Hispanic Link Weekly
http://www.HispanicLink.org

Charlie Erickson founded the Hispanic Link Weekly Report in November, 1979 http://www.HispanicLink.org. Previously, he worked for ten years as a National Syndicated Columnist. He and his family lived in various places like East Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Sacramento. When asked why he began the Hispanic Link Weekly Report, he replied that his five children were Mexican-American and the point was to educate the general population about Latinos through mainstream media. The Latino drop out rate is not the fault of lazy or uncaring parents; it’s the fault of the system.

When Mr. Erickson began Hispanic Link Weekly Report, he had traveled to Mexico, the Far East and other places in the world gathering material. Initially, he sent six sample columns to about 15,000 dallies. He was going after the English language reader, but the Spanish reader was thirsty. His prices were flexible, many times he gave the Link away to small Spanish dallies. La Opínion http://www.laopinion.com in Los Angeles was the first newspaper to carry his column and still does.

He and his wife would pitch the Link to editors to more than a hundred dallies and weeklies per week. When taking trips with their children, they would stop and ask editors to subscribe. Once their children were grown and had moved away, the parents would drive to visit and stop to meet with the editors of newspapers in every town they passed through.

Twenty years ago, there were few Latino journalists in the media. Now there are 2,000 members in the National Association of Hispanic Journalist (NAHJ) http://www.nahj.org. Within the National Association of Hispanic Publishers http://www.nahponline.org, there are more than 200 members. Latino journalists are now better organized and better protected. Yet, there are fewer than 4% of Latinos in the mainstream media. However, there are triple that number of Latinos in congress. The general attitude toward Latinos has not improved much. This is largely due to the mainstream media portraying the Latinos as a group with serious problems and as a drain on the public.

Erickson believes there has been progress for Latinos. However, he says, the stubborn negative fringe reaction to speaking Spanish scares people into thinking that this forward movement is a negative force.

The Hispanic Link has seen major changes in the last seven years. The Link sponsors a foundation to introduce media as a career choice to high school students. They schedule authors and journalists to come and speak at local Washington high schools and to interact with the students. In Phoenix, two years ago, during the NAHJ conference, the Hispanic Link assembled 100 students in a one day program to discuss journalism as a career choice.

On August 4 – 8, 2004, Unity http://www.unityjournalists.org is scheduled to have their third conference and are expecting more than 7,000 attendees. This will be the biggest journalist gathering in the world. Unity is a joining of forces of the NAHJ, National Association of Black Journalists http://www.nabj.org, Asian American Journalists http://www.aaja.org and the Native American Journalists Association http://www.naja.com.

Erickson has trained hundreds of students and finds this the most rewarding aspect of his work. He helps removes the myths about careers in journalism. Also about 35 students have received fellowships to work at Hispanic Link. These Fellows have access to politicians, cabinet members and the President. After tea with the President at the White House, these Fellows fit into any mainstream newspaper.

Most big papers write to a white audience. The biggest obstacle for the Fellows is the ignorance of the upper echelon who control the media. Fifty percent of dallies do not even have one person of color on staff. Erickson says, “Crusty old white men still determine who is hired.” Erickson calls his Fellow graduates “the Jackie Robinson’s of the mainstream media.”

The Link teaches their Fellows to write inclusive, to include everyone in their stories. Yet, at the mainstream presses, Fellows are expected to cover Latino events, even if they cannot speak Spanish. Erickson emboldens his Fellows to become change agents. They invite their editors to meet with Latino leaders. They encourage departments to seek out Latinos active in their field.

Hispanic Link makes sure there is follow up with their “Linkies,” their name for the Fellow graduates. “Linkies” can call to check out ideas and gather support.

When asked what he thinks about the “current clash” of using Latinos versus Hispanic, he responded with “What’s the big deal?” Mainstream presses like to write about Latino issues as if they were big disputes. In reality, it is so minor. He claims someone like the Washington Post can not get a decent story, and they create a big conflict and put it on page one. “Get real.”

Erickson inspires students to go for a career in journalism. He emphasizes journalism is a fun and exiting career, where things are always happening. Journalists can do a lot of good in their communities. He believes that journalists have more power than politicians do.