Back in the 1960s, there were government legislations that restricted the quantity of program terminals an individual can run. Yet, Univision’s leader Emilio Nicolas Sr. discovered a technicality.
He would certainly discover a phone cubicle and he would certainly seek Hispanic last names. The visionary for the country’s very first Spanish-language information tv terminal would certainly after that call every Latino specialist he can up until one would certainly consult with him and accepted participate in his organization. He did this 200 times all throughout the country.
Nicolas Sr. would certainly after that send out attorneys, satellites and configuring to the brand-new proprietors to develop television terminals.
Univision commemorates its 70th wedding anniversary this year. Its tradition of supplying easily accessible Spanish-language information media began right below in San Antonio.
” These 70 years of background aren’t Univision’s background,” Antonio Guillén stated in Spanish. “These 70 years are the background of Network 41– they’re San Antonio’s background.”
Guillén began reporting for Univision in 1988 and has actually ended up being something of a regional hero to the neighborhood, particularly those that count on his information insurance coverage at Univision 41. He’s typically seen at damaging information occasions transmitting online from the scene.
He stated that while he was supplied a workplace at the television terminal, he chooses to avoid in the area.
” I informed Univision that if they desired me to remain, they would certainly need to trust me and my cams,” he stated. “They concurred, so I take my very own pictures, take my very own video clips, and I modify everything myself in my auto prior to I send it over to Univision. No person is quicker than me.”
Guillén’s job has actually made him and the terminal numerous Emmys, highlighting vital concerns around San Antonio.
” The very first words in Spanish out of a television box in the states appeared of San Antonio,” he stated. Today, loads of television networks throughout the united state program Spanish-language information, dramatization and sporting activities insurance coverage.
” There is, I assume, a lack of acknowledgment for San Anto’s duty in the increase of Univision,” stated Jerry Gonzalez, background teacher and supervisor of St. Mary College’s brand-new Facility for Mexican American Researches.
He made clear that Univision’s internet site does not make particular reference of its origins in San Antonio beyond its wedding anniversary events. “Right here, in your area, we see it, yet it’s not extremely noticeably identified by Univision,” he stated.
Gonzalez assessed the terminal’s very early starts when Mexican Americans were confronted with the influence of The second world war in its neighborhoods, especially partition in real estate and education and learning.
” At particular factors in our background, this media has actually offered of important significance to our civil liberties,” he stated. “Component of the initiative to arrange on behalf of even more reasonable education and learning and real estate was sent via the radio and ultimately the tv. There is an entire background of our civil liberties in this media that individuals aren’t familiar with.”
Known by numerous names
Univision is understood below by numerous names: KWEX, Network 41, KCOR and Univision 41.
KCOR describes KCOR-TV, started by Raoul A. Cortez in June 1955. Cortez had actually invested the previous years developing KCOR as the very first Mexican American-owned, permanent Spanish-language radio terminal prior to he began transmitting on television.
The initially Spanish television terminal started running in the northwest component of the city, near I-10.
Cortez marketed the television terminal to his son-in-law Emilio Nicolas Sr. and his organization companions in 1961, and the terminal’s name transformed to KUAL-TV later on that year. It would certainly transform one more time the following year to KWEX-TV. That very same year, Nicolas Sr. opened up KMEX-TV in Los Angeles, bringing the beginning of the Spanish International Network (WRONG), the united state’s very first satellite-interconnected tv network.
” [Cortez] and [Nicolas Sr.] were not the very best of close friends, I do not assume they suched as each various other significantly,” stated Guillermo Nicolas, Nicolas Sr.’s youngest boy. “Yet they were clever males, and they recognized they were doing something vital with each other.”
While the 61-year-old Nicolas isn’t associated with Univision today, he holds enormous satisfaction in his household’s introducing background. He presently offers on the Texas Public Radio’s board of supervisors.
In 2019, TPR and Nicolas introduced the identifying of the Irma and Emilio Nicolas Library, housed in Alameda Cinema, where Cortez generated shows for the KCOR radio terminal.
5 years previously, neighborhood supporters attempted to maintain KWEX’s initial workshop on 411 E. César E. Chávez Blvd. after it was authorized for demolition by the city’s Workplace of Historic Conservation.
” When the programmer of the land wished to tear the constructing down, the city recommended they installed some sort of historic pen of where the KWEX structure as soon as stood,” stated Gonzalez. “There was considerable neighborhood protest. The Westside Conservation Partnership arranged presentations and letter creating projects.”
The WPA had the ability to postpone the structure’s demolition for numerous days by declaring an order with the court. When that really did not function, protestors leapt the fencing and would not leave the website.
Graciela Sanchez, supervisor of the Esperanza Tranquility and Justice Facility, was just one of those activists. “Someone from the neighborhood came and handed over a little table and chairs, and someone else brought tacos, someone else brought tea,” she remembered. “We remained there for some time, and ultimately the police officers did come.”
