Bilingual Defectors   

A steady stream of Latino journalists are leaving the English-language media for the fast-growing array of Spanish-language news outlets.

THE NEWS STAFF AT KVEA, the flagship station of the Spanish-language Telemundo television network, was using typewriters instead of computers as recently as five years ago. This year, the Los Angeles station is getting a $5 million makeover that will increase the size of the newsroom and add top-of-the-line equipment that is standard at many English-language television stations.
The station's personnel changes, however, are even more dramatic than the physical ones.
Last summer, KVEA hired Fernando López, then an assistant news director at the English-language KCBS in Los Angeles, to be its vice president and general manager. He then recruited several employees, including his news director, from other local English-language stations. "They have a sense of professionalism and a different point of view about how to do the news," he says.
López, who was born in Tijuana, Mexico, grew up in East Los Angeles and attended California State University, Los Angeles, says his dream was to be a general manager at an English-language station. "But when I was offered the opportunity to be the general manager at [KVEA], and given the keys to do it right, I didn't hesitate," he says.
The Spanish-language media world in the U.S. has long been dominated by foreign-born, foreign-trained journalists. But López is among a steady stream of U.S.-educated, English-language journalists who are slowly changing that by joining the fast-growing Spanish-language media world, educators and industry-watchers say. In doing so, they are often opting for lower visibility and pay, and less respect from mainstream journalists. But many say switching is the fastest route to achieve their career goals and a way to produce stories that count to Latinos.
Some are taking top management positions after years in mainstream newsrooms; others are opting for Spanish-language news right out of college for the chance to work in major markets. "I took this job for the position and the mission, not the money," says Evelyn Hernández, who was named opinion page editor of New York's leading Spanish-language daily, el diario/LA PRENSA, after a career in mainstream journalism.
These new professionals, who are usually Latino and often more comfortable in English than Spanish, are unapologetic about their desire to offer intensive coverage of Latin America, positive stories about Latinos in the U.S. and information that will help their predominantly immigrant audience members improve their lives. "Spanish-language journalism deals with the kinds of stories that I think Latinos get into journalism for--stories that have an impact on the community," says Julio Moran, executive director of the California Chicano News Media Association.
This advocacy is apparent in the choice of stories and how they are covered. More than 24 hours after the high-school shooting in Santee, California, that killed two students and injured 13 others, the top-rated English-language station in Los Angeles, KABC, led with a recap of the incident and a feature about how to spot troubled teenagers. KVEA offered similar coverage later in its broadcast, but started off with a piece about the accidental death of a welder on the "Spider-Man" movie set. That story then segued into a lengthy feature about workplace safety rules and why it is important for laborers, many of whom are Latino, to report injuries suffered on the job. López explains that the shooting was over, the suspect was in custody and the story had no direct impact on the station's audience.
The move to Spanish by mainstream journalists is fueled in part by the rising demand for talent at Spanish-language news organizations, which are growing much faster than their English-language counterparts (see "Media Explosion"). But for now, the trend is largely anecdotal because little information is available.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which recognizes that not every Spanish-language journalist belongs to the group, says 88 of its 1,325 members work in Spanish-language media and an additional 76 work in bilingual media. A survey last year by the Radio-Television News Directors Association and Ball State University shows that Latinos account for 7 percent of the television work force, with nearly half of them working in Spanish.
The growth of Spanish-language publications and stations has prompted several professional organizations and schools to reach out to journalists who work there. RTNDA has added a Spanish-language component to its Web site. NAHJ is planning Spanish-language workshops, has added a Spanish-language at-large board position and is creating a stylebook that will translate legal or technical terms such as "arraignment" or "hearing" into Spanish. And more U.S. journalism schools are either offering or thinking about adding Spanish-language journalism programs (see "Schooling in Spanish," page 49).

S OME LATINO JOURNALISTS SAY Spanish-language media offer opportunities not otherwise available to them. Take Hernández, who was named opinion page editor in January at el diario/LA PRENSA, which has a circulation of 55,000. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and educated at Boston University and New York University. Before switching to Spanish media she worked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Miami Herald and New York Newsday, and taught journalism at New York University and Queens College.
Hernández, 42, began considering Spanish-language media because she believed, in part, it would give her an opportunity to be in charge. Before she took the job at el diario/LA PRENSA, she interviewed for a similar position at a mainstream New York newspaper. She was told she had great ideas, but did not get the job. On the other hand, el diario/LA PRENSA had no problem seeing her as management material. "I think it's easier for people in Spanish-language media to see Latinos as people who can run an opinion page or a newsroom," says Hernández. "I find that very liberating."
