ARTICLES

A Queer Silence

Do Spanish Media Skirt Family Issues?

By Maria Elena Kennedy

"Although critics of homosexuality have seen a drop in their numbers in the past 30 to 40 years, we Latinos still have too much prejudice in this area." said a March 17, 2002 commentary in the Spanish language newspaper, La Opinion. Some critics are saying that Spanish language outlets such as La Opinion are not only promoting tolerance towards homosexuality among Latinos, but are intentionally attempting to promote the homosexual agenda in the Latino community. This agenda, critics say, is to convince Latinos that the homosexual lifestyle is merely another alternative lifestyle.

Ed Hernandez is one such critic. The Sacramento resident has spent a lot of time working on pro-family issues in Sacramento. Because Hernandez is Latino, he is often called upon to comment on how the homosexual agenda, which is currently being promoted in California, will affect Latino families. Hernandez charges that the lack of coverage on the radical homosexual bills that have recently been signed by Governor Gray Davis amounts to a blackout of information to Latinos in Spanish. Hernandez also points out that the English-language media has been silent on the pro-homosexual and pro-abortion bills that the governor recently signed. One of these bills allows non medical personnel to dispense abortafacient drugs to women.

Hernandez cites Sacramento-based Univision, the Spanish-language media giant, as a prime example of a media outlet that censors full information on the homosexual life. "Last February, around Valentine's day, there was a dance at a community center in Davis," said Hernandez. "The dance was for homosexuals. It was billed by the promoters as being for all ages. One reporter from Univision, while working alone at the station, decided to run a story on it. He did a good job; he showed scenes from inside the dance." Hernandez said that after that story aired, the reporter was not allowed to pursue any other stories about the homosexual agenda.

When asked what about the story disturbed him, Hernandez replied, "is it right for young children to spend the night dancing with adults?" Hernandez noted that the reporter's editor seems disinclined to report on the homosexual agenda. The Univision reporter refused this reporter's request for comment. A call to Xochitl Arellano, who covers the capital for Univision, was not returned.

In an e-mail message to this reporter, Hernandez noted, "it only takes a few minutes on Univision to see their sodomy-promoting humor. The homosexual agenda clearly states that they believe if we hear the message enough we will adopt it." Hernandez said that often there are outside influences that determine programming. For instance, he said, former speaker of the California assembly, Antonio Villaraigosa, was instrumental in shutting down the Univision reporter's story on the homosexual dance in Davis. "He said Villagarosa himself called the station to put an end to these types of stories." When Villaraigosa was a member of the California Assembly, he continually aligned himself with pro-homosexual forces.

I was unable to locate Villaraigosa for comment. A call to his long-time political ally, Miguel Contreras of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, was not returned.

Randy Thomasson, executive director of the Campaign for California Families, said that it has been his experience that the major Spanish language media outlets such as Univision and La Opinion, rarely cover pro-family issues. "The last time La Opinion covered something from our side was in 1996," he said in a telephone interview. Thomasson said, approximately, "90 percent of the time, Univsion does not cover our pro-family news conferences in spite of the fact that Latinos are very family-oriented. Thomasson also noted that when his group has pitched pro-family stories to La Opinion, they have not been receptive. "Earlier this year we had a press conference at the Los Angeles city hall over the Marriage Protection Pledge. Andrea Franklin, from our office, spoke with them about covering the event. I just don't think they are very interested," Thomasson said.

Thomasson said that his contact at La Opinion told him that if Thomasson provided pictures, the paper might possibly do a story. Though he provided pictures shortly after the request; Thomasson said that La Opinion never ran a story. "I know that La Opinion is liberal [in its editorial content] and they are close to Governor Gray Davis." La Opinion is published by the Lozano family, who are active in Democratic circles. La Opinion's CEO, Monica Lozano, was appointed to the California Board of Education by Governor Davis in 1999. When this reporter called Maria del Pillar, political reporter for La Opinion, she referred the call to her editor, Geraldo Lopez. Lopez did not return calls for comment.

Marina Robles of Fresno is a veteran pro-family activist. A native of Peru, Robles says that she finds the Spanish-language media in this country to be "an embarrassment." "My opinion is that they choose not to report the news about the homosexual bills that the governor signed. I haven't seen anything about these bills in the Spanish-language newspaper or the TV." Robles cited Vida en el Valle, a Spanish-language newspaper which is owned by the Fresno Bee, as an example of a Spanish media outlet that does not cover stories about the homosexual agenda. "I feel so upset because they don't report what's important to the Hispanic community."

John Esparza, editor of Vida en el Valle, disagreed with Robles. Esparza said that a small staff, combined with a lack of interest among Latinos, is what keeps him from reporting on pro-family issues. "I have a staff of two reporters, they also serve as photographers," he said. "The Latino community just doesn't have a big interest in family issues." When asked how he reached this conclusion, Esparza said that it was his experience in general. Esparza admitted that he had not conducted any formal polls of his readership. "We basically cover the Latino community and they are interested in education, employment and immigration. Now if a group of Latino pastors came out and said that they opposed homosexuality, we would cover that," he said. "We have a big area to cover and don't have the resources to cover everything." Esparza denied that the Fresno Bee had any editorial control over Vida en el Valle. "We don't know what they cover and they don't know what I cover. There are times when we go to an event that the Fresno Bee is also covering."

Robles is not convinced by Esparza's explanation. "If they don't think homosexuality affects families, they are wrong," she retorted. "They assume that the entire Hispanic community is only interested in labor and immigration. All of their news is about immigration. I believe that they hide a lot of things." Robles says that it is her belief that politics plays an important role in the Spanish-language media, both print and television. "There are probably a lot of Democrats in the Spanish language media. I'm in favor of Hispanics learning English so that they can get out of this mess."

Robles says that by not learning English, Latinos are held captive by a Spanish-language media which selectively feeds them stories. "I'll give you an example," she said. "When Richard Cabral was running for state assembly against Sara Reyes (D-Fresno) in 2000, he took out an ad in Radio Bilingue, the Spanish-language radio program. At the end of the ad, Radio Bilingue had a disclaimer saying that they had to run the ad and did not share the views of Cabral." When told that Esparza had stated that the Latino community is not interested in the homosexual community's encroachment into the public schools and the public square, Robles laughed and replied, "How can they care about this? They don't even know that it exists. How can he say that Hispanics don't care about homosexuality? If they knew about it, you better believe that they would care."

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