She and others were detained and the structure was ultimately knocked down.
Trendsetters in San Antonio
Martha Tijerina damaged obstacles as one of the very first ladies in Spanish-language tv in the USA when she was employed at KWEX-TV in 1970.
San Antonio Express-News reporter Elaine Ayala composed of Tijerina’s numerous on-air success, that includes her program “En San Antonio.” She included Mexican American and Chicano protestors, political leaders, teachers, spiritual leaders and others in the middle of significant adjustment and tumult.
For that job, she was included in a Smithsonian display entitled, ” ¡ De última hora! Latinas Record Damaging Information” at the National Gallery of American Background in Washington, D.C.
” The requirements of the neighborhood from the days that I began, throughout the Chicano motion– those requirements still exist,” stated Tijerina. “Individuals must test individuals providing their information, present brand-new viewpoints. We can just boost ourselves if we boost each various other very first.”
Tijerina is still on the airwaves holding her program on Catholic Tv of San Antonio.
She attributes her success to Nicolas Sr., singing his commends everywhere.
” I do not assume any one of us totally comprehend what he did. He really did not have any person to comply with,” Tijerina stated. “It was an entire network, and it was one guy doing it. He was sales, he was manufacturing, he was whatever. In addition to that, he was so helpful of everybody that benefited him.”
With KWEX-TV under Nicolas Sr.’s management, the information broadcasting sector would certainly see numerous adjustments. When individuals had a hard time to listen without a method to get the program on their television set, Nicolas Sr. would certainly support for them to be marketed with converter boxes.
Nicolas Sr. took a trip throughout the united state to develop television terminals under wrong, yet he would certainly return to San Antonio every single time. He lived and operated in San Antonio for the remainder of his life, also after wrong was marketed to Characteristic Cards and Televisa, rebranding as Univision in 1987.
Univision would certainly enlarge and bigger, introducing numerous of its renowned program sectors in between 1989 and 1998, such as “Guide Impacto” in 1994 and “Despierta America” in 1997.
Throughout the years, the Spanish information network came to be a house name with a heritage of supplying easily accessible information media produced Spanish-speaking households in the united state. According to a 2024 Church bench Research research study, 69% of Hispanic immigrants obtain their information from Hispanic information electrical outlets.
” We’re devoted to the entire household,” Univision 41 Support Jorge Núñez stated in Spanish. “We’re devoted to getting to grandmothers and mommies, and via them we get to the kids that take a seat and see along. There’s a particular household magic that we attempt to link to, and it takes place for generations.”
Guillén bears in mind the moment a family members approached him on the road. Their little kid directed at him and stated, “Look, mommy, it’s my dad!” Guillén could not quit giggling as he stated among numerous ridiculous communications with visitors. “His dad stated, ‘Take a look at this individual, he sees you on the information daily and he believes you’re his papa!’ I needed to state, ‘No, no! I do not recognize you or your boy.’ I was simply thankful he comprehended the circumstance!”
Univision functions deliberately to involve with regional visitors– and regional visitors involve with the press reporters they see on television. Núñez has actually belonged to numerous of Univision’s telethons and strolls in parks with visitors, and he stated it’s his preferred component of the work.
” At the end of the day, we help the general public target market,” Núñez stated in Spanish. “They request recommendations on migration, and it’s such a huge obligation. One of the most we can do is be sincere with what we do and do not recognize and recommend they discover a legal representative. They’ll maintain us upgraded and also allow us recognize if they obtain a court day.”
In 2012, Univision 41 worked together with numerous colleges in San Antonio and introduced Proyecto U, an education and learning collaboration program that would certainly enable trainees to get straight mentorship from the terminal’s team. It was ceased in 2020.
” I was truly satisfied with the mentorship the trainees obtained under the program,” stated Jenny Moore, the interactions teacher at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. “I have actually never ever dealt with a company so fully commited to mentorship and neighborhood involvement.”
Students in the program created hands-on experience in broadcasting and helped Univision 41 with programs throughout the term. They would certainly have course with their teacher in a class inside the workshop prior to reaching collaborate with team member at the terminal.
” We have a great deal of neighborhoods in jeopardy of not being listened to,” Moore stated. “Univision has actually constructed and specified what it implies to have neighborhood involvement and offer a target market.”
For Univision’s Guillén and Núñez, there is no area like San Antonio.
” They supplied to move me to the Miami head office,” Núñez stated in Spanish. “I decreased. I have actually understood for some time since I intend to remain in San Antonio. I do not see myself going anywhere else.”
” I have actually never ever also taken into consideration leaving,” Guillén stated. Also after covering The golden state’s wildfires and the U.S.-Mexico boundary dilemmas, he’s made it clear that he means to proceed covering regional issues in the very same city he’s invested a lot of his journalistic occupation in. “It’s San Antonio, child!”
