism students. We thought he was coming to talk about jobs and internships. Instead he lambasted me and my journalism colleagues for producing journalism graduates who “aren’t aggressive enough, do not speak up and refuse to leave home for jobs elsewhere.”

Old stereotypes linger among recruiters

While we were all too stunned to respond, his insensitive comments didn’t surprise me.

Does stripping for money empower or demean women?

 

The almighty dollars wait to be scooped up from the floors of Dreams… Jaguars, Tequila Sunrise or any strip club The bills are usually wet from the sweaty hands of the men, eager to touch the women. Up on the poles, the women hang on a fine line that moves from humility to humiliation, from objectification to empowerment. In the instant it takes to kneel down and pick up the bill, an array of emotions and thoughts web through the stripper’s mind. Having once been employed by local strip clubs, I know that feeling and I recall the stigmas that are born from such a life. I decided to dive back into the world of strip clubs for a class project and look again into the tangled universe of a stripper’s thoughts.

Fifty years later, it’s déjà vu all over again in Madrid

 

MADRID, Spain — Fifty years ago I walked into the Palace Hotel here looking for a cup of coffee and was promptly escorted out by two burly guards. It was Spain at the height of the fascist Franco dictatorship and, at 19, my buddy Mike and I probably looked like communists or worse, like the hippie kids we were, backpacking through Europe, sleeping in youth hostels for 30-cents a night and bathing once every couple of weeks. I carried two Leica cameras with me, my only possessions other than the shirt on my back, and I documented every step of our wanderings from Luxembourg where Icelandic Airlines dropped us off, across the Mediterranean to North Africa where penniless in Tangier we had to scrounge to get back to Madrid. In Madrid, we avoided the museums and any semblance of establishment culture, after all we were following in Hemingway’s footsteps and we spent our time guzzling raspy red wine at the bullfights, scouring for señoritas and scratching poetry on napkins in the cafes. After shooting the bird at the Palace hotel, we walked back to the center of town to our usual haunts near the Plaza Mayor.

Does a Buddhist temple have a place on a college campus?

EL PASO — Separation of church and state, unless we’re talking about a Buddhist temple at the University of Texas at El Paso? To celebrate its centennial, UTEP is undergoing a major physical transformation and a very visible part of the makeover is the placement on campus of a Lhakhang, or Buddhist temple. The temple was given to UTEP by the people of Bhutan after it was built for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that took place in Washington D.C. in 2008. It was later shipped to El Paso and kept in a warehouse until money was raised to place it on campus. The Bhutanese architecture at UTEP is undeniably beautiful and so is Bhutan, it’s people and culture.

Hear the rattle as civilizations collapse under the weight of complex problems

The sound of collapse is all around us. In the U.S. the political system is in a close race with our transportation system to see which one gets declared the winner in a race towards non-functionality. Our physical bridges along with our metaphorically constructed political bridges are in different degrees of collapse. And we, as a nation,  are the model of stability. Whole countries are suffering from Gang or Terrorist warfare.

Un día en la vida de un niño Tarahumara

Cd. JUAREZ — Con un amanecer no muy diferente a los demás, el contorno de la montaña ya visible gracias a los primero rayos de sol, una briza fresca y el constante abrir y cerrar de puertas de acero anuncian que ha comenzado el día. El día de un niño tarahumara comienza cuando la luna aun es visible y la claridad de la mañana empieza a iluminar cada espacio de la comunidad. Las madres de la comunidad tarahumara son las primeras en despertar. A las 4 a.m. la mayoría ya está en el comedor ayudando a preparar el desayuno de cada día.

Mindless in Gaza

LAS CRUCES, NM — After three weeks in Europe I returned to my patch of high desert and basked in the hundred-degree afternoon knowing there is no place like home and with some new perspectives on the tragic human strife we see in the world. Nothing like visiting Europe to see the tracks of senseless violence in human history glorified in art, and architecture. From the gleaming marble statuary in Florence to the dark halls of old palaces built on blood in Spain, history demonstrates that military might and time eventually conquer just about everything. In Florence’s Medici palace, one football field full of statues and paintings after another speak of immense wealth, war, religion, politics. In Spain’s Prado museum, one painting in particular attracted my attention.

