Language Can Create Barriers for Young Journalists

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One news director considered a reporter's Spanish `not Mexican enough.'

During my newsroom years, I've never felt any discrimination for being Latino. I don't recall that my ethnic background was ever taken into consideration when being assigned a beat or a story.

Like hundreds of journalists working in Spanish-language media in the United States, I never had to deal with being a minority--one of only a hand-fill of Latinos on staff. All of my peers and most of my managers--even at the upper level--were Latinos, too.

I've been fortunate to work at some of the top Spanish-language news outlets in the country. My very first journalism job fresh out of college was as a news writer at KMEX, the Los Angeles affiliate of the number one Spanish-language network, Univision. Years later I enjoyed an 11-year stint as an editor at the country's largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, Los Angeles's La Opinion.

While Latino journalists are …