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 Travel Writers' Resources | April 2007 
Pulitzer-Winning Writer to Talk About Hispanics
 San Luis Obispo Tribune
| | Hector Tobar |
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has covered drug-related assassinations in Mexico and written a book on the experiences of immigrants living in the U.S. will visit Cal Poly on Monday to share his views on the identity of Hispanics.
Hector Tobar is now the Mexico City bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. He won a Pulitzer for covering the L.A. riots in 1992.
In a telephone interview with The Tribune from Mexico, Tobar said his recent work has focused on the drug wars. But he has also written articles about a gored 14-year-old bullfighter and the four-hour average daily commute of Mexico City residents. That story garnered 'more emails than any other story I've written in the past couple of years,' Tobar said.
The Guatemalan-American reporter who wrote the book 'Translation Nation' - which looked at the lives of some of the nation's 40 million Hispanic residents - said he hopes media organizations will improve coverage of Latinos.
According to Tobar, the 'rich civic culture' in U.S. communities that are heavily populated by Hispanics is not being reported well enough.
'Those communities just don't get covered,' he said. 'The Latino community is often covered as a problem, a strain on social services. That negates the experiences of Latinos as humans and civic actors.'
Tobar said that many people living in Mexico view the U.S. as a place that's changing with increased attention toward anti- immigration legislation.
'Many see anti-immigration legislation as anti-immigrant,' Tobar said. 'They think it means people hate Mexicans.'
Despite that view, the U.S. is still seen as a land of opportunity where Mexicans believe their families can rise out of the lower class with hard work while they can't in their home country.
His talk will include an exploration into how well Hispanics are being accepted into American society - comparing the social standing of Hispanics in the U.S. now to freed slaves after the Civil War.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Hector Tobar will give a free talk at Cal Poly at 4 p.m. Monday, April 30: 'If Tocqueville Knew Zapata: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish Speaking United States.' The talk will be at the University Union, Room 204. For more information, call 756-1707. |
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