Two young girls dressed up to celebrate the Fourth of July take in the scenic view of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, from Tom Lea Park on Rim Road. Photo credit: Kate Gannon

As migrant crisis hits U.S. border, El Paso keeps it classy

It’s a sweltering summer Sunday night in El Paso, Texas, at the city’s new downtown baseball stadium, where the local Triple-A team, the Chihuahuas, is leading the visiting Tacoma Rainiers at the seventh-inning stretch. As the hammerlock of the day’s 102-degree heat begins to release its grip on this high-desert town, a sellout crowd of 8,607 fans rises to its feet to sing and sway along to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’’ Immediately after, trumpet-charged mariachi music blasts over the sound system and the crowd roars with glee as Chico the Chihuahuas’ mascot dances onto the field, wagging his tail and making the team’s signature “Fear the Ears’’ gesture with his paws. Ah, béisbol  – still America’s pastime in a new America. And if there is a city that characterizes our new America, it’s the very old town of El Paso, circa 1659. I spent a week there this summer studying at the University of Texas at El Paso and its Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy.

José Antonio Vargas, el indocumentado más privilegiado

CHICAGO — José Antonio Vargas ha pasado la mayor parte de su vida escondido detrás de un secreto: Vivir indocumentado en los Estados Unidos. Cerca de 12 millones de personas en los EEUU comparten tal secreto bajo el miedo de la deportación. Pero Vargas, quien salió del clóset de los papeles falsos cuando publicó “Mi vida como un inmigrante indocumentado” en la revista del periódico New York Times del 22 de junio del 2011, continúa en este país sin haber seguido la suerte de los más de dos millones que han sido deportados, sólo durante el gobierno de Obama, por no tener documentos legales. Posteriormente, en junio del 2012, Vargas apareció en la portada de la revista Time, junto con otros 30 indocumentados bajo el titular: “Somos americanos, sólo no legalmente”. “Documentado” es la película que Vargas ha escrito, producido y dirigido que cubre la experiencia de su vida sin documentos desde que llegara a California de su natal Filipinas el 3 de agosto de 1993, cuando tenía 12 años.

Recognition for journalist Ruben Salazar is long overdue in his home town

EL PASO – Before taking a Chicano Studies class this semester, my knowledge of Ruben Salazar was pretty weak. I think most residents of El Paso are also uninformed about the success of the legendary Mexican-American journalist who was killed inside a bar in East Los Angeles during a Chicano anti-war demonstration in 1970.Should the city of El Paso be blamed for this lack of historical information about the prominent journalist, who was born in Ciudad Juárez and raised in El Paso?Why haven’t our city fathers taken time to recognize this ground-breaking native son who became a national and international correspondent for one of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers? Why aren’t any parks, public schools or other public spaces named after Salazar or other prominent El Pasoans? Here are a few others:
Marcelino Serna, immigrated to El Paso illegally in 1916 at age 20, became a decorated solider during the first World War. Another nationally recognized figure, Sandra Day O’Connor, was born in El Paso and graduated from Austin High School.

Illegal immigration – A global problem

SANTA TERESA, N.M. – Recent headlines in the U.S. have focused on a major influx of undocumented immigrants crossing our southern border with Mexico, many of them children either traveling alone or with single mothers seeking refuge. According to Homeland Security some 52,000 children have arrived on the U.S.-Mexico border since October of last year, most coming from Central American countries including Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, looking to escape the upsurge in violence and destitution threatening those countries. Some, apparently, are trying to take advantage of special treatment afforded children and families that cross the border illegally which they believe, mistakenly or otherwise, will allow them to stay. The paid “coyotes” smuggling them encourage this misinformation in promoting their services throughout the perilous journey from their home countries to the border. This is only the latest in the influx of undocumented (illegal) immigrants from the south that have looked to the U.S. for shelter from economic and/or violent social oppression in their homelands.

