Chavez 2009

Glendale Chamber Foundation's fourth annual
Cesar E. Chavez Breakfast Celebrating Diversity

Quick Facts on Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez

Born in San Antonio in 1955; raised nearby in the small town of Devine

• Enrolls at The University of Texas at Austin, discovers a love for journalism while working at a Spanish-language radio station and at the Daily Texan; graduates with honors in 1976

• Earns a master's degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1977

• Begins her professional journalism career in 1977 as a copy editor and reporter for United Press International in Dallas

• From 1979 to 1988 works as a newspaper and TV reporter in Dallas and Boston; from 1988 to 1996 works as border bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News in El Paso

• Serves on the committee that organizes and founds the National Association of Hispanic Journalists

• Attends the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Freedom Forum doctoral fellow, earning a Ph.D. in mass communication in 1998

• Since 1999 has spearheaded the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project, which has collected interviews with more than 450 people; project has included a conference, an edited volume of academic manuscripts, a play, a documentary film with educational materials, a general interest book, and a video, audio and photographic archive.

• Gains national prominence in 2007 by leading protests that Ken Burns’ forthcoming PBS documentary “The War” did not include any Latinos; Burns incorporates Latino stories into the 14-hour, seven-part documentary, airing in September

• Receives the Ruben Salazar Award for Communications from the National Council of La Raza in 2007; the award is given each year to an individual who has dedicated his or her life to promoting a positive portrayal of Latino historical, political, economic, and cultural contributions to American society

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Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez

Associate Professor

Rivas-Rodriguez has more than 17 years of daily news experience, mostly as a reporter for the Boston Globe, WFAA-TV in Dallas and the Dallas Morning News. Her first job was as a copy editor for UPI in Dallas. Her most recent professional work was for the Morning News state desk as bureau chief of the border bureau, based in El Paso, covering border states.

Her research interests include the intersection of oral history and journalism, U.S. Latinos and the news media, both as producers of news and as consumers. Since 1999, Rivas-Rodriguez has spearheaded the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project, which has collected interviews with over 650 men and women throughout the country. Stories based on those interviews are written by UT journalism students, as part of their coursework. The project has several components designed to reach audiences ranging from school children, to academics, to the general public. Those components include conferences, books, a two-act play, (through Arizona State University Public Events and the University of Texas' Performing Arts Center), educational materials. At the heart of the project is a rich archive of primary source material, in the form of videotaped interviews, photographs and other documentation. The project has enjoyed support from the Austin American-Statesman and the San Antonio Express-News, from foundations, corporations and hundreds of individual donors. It continues to gather interviews, largely with the help of a small army of volunteers made up of professional journalists, academics and others. It has also relied on partnerships with universities, various centers, and with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Readjustment Counseling Service.

Rivas-Rodriguez has been recognized nationally for helping to create greater awareness of the contributions of U.S. Latinos & Latinas of the World War II generation. In 2007, she received the National Council of La Raza's Ruben Salazar Award for Communications, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Leadership Award and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education's Outstanding Support of Hispanic Issues in Higher Education. She was also named to the DFW Network of Hispanic Communicator's Hall of Fame in 2006.

Rivas-Rodriguez has long been active since her college years in volunteer efforts to bring greater diversity to the news media. She was on the committee that organized and founded the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in 1982. She began two of the NAHJ's most successful student projects: a convention newspaper produced by college students and professionals and a nationwide high school writing contest. The convention newspaper has become the model for other industry organizations (ASNE, NABJ, AAJA) as a way to develop mentoring relationships and to train students.

She received her Ph.D. as a Freedom Forum doctoral fellow from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her masters is from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and her bachelor of journalism degree is from the University of Texas at Austin.

Recent Courses: PA 388K Latino Policy Issues (cross-listed with journalism and Mexican American Studies); J349T Covering the U.S. Latino Community; J366 Journalism History; J320D Intermediate Reporting; J349T Oral History as Journalism; J395 Covering the U.S.-Mexico Border and J395 Professional Writing for Journalists.

Publications: "A Legacy Greater than Words: Stories of Latinos & Latinas of the World War II Generation," with Juliana Torres, Melissa DiPiero-D'Sa and Lindsay Fitzpatrick (Austin: U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project, 2006); Mexican Americans & World War II, an edited volume (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005); Brown Eyes on the Web: An Alternative U.S. Latino Newspaper on the Internet (New York: Routledge, 2003).

Mas Inoshita has been challenged by fate in a way that few people can compare to but he shows no trace of bitterness.

When Mas was 21 years old, two days from his 22^nd birthday while running the family truck in Santa Maria, CA,---Japan bombed Pearl Harbor bringing the United States into WWII. The US reaction to the attack was the herding of thousands of Japanese immigrants and American born men, women and children of Japanese descent into “assembly centers” and internment camps. This terrible act of isolation tore the Inoshito family away from California but would not tear apart the family and Mas’ sense of loyalty to the country where he was born.

After losing almost everything they had, Mas’ family was forced to move to an “assembly center” and forced to live in a converted horse stall in a county fairground encircled with barbed wire. Eventually the family was sent by rail car to Casa Grande and then to what is now known as the Gila River Indian Community (South of Chandler).

From 1942 – 1946 More than 110,000 United States residents of Japanese ancestry---most of them U.S. citizens like Inoshita---were removed from their homes by presidential executive order and relocated to detention centers built in isolated areas of the country.

In spite of all that his family had been through, when his family was interned in Arizona in WWII----Mas enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was trained as a translator and interrogator and spent his days trying to make sense of captured Japanese documents and interrogated Japanese soldiers.

The Glendale Chamber Foundation is honored to present the 2009 Diversity Award to Mas Inoshita in recognition of his outstanding service to his country through acts of courage, leadership and diversity.

In spite of the difficult road he traveled, he is a shining example of the principles that Cesar Chavez stood for. Please join me in congratulating Mas Inoshita.