The Bexar County Heritage Center honored trailblazers of Latino media in a panel celebrating San Antonio’s role in Spanish-language broadcasting.<\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The birthplace of Spanish-language broadcasting in the United States marked a milestone Friday, September 12, as the Bexar County Heritage Center hosted a community panel honoring the trailblazers who changed Latino media forever.<\/p>\n
The event, \u201cFrom Bexar County to the Nation: The Trailblazing Legacy of Raoul A. Cortez, Emilio Nicolas Sr., & Martha Tijerina in Spanish-Language Media,\u201d brought together community members, academics and journalists inside the Double Height Courtroom at 100 Dolorosa Street. It was held as part of the city\u2019s Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebrations.<\/p>\n
In 1946, San Antonio businessman Raoul A. Cortez launched KCOR-AM, the nation\u2019s first full-time Spanish-language radio station. Less than a decade later, KCOR-TV (now KWEX) became the first full-time Spanish-language television station, providing Mexican American families with access to news, culture and representation.<\/p>\n
Building on that foundation, Emilio Nicolas Sr. expanded Spanish-language broadcasting across the nation. In 1962, he co-founded the Spanish International Network (SIN), the first national Spanish-language television network. By 1976, KWEX and its sister stations were the first satellite-interconnected Spanish-language network, laying the groundwork for what is now Univision.<\/p>\n
Panelists also recognized journalist Martha Tijerina, who broke barriers as one of the first women in Spanish-language TV news. Her reporting in the 1970s gave visibility to community issues and inspired generations of Latina journalists.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her career, Tijerina recalled challenges and exclusion she faced despite being a pioneer. \u201cThe time that I can talk about, why was it that I did not go to the network, and it wasn\u2019t right? It was like close to 700 guests I remember\u2026 and you know what us said? Good family,\u201d she told the audience.<\/p>\n
Guillermo Nicolas, son of Emilio Nicolas Sr., emphasized her historic role: \u201cOf course she was. That she was hired by my boss\u2026 somebody who is the first anchorwoman nationally. But that is the reason why it was wonderful, the experience when Nicolas and I started working for him in 1970.\u201d<\/p>\n
The impact of these pioneers continues to resonate. One speaker noted, \u201cI\u2019d like to congratulate Univision channel 41 and the Univision television network on their 70th anniversary. They started here in San Antonio, and they opened soon after KENS 5 did. And we\u2019re very proud to be San Antonians and to still have Univision here representing the Hispanic community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel was accompanied by the opening of an exhibit, which runs through October 10 at the Bexar County Heritage Center. The display highlights San Antonio\u2019s role in shaping Spanish-language media and its lasting influence nationwide.<\/p>\n
Heritage Outreach Manager Mari Tamez said the free event was meant not just as a celebration but as a reminder of the ongoing fight for representation in media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bexar County Heritage Center honored trailblazers of Latino media in a panel celebrating San Antonio’s role in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-222205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}