Exhibit brings to life the memories of two of El Paso’s first neighborhoods

EL PASO — Walking through a dark hall and swinging open the pair of steel gates, museum guests are thrown into a room with walls exquisitely decorated with the memories of this city’s most history-rich neighborhoods.Bright and colorful murals at the El Paso History Museum exhibit surround the viewer with quotes and representations of two of El Paso’s first neighborhoods.Neighborhoods and Shared Memories is an exhibit that shows what life was like in the Segundo Barrio and Chihuahuita neighborhoods as children grew up in the area. El Paso’s oldest neighborhoods continue to thrive in the southern part of the city with an extensive history as a place of refuge and social and economic struggle. Today, vivid murals on aged structures along the two-way streets give an insight into the cultural influences once existed.”We wanted to reach out to all the folks who had not had a voice, who were not represented in the history. The original exhibit plans for this building was that this gallery was designated from the begining to be the headquarters for the neighborhoods exhibit” says senior curator Barbara Angus.”The concept was that even from the beginning the exhibits that were created were directly by the people from the neighborhoods,” said Angus. Each wall represents one neighborhood with phrases from people who lived in the area and their memories of life there.

#SomosTodosMacacos #WeAreAllMonkeys

EL PASO — “There is no racism [on the field], but maybe there is a word or gesture that is not correct. The one affected by this should say this is a game and shake hands.”
That is the answer to racism that Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, proposed when interviewed by CNN back in 2011. Not only did he deny that racism exists, which is not the only time he (or FIFA) has denied racism, he proposed a preposterous solution to battle racism when two high profile cases of racism were going on in England. Barcelona star Daniel Alves, who is Brazilian, along with his teammate and compatriot Neymar Santos have decided to not battle racism with something as simplistic as a handshake. They have taken to social media to spread their message, “Somos todos macacos”, Portuguese for “We are all monkeys.”
It started during a Spanish league game, when Barcelona FC were playing a game in Villarreal and in the 77th minute a fan from Villarreal threw a banana at Alves, who was about to take a corner kick.

Necesitamos una protagonista latina inteligente en la TV

CHICAGO – Soy una gran admiradora de la guionista Shonda Rhimes. Su programa “Grey’s Anatomy” es perfecto para esos días que me quiero acurrucar a ver televisión. Además, el hecho de que ella sea una mujer afroamericana de Chicago y también productora y directora de cuatro programas de televisión, es impresionante e inspirador. Cuando me enteré de la última creación de Rhimes, el drama televisivo “Scandal” en la red ABC, un espectáculo basado en la secretaria de prensa de la Casa Blanca, que también es una mujer negra, me emocioné. Después de ver el primer episodio en abril del año pasado, quedé enganchada.

Rebeca Moreno’s art expresses the duality of womanhood in a sexist society

EL PASO — The Rubin Center serves as a laboratory for emerging artists and innovative practitioners, providing access for an audience of various diverse communities. The opening of the 2014 Annual Juried UTEP Student Art Exhibition showcased works of art and design created by undergraduate students. An opening reception was held April 10th as a part of the UTEP Centennial Celebration Open Campus Event. Over 300 entries were entered into the contest with only 98 making it for final review by guest judges CC Bursell and Tanya Abril Castro. Artwork in the museum was unique and gratifying to see.

25. The First True Lie by Marina Mander

50 LIBROS/ 50 BOOKS: Mujeres y sus historias
“Words in a row make stories.”
Marina Mander
EL PASO — Hace muchos años vi una película francesa que en español se llamaba “La Fractura del Miocardio.” Era la historia de un chico, hijo de una madre soltera, con un fantástico grupo de amigos en la escuela. Un día la mamá muere y él deja de ir a la escuela, alguno de sus compañeros —o todos, no lo recuerdo— lo buscan y éste se los explica, no sólo eso, sino que les muestra el cuerpo sin vida de su madre. Todos están de acuerdo que de reportar la muerte de su madre, el chico iría a vivir a un orfanatorio y nunca más podrían estar juntos. Así pues, el chico y sus amigos se aventuran en fingir que nada está ocurriendo, todos hacen lo posible para que el amigo sobreviva solo. Todos estos niños mienten.

