Latinos in American Society and Culture

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.)