Ruben Salazar

Personal

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Traits

Mexican-American reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 1959 to 1970, who was the first Chicano journalist from mainstream media to cover the Mexican-American community. Salazar died during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on 29 August 1970 in East Los Angeles, California. During the march, Salazar was struck by a tear-gas projectile fired by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy. No criminal charge was filed, but Salazar's family reached an out-of-court financial settlement with the county, three years after Salazar's death. Los Angeles County reached a settlement of $700,000 with Salazar's family as a result of the sheriff's department not using "proper and lawful guidelines for the use of deadly force" during the march. At the time, this was the highest settlement recorded in Los Angeles county history. His death was commemorated in a corrido by Lalo Guerrero entitled "El 29 de Agosto". On 5 October 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that it would honour five journalists of the 20th century with first-class rate postage stamps, to be issued on 22 April 2008: Martha Gellhorn, John Hersey, George Polk, Ruben Salazar, and Eric Sevareid. A documentary about Salazar by Phillip Rodriguez entitled Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle was broadcast on PBS television on 29 April 2014. Link to Wikipedia biography