The Game Changer
María Emilia Martin, creator of the radio show "Latino USA." Photo courtesy of Conocimientos Press
A vivacious and powerful trailblazer left her mark in the world of journalism bringing voices and stories previously unheard
Editor’s note: María Emilia Martin’s death at age 72 set off a wave of tributes and remembrances across the country. A spectrum of Latinos in journalism knew her as a friend, respected her as a media trailblazer, and hung on the critical words she spoke about the craft she deeply loved. She thanklessly plowed the road for us and even pointed out the potholes. It is fitting that a veteran journalist, like Patricia Guadalupe, who got her start in English-language media thanks to a few words from María and who was there when María started the iconic Latino USA – now frames María’s legacy for palabra, an outlet very much dedicated to the kind of storytelling María Emilia Martin pioneered.
It all started for me in 1992, on a fall day in Fresno, California.
I was in the middle of a Corporation for Public Broadcasting fellowship, working as a producer and reporter at Radio Bilingüe, which to this day is the only Spanish-language network on public radio in the United States. Into our studios walked an exuberant and friendly woman who, we were told, had come from National Public Radio to deliver a training session. She completely mesmerized us with her voice lessons, writing tips, and story ideas. And she did it all with a wide smile and hearty laugh that I later learned she was famous for.
During the training, I happened to tell her that when my fellowship wrapped up I was thinking of moving to Washington, D.C., to do some political reporting. She mentioned that she’d been working on an idea for a new radio show and needed a correspondent in the nation’s capital. I said, “Oh, my God, ME!”
The vivacious woman was María Emilia Martin. That show became the nationally syndicated radio program Latino USA. I was privileged to be the show’s founding D.C. correspondent and reported for many years with them in the early days when we’d fax scripts for María to look at and rush to FedEx to overnight reel-to-reel tapes of my recordings for the next show.
María worked her butt off to get the show off the ground, at the same time giving me and others the kind of incredible opportunity not available anywhere else to report the news and events that no one else was paying attention to. And there were so many stories. A quite memorable one featured New York Representative Nydia Velázquez as she questioned a U.S. Navy admiral about the cleanup of Vieques, the Puerto Rican island that the Navy was finally leaving after years of using it for target practice. The admiral clearly was not taking Velázquez and her heavily accented English seriously, saying, “I don’t know,” “Not sure,” “I have to check,” and other evasive answers to her inquiries about who exactly was responsible for removing ordnances and other naval materiel.
The congresswoman, exasperated, finally had it and shouted, “Well, what DO you know? I am on the Appropriations Committee and I’m going to make your life MISERABLE if you don’t tell me what’s going on and get real answers!”
It was the kind of story Latino USA routinely did under María’s tutelage — voices and stories long ignored by “everyone else.”
And through it all, María remained such a nice and welcoming person who rarely spoke publicly about how incredibly hard it was for the show to be taken seriously and be “accepted” by NPR and other “mainstreamers.” But I witnessed a lot of that struggle: The people who complained how “distracting” it was to have a Día de Muertos exhibit in NPR’s headquarters in Washington. Or when the show was told that poet Guillermo Gómez Peña’s Spanish sign-off at the end of each episode – “ene-peh-erreh” – was a violation and had to be dropped. I still laugh at how NPR barely acknowledged the show until then-President Clinton showed up at the inaugural party that María had helped organize. The network’s press releases from then on said, “NPR’s Latino USA.”
María had enlisted then-congressman Bill Richardson to call the president and tell him that he absolutely needed to be at the party. Clinton highlighted the soirée with the landmark words, "I hope that ’Latino USA’ does for its audiences what programs like 'All Things Considered' and 'Morning Edition' do for audiences all across America.” It was all thanks to María.
President Clinton speaking at the "Latino USA" reception in Washington, D.C. Photo by Sharon Farmer/William J. Clinton Library, via the U.S. National Archives
More stations, including some commercial ones, picked up the show. At one point, audiences of some 250 stations nationwide were enjoying stories and hearing voices not heard anywhere else.
Then came the moment she was kicked to the curb by the show’s executives. She mentioned that it happened way too often to minorities and women of color.
“I was ousted from the program I created,” she wrote in her 2020 book, "Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist's Heart in Latin America." She was ousted by people she considered friends and allies. Lesser people would have been forever bitter, but María — MEM to her friends — took the high road and pivoted to Guatemala. There she worked with Indigenous journalists, reported from the region for NPR and others, and produced an award-winning 26-part bilingual radio documentary series, “Después de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars.”
One of her many creations was the nonprofit Graciasvida Center for Media, yet another training ground for aspiring and established journalists in the United States and Latin America.
Her numerous awards and recognitions included a Fulbright scholarship and induction in 2015 into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame.
Over the years, she kept in touch with so many of us. She told us she was glad that most of the journalists she helped get started were still in the business and making a difference. “I’m so proud and happy for you!” she constantly said.
María Emilia Martin, groundbreaker, mentor, and friend, died December 2 from complications after a medical procedure. She is one of the people to whom I owe my entire career, especially in English-language broadcasting. Her legacy is everlasting. She gave me more than I could ever give back.
I last saw her several months ago at a conference in D.C. She brought me Central American chocolates and oils for "good vibes." We spent some time catching up, swapping stories and laughing. I will miss her hearty laugh most of all.
María and her signature smile, reporting from Guatemala. Photo by Cindy Xiloj/Graciasvida Center for Media.
RIP María.
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Patricia Guadalupe, raised in Puerto Rico, is a bilingual multimedia journalist based in Washington, D.C. She has been covering the capital for both English and Spanish-language media outlets since the mid-1990s. She previously worked as a reporter in New York City. She’s been an editor at Hispanic Link News Service, a reporter at WTOP Radio (CBS Washington affiliate), a contributing reporter for CBS Radio network, and has written for NBC News.com and Latino Magazine, among others. She is a graduate of Michigan State University and has a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. She specializes in business news and politics and cultural issues. She is the former president of the D.C. chapter of NAHJ.
Ricardo Sandoval-Palos is the public editor for PBS. He is also an award-winning investigative journalist and editor whose career has spanned four decades.