Ruben Salazar was born on March 3, 1928, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and raised in El Paso, Texas. He was the first Mexican-American journalist to have a major voice in American mainstream news media. Having written for the El Paso Herald-Post and the Los Angeles Times, in 1965 Salazar became a foreign correspondent, reporting from the Dominican Republic and South Vietnam prior to becoming chief of the Los Angeles Times Mexico City bureau. In 1970, Salazar became the news director of KMEX, a Spanish-language television station, and served in that capacity until later that same year when he was killed while covering the National Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War. Salazar’s work presents a valuable view of the evolution of Mexican-American politics into the larger Chicano movement.
