La Opinion Newspaper Defames
La Voz de Aztlan
by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - September 25, 2003 - (ACN) The founder
of the once venerable Spanish language newspaper La Opinion , Ignacio E. Lozano, must be turning in his grave. I can not imagine that he would
have foreseen what his offspring have done to his once proud and courageous newspaper that has served the Mexican-American community of Los Angeles
so well for so many years. It is difficult to admit, but it looks like
La Opinion has been turned, by Mr. Lozano's children and grandchildren,
into a mere tool of the very enemies that the founder struggled against.
Ignacio E. Lozano founded La Opinión in 1926 and laid the foundations
for it to become, today, the largest Spanish language newspaper in the
United States. Ignacio, his widowed mother and five sisters immigrated
from Mexico in 1908 and settled first in San Antonio, Texas. Ignacio
Lozano Sr. later moved to Los Angeles, then a large and growing hub for
Mexicans and Mexican-Amercians, where he pursued his vision of
establishing a newspaper that would give a "voice" to our large but
disenfranchised community.
In 1948, his son, Ignacio E. Lozano Jr., started working at La Opinion and in 1953 Lozano Sr. passed away at which time his son took the responsibility of publisher. Lozano Jr. served as publisher until 1986 and today he serves in a mere honorary position as Chairman of the Board.
Presently it is the founder's grandchildren that largely manage La
Opinion and determine its editorial policies. The son of Lozano Jr,
Jose I. Lozano is the Publisher and Chief Executive Officer while
Jose's sister, Monica Lozano serves as its President.
In the early history of La Opinion, the newspaper was a fearless defender of the civil and human rights of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, but today under the management of the grandchildren, who many in our community say are overly "Americanized or "pochos", the newspaper has taken a distinct diversion from the original "vision" of its founder Ignacio E. Lozano Sr.. Today, the "uppity" Jose and Monica Lozano have squandered the journalistic legacy that was left by their grandfather and allow their editors to in fact work against the interests of our mostly working class community.
A case in point is the recent attack upon our small and struggling news
service by their Nation-at-Large Editor Gabriel Lerner. Mr. Lerner went
on a national forum sponsored by the Washington Post and vehemently
defamed La Voz de Aztlan by saying essentially that we were a bunch of
Nazis. The Washington Post now has this defamation published on their website at "Defamation"
where it is doing irreparable harm to our news publication. This was an
uncalled ""cheap shot" against us by a newspaper with a long tradition
of good service to our community. Does Jose and Monica Lozano condone
this kind of behavior from their top editors? We do not know yet because
they have failed to answer our calls our our letter at the end of this article. The letter that was forwarded to Mr. Lerner with copies to
Jose and Monica Lozano calls for an apology and a retraction. It has so
far been totally ignored. Apparently the "pochos" and "entregistas"
Jose and Monica Lozano think that we are not important enough to bother,
yet they go on a nationally disseminated Internet forum by the
Washington Post to defame us. May Ignacio E. Lozano Sr. forgive these
"black sheep" of his family.
Gabriel Lerner
at a ACLU conference
where he bashed
undocumented immigrants.
Prior to La Opinion,
Gabriel Lerner was an
editor in the
Zionist state of Israel.
Two of his writings are
published in
"The Great Book of American Jewry"
Letter to La Opinion that has been ignored:
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California
September 24, 2003
Gabriel Lerner
Nation-at-Large Editor
La Opinion
Los Angeles, California
RE:La Opinion Defamation of La Voz de Aztlan
Dear Mr. Gabriel Lerner:
I just read the Washington Post transcript of your online interview yesterday concerning the California Recall in which you vehemently defame our news and information service La Voz de Aztlan. I simply can not understand why an editor of a large and prestigious Spanish language newspaper here in Los Angeles would stoop so low and viciously attack a small and struggling news service.
In the online interview which is presently publish on the Washington Post website at "Defamation" you make the vile comment that La Voz de Aztlan is an organization like MEChA and that we are of a Nazi character. The exact statement you made that is quoted in the transcript is " It (MEChA) is not an organization like "La Voz de Aztlan" of today, which is of Nazi character." Sir, this is an uncalled for "cheap shot" and we are requesting an immediate apology and retraction. This type of behavior from an employee of La Opinion only helps to tarnish the reputation of an otherwise fine newspaper serving our Mexican-American community.
I will be awaiting your apology and retraction to be published in La Opinion. Your outrageous, defamatory and bigoted statement has done much harm to our news service nationally.
Respectfully,
Hector Carreon
Publisher
La Voz de Aztlan
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http://www.aztlan.net
Gabriel Lerner