Privatización de PEMEX

CIUDAD JUAREZ — El 18 de Marzo de 1938, El presidente Lázaro Cárdenas anunció el decreto de expropiación de la industria petrolera. En un momento histórico para el país, el pueblo jubiloso espontáneamente donó para indemnizar a las empresas extranjeras. La expropiación petrolera se dio gracias a los logros de la Revolución Mexicana. Estampados en la Constitución de 1917 en el artículo 27, en el cual se establece, entre otros, que es propiedad de la nación todo lo que esté en el subsuelo del territorio; y se faculta al gobierno a expropiar en caso de utilidad pública. Ahora el gobierno de Enrique Peña Nieto le da un golpe bajo a los mexicanos con la privatización de Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX).

Senioritis is killing me, but freedom looms ahead

EL PASO — I’m suffering from a compilation of excitement, regret, anger, laziness, and nostalgia, but I don’t need a shrink. My ailment is called senioritis and all I need to get better is to graduate. I’m fully aware that I suffer from senioritis, but not because I’m skipping class or getting lower grades. Neither of those have occurred so I’m in the clear in that category, but I’ve just been dragging along these past few months for several reasons.Excitement: Like every other senior, I am pumped to be able to say, “I’m a college graduate” in a few months. After four years (okay, I lied, 6 years) of all-nighters studying (with Facebook and Netflix study breaks), group projects (where you end up doing 90% of the work and everyone else gets your well-deserved A), and subjecting your body to fast-food so you can even find time to eat (which you eventually learn to enjoy), you deserve that diploma.Me personally, I love knowing that once I get home from work, I won’t have to worry about checking Blackboard and that I can re-watch Dexter from the beginning in peace, without feeling like I’m not accomplishing anything.

A propósito de Gabriel García Márquez

EL PASO — Quizá ya lo hemos olvidado. El 17 de abril murió Gabriel García Márquez. Curiosamente su cuerpo eligió morir en la fecha en que murió Benjamin Franklin, al cual quizá le hubiera gustado conocer, y asimismo en el mes en que fallecieron Cervantes, Shakespeare, el Inca Garcilaso, Juana Inés de la Cruz, César Vallejo, Úrsula Iguarán, Yasunari Kawabata y Octavio Paz. Pero tales datos son, desde luego, meramente llamativos y sólo interesan al pedante o al enamorado de las coincidencias. Lo esencial (si es que hay algo esencial en el mundo) es que mientras García Márquez estaba vivo sentíamos que al rompecabezas de nuestra Latinoamérica, pese a su aspecto de disparate, no le faltaba ninguna pieza.

¿Hispana como tú? Mi origen es filipino pero me siento más hispana que los tamales

CHICAGO — El 1 de mayo de 1898, el escuadrón asiático de los Estados Unidos derrotó al escuadrón Pacífico de España durante la Batalla de Manila Bay, el primer enfrentamiento de la guerra española-estadounidense. Esta guerra, que en efecto marcó el comienzo del fin del imperio español, fue causada por unas revueltas en Cuba que llamaron la atención a los periodistas estadounidenses Joseph Pulitzer y William Randolph Hearst. La publicidad causada por estos conflictos fomentó un sentimiento anti-español en los estadounidenses que se intensificó después de que el barco de guerra Maine se hundiera en la bahía de La Habana. El presidente William McKinley amenazó declarar una guerra si España no entregaba sus territorios en Cuba, haciendo efectiva esta amenaza el 25 de abril del 1898. Aunque este conflicto tiene origen en Cuba, la guerra española-estadounidense sirvió como punto clave no solamente para Hispanoamérica sino también para los ex-territorios de España en el Pacífico — Guam y las Filipinas.

