A Quarter Century Mixing Scoops and Laughs
Weekly Report’s founding editor shares some tales
By Steve Padilla

Political analysts, sociologists and demographers often note the Hispanic community’s devotion to family, its buying power, its growing presence in politics.

Hispanic Link has reported these things too, often well before they were noticed by the mainstream press. But for a quarter century, it has chronicled something these experts often fail to note: Hispanics are really, really funny. Or funny things seem to happen to them.

’WHEN IS CINCO DE MAYO?’

That, at least, was my experience when I toiled in Hispanic Link’s Washington newsroom from 1982 to 1985 as, among other responsibilities, Weekly Report’s founding editor. The Link told all, as Kay Bárbaro nails it, sin pelos en la lengua.

Like quoting a California elected official’s private inquiry to a Latino colleague, “When is Cinco de Mayo?”

Or, in the Congressional Record, the tribute by a Hispanic congressman to the historic routing of French invaders by peasant farmers in Pueblo (as in Colorado) instead of the Mexican state of Puebla.

Or the racy reprimand by a New York City activist of a fellow Latino who backed Ed Koch’s mayoral bid, scarring him as a “Koch-sucker.”

Then there was the Spanish-language transit guide’s attempt to tell San Francisco bus riders that, despite some construction, buses would “sigue la misma ruta,” or follow the same route. Instead, the guide advised they would “sigue la misma puta.”

Welcome aboard, indeed.

We explored the mystery of identity. English professor Charles Ramírez Berg wrote poetically in a Link column about verdolaga, a ground-hugging plant considered a weed in the United States but a meal in Mexico. My own grandmother prepared it with pork.

Ramírez Berg reflected on how perspective changes everything: “Could it be that there were no weeds in my grandmother’s time? Or maybe weeds are a frame of mind; a hyper-discriminatory way of looking at the world.”

Author Mary Helen Ponce recalled the indignity of Latina girls being singled out for lice inspection at her elementary school in Pacoima, Calif.

“We knew,” she recalled, “that this was part of being Mexican American. Sort of like having black hair and brown eyes, the inspection went with our identity.”

There was the illustration we devised for a commentary which observed that in the 1980s a Hispanic politician couldn’t get elected if he wore a moustache. California attorney Hermán Sillas, running for statewide office, recalled his first campaign manager telling him, “If you want to keep that moustache, you might as well drop by your dentist and ask him to give you a gold front tooth.”

We ran photos of Latino office-holders — all clean shaven —but drew moustaches on them, including the lone female. Henry B. González got a big set of handlebars. New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya was given a goatee as well.
Anaya played a role in one of the many incidents we related concerning the use — and abuse — of Spanish. He topped a rousing speech with the immortal call to action of César Chávez, “Sí se puede!” Good thing he didn’t follow the printed text we were sent. Of course, we mentioned its words: “¡Sal si puede!” Get out if you can!

‘SPANISH FOR THE NEW YORK LANDLORD’

Hispanic Link regularly wielded humor to make a point. We told of an enterprising Fresno grape grower who published “Spanish for the California Farmer,” a 72-page guide with handy phrases such as “Clean up this camp. You live like a [fornicating] pig.” In a column offering examples we suggested that the farmer start a franchise, following up with “Spanish for the New York Landlord,” “Spanish for the Florida Hotel Owner” or “Spanish for the Texas Sheriff.”

In its formative years and the decades that followed, the news service has tried to show that we can laugh at ourselves. It explains the cartoon we ran to mark the appointment of Katherine Dávalos Ortega as the first Hispanic U.S. treasurer.

We depicted Ortega putting her placa on a large dollar bill using a graffiti artist’s can of spray paint, a treatment we heard later she didn’t find appropriate for the solemnity of the milestone.

Hispanic Link continues to explore weighty issues both in its syndicated columns and Weekly Report. I remember well U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Diego Ascencio’s compelling account written exclusively for the Link immediately following his release along with 11 Latin American diplomats in 1980 after 61 days as a captive of the m19 rebels.

A scholar on indigenous cultures, Ascencio had become the chief negotiator with the 15 well-armed rebels. In writing about his odyssey, he described how his keen cultural knowledge enabled him to negotiate the successful, bloodless resolution with the rebels who had taken him and the other diplomats hostage in Bogotá’s Dominican Embassy.

How Hispanic Link has scooped the competition in this story and so many others that followed is fodder for a much longer essay. And be assured that it will include a few laughs.

(Steve Padilla is an assistant metro editor at the Los Angeles Times.)