El Paso Times
May 25, 2008
Guest Review by Ray Rojas
Olvera recounts journalism days with wit, irritation
Being stuck in the trunk of a car in Tijuana is not good news - unless you are reporter Joe Olvera doing undercover work.
In "Chicano Sin Fin!: Memoirs of a Chicano Journalist" (Zapata 1910 Press, $17.95), Olvera recalls life as a veteran border journalist.
These days, it is not unusual to see a brown face on television or a Spanish surname attached to a newspaper story. In Olvera's day, there were few. In fact, he claims he became El Paso's first Chicano television journalist in the early 1970s.
Olvera's book opens with a topic outside of his journalism experience - the diabetes he has had for many years. As in many of his columns on Chicanos and diabetes, he chastises himself for ignoring the symptoms until it was too late. When he eventually went to the hospital, doctors had to amputate some of his toes right away.
The gems in Olvera's book are of his journalistic experiences.
I was expecting a collection of Olvera's editorials and was hesitant at first when the book read like a memoir. But his streetwise antics offer a humorous glimpse at a modern journalist.
Olvera was recruited to be part of an intense journalism-training program at Columbia University in New York City. He describes chasing stories and learning to do investigative journalism in the Big Apple.
Because the training focused more on television, Olvera tried broadcast journalism for a while at what was then the CBS affiliate Channel 4-KROD. Broadcast journalism did not agree with him, and he later became a reporter with the El Paso Herald-Post and El Paso Times.
Though it's a memoir, "Sin Fin!" feels as if Olvera is talking about modern-day issues: killings in Mexico, illegal border crossings, notary publics practicing immigration law, U.S. citizens in Mexican prisons, and abuse of low-income workers.
Posing as an illiterate undocumented immigrant, Olvera exposed an El Paso notary public fraudulently practicing immigration law and ripping off the poor.
He traveled from central Mexico posing as a Mexican immigrant, and was smuggled into the United States in a car trunk. He continued his journey to Chicago.
When "Americans" were killed on a road in Mexico, the El Paso Herald-Post editor asked Olvera to ride the same road to see whether it was that dangerous.
Olvera gave a prison guard a few bucks during the course of reporting a story. Hilariously, he jotted down "bribe" on his expense report.
Another time, he used his street savvy to access El Paso's most notorious gangs.
Olvera also posed as a farmworker, witnessed the abuses of farmers, and experienced a chile picker's backbreaking labor.
Over the years, Olvera called out racism when he saw it. He even ran for mayor at one time. He fought with editors and fellow reporters who, he thought, mistreated Chicano reporters. He also battled against "taco beat" assignments (covering sappy Hispanic events) just because he was among the few "Mexicans" in the newsroom. He resented being used as a translator for his Anglo colleagues.
He talks about how corporate journalism influenced local newspapers and how advertising dollars, rather than the public interest, often influenced how news was covered.
"Chicano Sin Fin!" is a wonderful exploration of a Chicano in journalism, the kind of book that should influence others in Olvera's footsteps to re-examine whether they are still doing the "taco beat" or real investigative journalism that lands you in tight spaces.
Raymundo Elí Rojas is the editor of Pluma Fronteriza, a publication dedicated to Latino and Chicano writers in the El Paso-Juárez-Las Cruces region.
Another time, he used his street savvy to access El Paso's most notorious gangs.
Olvera also posed as a farmworker, witnessed the abuses of farmers, and experienced a chile picker's backbreaking labor.
Over the years, Olvera called out racism when he saw it. He even ran for mayor at one time. He fought with editors and fellow reporters who, he thought, mistreated Chicano reporters. He also battled against "taco beat" assignments (covering sappy Hispanic events) just because he was among the few "Mexicans" in the newsroom. He resented being used as a translator for his Anglo colleagues.
He talks about how corporate journalism influenced local newspapers and how advertising dollars, rather than the public interest, often influenced how news was covered.
"Chicano Sin Fin!" is a wonderful exploration of a Chicano in journalism, the kind of book that should influence others in Olvera's footsteps to re-examine whether they are still doing the "taco beat" or real investigative journalism that lands you in tight spaces.
Raymundo Elí Rojas is the editor of Pluma Fronteriza, a publication dedicated to Latino and Chicano writers in the El Paso-Juárez-Las Cruces region.
Meet the author
El Paso author and journalist Joe Olvera will discuss his memoir "Chicano - Sin Fin!" at the Tumblewords writing workshop at 11:45 a.m. June 14 at Memorial Park Library, 3200 Copper.
The book is available at amazon.com and other online outlets.
To learn more about Olvera, e-mail joeolverwrites@gmail.com or go online to www.joeolverawrites.blogspot.com.
Information: 539-6365; e-mail
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Look for it in other venues in the near future