24. El Matrimonio de los Peces Rojos por Guadalupe Nettel

50 LIBROS/ 50 BOOKS: Mujeres y sus historias
“Los vínculos entre los animales y los seres humanos
pueden ser tan complejos como
aquellos que nos unen a la gente.”
Guadalupe Nettel
EL PASO — Plinio El Viejo, filósofo y naturalista romano, escribió Historia Natural, una enciclopedia que incluye estudios sobre astronomía, geología, mineralogía, botánica y zoología. “Todos los animales saben lo que quieren excepto el hombre”, explicó en estas páginas Plinio el Viejo; en cierto modo estas palabras son la esencia del más reciente libro de Guadalupe Nettel: El Matrimonio de los Peces Rojos. Las cinco historias de esta colecciónson un sutil acercamiento al instinto animal y a la conducta humana. Nettel pareciera plantear que hombres y mujeres no sólo ignoran lo que quieren sino que, en ocasiones, ignoran quienes son en realidad. Guadalupe Nettel (Ciudad de México, 1973) es probablemente una de las voces más importantes de la narrativa mexicana actual.

El Cinco de Mayo convertida en una celebración más americana que mexicana

CHICAGO — ¡Viva México! Se escucha en todo México recordando el día del grito de Miguel Hidalgo, ícono de la independencia mexicana, que iniciara aquella batalla en 1810. En México, el 15 de septiembre todo mexicano celebra con júbilo y orgullo el aniversario de la independencia. Se recuerda la lucha de cada uno de los mexicanos que dieron su vida por su país, en busca de la liberación del dominio español. Pero aunque ese grito es símbolo sagrado en México, existe otro grito más fuerte de celebración en los Estados Unidos.

Dr. Who fans roam the world all marked up to remember ‘The Silence’

EL PASO — Dr. Who, a british television show that has been broadcast since 1963, is currently
booming in popularity in the United States and across the world. April 23rd marks the second anniversary of “The Impossible Astronaut,” an episode that aired on the British Broadcasting Channel (BBC).To commemorate this anniversary, Dr. Who fans or “Whovians” as they refer to themselves, have been marking themselves with magic markers or pens or anything that leaves an indelible line on their bodies in the same way that the show’s main character does to remind himself of each time that he saw an alien being called “The Silence.” Social media was abuzz with pictures of people from all countries and walks of life with tally marks representing the number of times they saw “The Silence,” which removes itself from the memory of any person who saw it, but then stops seeing it. In other words, if you stop looking at it, you can’t remember it. I too, am a Whovian, and I marked my arm with these ominous tallies this past Wednesday.

Ruben Salazar questioned his own ethnic identity and the role of journalism in American society

EL PASO — Writing in his personal journal shortly before newsman Ruben Salazar was killed by cops during a 1970 Chicano Anti War march in Los Angeles, the now legendary Mexican-American journalists asks:  “Why do I always have to apologize to Americans for Mexicans and to Mexicans for Americans?”   

His question sounds almost innocent against the turbulent anti-establishment tone of the times. Yet it still resonates for most U.S. journalists with hyphenated identities, myself included. As I watched the PBS documentary, “Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle,” a few weeks ago at a packed auditorium on the University of Texas El Paso campus, it felt like I was looking into a mirror and witnessing my own ambiguity about my Cuban and U.S. identities. It seems to me that ambiguity about identity frames the existential experience of most immigrants to this country. Where do we belong?

Ruben Salazar was a journalist living in two cultures, like me

EL PASO – While viewing the special screening here of the new documentary on the life and death of Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar, Man in the Middle, I experienced a mix of emotions. The documentary by Phillip Rodriguez address the duality of his life as a journalist, but, it felt to me that it lacked a wider explanation of Salazar’s private life. Salazar came from a Mexican background and grew up in El Paso, but the documentary portrayed him as identifying more with American culture. Salazar was an outstanding journalist who took risks and was not afraid to take assignments other journalists avoided. I felt that that my image of Salazar had changed after watching this documentary, as it explained that his death might not have been an accident, but rather an intentional attack.