A father and son, who have written about the Latino community in Tucson, are among those being honored by a historical organization at a fundraising gala.
Ernesto Portillo Sr., 81, a retired radio broadcaster who was in the field for nearly 50 years and a newspaper columnist for more than two decades, and his son, Ernesto “Neto” Portillo Jr., an Arizona Daily Star columnist and editor of La Estrella de Tucsón, the Star’s Spanish-language publication, are being honored Saturday.
Annie Lopez, president of Los Descendientes del Presidio de Tucsón, said Portillo Sr. will be recognized for his political commentary and service to Latinos in radio and print. She said Portillo Jr., 58, will be honored for his columns in the Star that “share the stories and accomplishments of Latinos with the Tucson community.”
“I feel honored for this recognition, and I will be in the company of my son,” said the elder Portillo, adding that Los Descendientes plays a vital role in educating the community, including youth and newcomers, about the contributions of Mexican-Americans to the Southwest.
In 1954 at age 20, Portillo Sr. came from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to Tucson for opportunity, and to live in a democratic country where he believed his voice would be heard.
A job as a disc jockey awaited him at KEVT-AM, Tucson’s first daytime, Spanish-language radio station. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958.
In 1963, he joined a new radio station — KXEW-AM — and seven months later became the general manager. He also helped found KXEW-FM, and he and a group of investors bought the station in 1969. In the mid-1970s, KXEW-FM was bought out and became the English-language KRQ, and he and the investors sold KXEW-AM in 1980.
The elder Portillo began writing for the Tucson Citizen as a columnist in 1981, and he also continued in radio with a group of investors who founded the bilingual KQTL in Sahuarita. The station opened in 1985 and operated for 15 years. After nearly two decades, Portillo left the Citizen and became a columnist at the Star for several years.
“My biggest satisfaction was in serving my community — Tucson and Southern Arizona,” Portillo Sr. said.
Of the honor, Portillo Jr. said, “My interest and love with Tucson comes directly from my father, a Mexican immigrant, and my mother Julieta Bustamante, a native-born Tucsonan. In their own ways, from their own perspectives, they filled me with an appreciation of Tucson, its people, culture, history and landscape.”
Portillo Jr., a journalist for 33 years, also said he was influenced by his aunt, Alva B. Torres, a former columnist for the Tucson Citizen, who rallied in the 1960s to save La Placita de la Mesilla from being razed.
The younger Portillo is a 1974 Cholla High School graduate who attended the University of Arizona receiving a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies in 1982. He was a reporter for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette in Massachusetts, and the San Diego Union-Tribune. In 1985, he taught journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso.
The Star hired Portillo Jr. as a columnist in 2000. In 2004, he received the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Frank del Olmo Print Journalism of the Year Award.
Los Descendientes is also recognizing:
- Velia Jiménez
- posthumously for her work in education and social justice issues.
- Isabel Garcia
- for her work in social justice and immigration issues.
- Torres
- for her work in preserving Tucson’s historic landmarks.