After a stint as an anchor at CBS News "This Morning," José Díaz-Balart, 40, moved back into Spanish-language television in September to co-host Telemundo's new Miami-based international morning talk show called "Esta Mañana." Díaz-Balart was born in Fort Lauderdale, graduated from New College in Sarasota and attended the University of Cambridge in England. He has jumped between English and Spanish media a few times in his career, but was particularly intrigued by the idea of moving beyond a national audience to an international one. "We are reaching millions of people daily, from Mexico to Argentina," he says.
Opportunities at major Spanish-language media outlets are also available to new college graduates. Jesse J. Linares, 37, moved to California from El Salvador as a teenager. He got his first job after graduating from California State University, Northridge, at La Opinión, the nation's oldest and largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, with a circulation of more than 120,000. Today he is an assistant metro editor at the paper. Julio César Ortiz, 25, was born in Baja, California and moved to the United States as a teenager. He began working as an assignment desk editor at Telemundo's KVEA while a senior at Cal State Northridge and stayed on after graduation.
The jump to a large market can be especially short for on-air reporters. Esmeralda Montenegro-Briano, 27, a native of El Salvador, moved to Los Angeles at the age of 11. After graduating from the University of Southern California last year, she began freelancing as an on-air reporter for KFTV, a Univision station in Fresno. Three months later, she was hired as a reporter at KSTS in San Jose, the country's fifth-largest Spanish-language market. "In five years, my goal is to be an anchor either in Los Angeles or for the network," she says. "That's a huge possibility."
Journalists who work in Spanish-language media relish the chance to have an impact on Latino communities and how Latinos are portrayed. Telemundo's KVEA hangs around the station poster-size reproductions of its mission statement, which promises to "entertain and educate while empowering the community" and to "encourage sound life choices that will lead to an improved quality of life." López, the general manager, admits it is a form of activism. "We tell our audience, 'Don't be afraid to speak up. You have rights as residents and citizens of this country,' " he says.
Díaz-Balart of Telemundo says he is dismayed by the lack of sensitivity demonstrated by English-language networks toward Latinos and Latino issues. The latest "Network Brownout" report released by the NAHJ in September, for instance, says that of the nearly 12,000 stories that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC in 1999, only 162 of them, or 1.3 percent, focused on Latinos or Latino-related issues. "You see Latino faces on the news when there's a story about immigration, crime and gangs," he says. "But there are also Latino lawyers, Latino bankers and Latino stock-market whizzes."
Angelo Figueroa, a 44-year-old who grew up in Detroit, is managing editor of People en Español, which has a circulation of 325,000. He says Spanish-language media are sometimes criticized for keeping Latinos segregated and preventing them from assimilating. "I think just the opposite is true," he says. "The more information they have in their own language, the more likely they are to care about what is going on in their communities and get involved."
Figueroa worked at the Miami Herald, San Francisco Examiner, Long Beach Press-Telegram and the San Jose Mercury News, where he started a weekly Spanish-language newspaper called Nuevo Mundo. He says he often wrote about Latino issues at English-language newspapers, but it was sometimes a tough sell. "There are so many things that are important to Hispanics that English-language media may not consider important," he says.
Figueroa says he wrote several columns arguing against Proposition 187, a California initiative that would have denied health, educational and other benefits to undocumented workers. As a result, he received an "unbelievable" amount of hate mail. "Clearly, there were people in the newsroom who disagreed with my position but weren't as vocal or forthright in their opinions as the readers," he says.
Hernández of el diario/LA PRENSA says the paper has a different perception of what is newsworthy. "If I want to write an editorial or cover a story, I have to justify it on its news merits, but I don't have to justify the Latino aspect of it," she says. "In mainstream media, you spend a lot of time explaining why something is racist or discriminatory or insulting. That's not an issue here, and it's wonderful not to have that burden."
For instance, the paper began writing about a rash of robbery-murders of cab drivers in New York City when they first started happening about a year ago. Most of the cab drivers had been Dominican immigrants who often venture into areas where Yellow Cabs won't. Hernández says English-language publications waited until there were several deaths before writing about it. She says her newspaper gave the story and related issues--such as who is responsible for paying for safety partitions in cabs--steady and regular coverage. The English-language press, meanwhile, usually waited for the next murder or protest.

D ESPITE THEIR GROWING APPEAL to mainstream journalists, Spanish-language media have their problems, ranging from low wages and inconsistent quality to a lack of respect--and even a lack of diversity.
