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Roberto Rodriguez - NAHJ PDF Print E-mail

(June 12, 2009)

Next semester I will be the journalism faculty advisor to the University of Arizona chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). I’ve yet to meet the students or talk in depth with their former advisor, Jeannine Relly. I don’t have a program in mind or even know whether I should develop a program or let it be their organization to do what they want with, or some combination.

But, as luck would have it, I was catching up on the Arizona Daily Star’s “Opinion” page and came across an op-ed by Roberto Rodriguez called “Journalists Serve the Disempowered.”


Rodriguez, according to the brief bio included with his story, teaches in the Mexican American Studies Department and is a syndicated writer through Chronicle Features, United Press Syndicate, and New American Media.

In his column, Rodriguez wrote about a class he taught called the History of Red-Brown Journalism and Communications. Among other things, he wrote that his students produced a newspaper called El Coraje (courage and outrage). He told his students about the original El Coraje that dates back to 1960s Tucson activism, and brought in some of the people who produced it. They included, “Salomon Baldenegro, Cecilia Cruz, Guadalupe Castillo and Congressman Raúl Grijalva.”

It seems that involving folks like Rodriguez would be good for the students. Even though many of my colleagues don’t condone “advocacy journalism,” visiting with folks like Sal Baldenegro can’t help but to be inspiring for students (and me).