15 Facts About Ruben Salazar

Ruben Salazar was a civil rights activist and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Ruben Salazar was the first Mexican journalist from mainstream media to cover the Chicano community.

Ruben Salazar began his US naturalization process on October 15,1947, when he submitted his application for a certificate of arrival and preliminary form for a declaration of intention of citizenship.

Ruben Salazar attended Texas Western College, graduating in 1954 with a degree in journalism.

Ruben Salazar obtained a job as an investigative journalist at the now-defunct El Paso Herald-Post; at one point he posed as a vagrant to get arrested while he investigated the poor treatment of prisoners in the El Paso jail.

Ruben Salazar was a news reporter and columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 1959 to 1970.

Ruben Salazar was a foreign correspondent in his early years at the Times, covering the 1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic, the Vietnam War, and the Tlatelolco massacre.

When Ruben Salazar returned to the US in 1968, he focused on the Mexican-American community and the Chicano movement, writing about East Los Angeles, an area largely ignored by the media except for coverage of crimes.

Ruben Salazar became the first Chicano journalist to cover the ethnic group while working in a large general circulation publication.

In January 1970, Ruben Salazar left the Times to become news director for the Spanish language television station KMEX in Los Angeles.

Ruben Salazar was noted as being cooperative during his interactions with the FBI during the investigation of Stokely Carmichael, but he had drawn the FBI's attention during the Korean War when he began corresponding with a white female pacifist regarding the loss of his application for US citizenship by the army.

Ruben Salazar was resting in the Silver Dollar Bar after the protest became violent.

Deputy Wilson, after being identified as responsible for Ruben Salazar's death, stated that "he did not know, and under the circumstances was not concerned about, what kind of tear gas projectile he fired".

Ruben Salazar's death captured the attention of many activists within the Chicano movement as his death occurred at the hands of those whom the movement felt was a large cause of the marginalizing of Chicano communities.

Ruben Salazar was survived by his wife, Sally, and their daughters, Lisa Salazar Johnson and Stephanie Salazar Cook, and son, John Salazar.