Although it depends on the market and size of the news organization, Spanish-language media on average pay significantly less than English-language media. Although some Spanish-language broadcasters may belong to a union, most print reporters do not. Moran of the California Chicano News Media Association estimates that Spanish-language television reporters in Los Angeles, the nation's top Spanish-language market, earn about half as much as English-language colleagues, and reporters at La Opinión earn between 25 percent and 50 percent less than reporters at the Los Angeles Times. Salary issues prompted strikes last year at two Spanish-language Univision stations. The Los Angeles Times reported that two employees and a labor negotiator at a Fresno Univision station, KFTV, waged a 43-day liquids-only hunger strike, and workers held a three-week strike against KMEX in Los Angeles.
The low wages are blamed, in part, on the fact that many Spanish-language news operations are smaller than their English-language counterparts, which lowers their advertising rates. Although Latinos make up 12.5 percent of the total U.S. population, Spanish-language media garnered just $2.4 billion, or about 1 percent, of the $236 billion that was spent on all advertising in the United States last year, according to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies. The amount of advertising is expected to increase, however, thanks to the new U.S. Census figures, says Anne Thompson, a former media analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities.
In addition to salaries, the quality of Spanish-language news outlets also varies widely. "Some stories are more sensationalistic than I'd like them to be," says Elena Gaona, a 27-year-old reporter at the Spanish-language weekly La Ola in Los Angeles. For example, if a school is having a budget crunch, the headline might imply that the lack of funding is solely due to the fact that it is predominantly Latino, she says.
Spanish-language journalists say they often do not get the respect they deserve from their English-language counterparts. Figueroa of People en Español says he sometimes feels like Spanish-language journalists have fallen off the radar screen. "I worry that mainstream managers won't view this [Spanish-language] experience in the same light," he says.
NAHJ President Cecilia Alvear says Spanish-language media do an excellent job of covering Latin America and explaining to immigrant readers how U.S. institutions work. But she also criticizes them for hiring only fair-skinned on-air talent. "They don't really have diversity," says Alvear, a producer at NBC News. She adds that many Spanish-language newscasters are white and blond even though Latinos have Asian, African or indigenous origins. "I think that is something that has to be corrected."
lthough more U.S.-educated journalists are joining Spanish-language newsrooms, the vast majority of people working there were born, raised and educated in foreign countries that often have very different journalistic practices. Newspapers in Latin America and Europe tend to be clearly on one side or another of the political spectrum, and sometimes have single-sourced stories written in a complicated, literary style. Photographs and television footage can also be more gruesome than that shown in the United States. And there is real respect for people in positions of authority.
But instead of clashing, the two cultures seem to be learning from and complementing each other. U.S.-trained journalists bring to the table high North American journalistic standards, an adversarial watchdog attitude, biculturalism and familiarity with the country's legal, educational and governmental system. Foreign-born journalists offer a greater facility with Spanish language and a deep knowledge of the culture, history and politics of their countries of origin.
"One of the things we're doing here as editors and staff writers is trying to write tighter and brighter," says Hernández of el diario/LA PRENSA. Figueroa says People en Español has helped raise the quality of other competing Spanish-language entertainment magazines by using multiple sources, fact-checking and improving the quality of the graphic design and photos. "We've really set a standard," he says.
A somewhat larger hurdle is maintaining a perception of objectivity, says Maryhelen Campa, who left her job as a producer at Fox News Channel in Los Angeles to become the assignment desk manager at Telemundo's KVEA. She says one drawback to being known as an advocate for the Latino community is that newsmakers and sources sometimes do not want to talk, especially about race issues, because they fear stories will be biased. "Sometimes, we don't get the other side of the story," she admits.
In March, an English-only group called V.O.I.C.E. organized a protest at a Los Angeles luncheon for Mexican President Vicente Fox. Representatives from the group refused to speak to KVEA, saying that coverage would be biased since the station represented Spanish-speakers.
One of the biggest hurdles facing Spanish-language journalism is finding reporters, writers and producers who can write the language as well as they can speak, read and understand it. As a result, many people have been hired at Spanish-language newspapers and television stations even though their Spanish is far from perfect.
At People en Español, Figueroa says everyone on his staff reads and speaks Spanish fluently. And while many on his staff can also write in Spanish, he rarely attempts it himself because his writing is better in English. Hernández has the ability to write in Spanish. But because she is not fast enough to do so on deadline, she writes her editorials for el diario/LA PRENSA in English, then hands them over to an in-house translator. And at KVEA, the language barrier is solved by holding many conversations in English or "Spanglish," a mixture of Spanish and English. "Ironically," says López, "most of our communication is done in English."