Books | Straight Out of Barrio Hollywood

Straight Out of Barrio Hollywood

The Adventures of Telemundo Co-founder Frank H. Cruz

Chicano History Professor, TV Anchorman, Network Executive,

and Public Broadcasting Leader

Published in 2019.

Straight Out of Barrio Hollywood

is the story of building competencies, taking on high-stakes challenges, as much as it is an improbably poor-boy-makes-good saga. Cruz’s journey from dirt streets in Tucson’s Barrio Hollywood to Washington D.C. is the American Dream, on steroids.

Frank Cruz’s Memoir is Action Packed!

Powerful civil rights protests resulted in the high school history teacher Frank Cruz’ overnight assignment to lead one of California’s first Chicano Studies programs, despite there being no existing curriculum. Cruz was later recruited as one of the first Chicano television reporters in California. His memoir places the reader on the scene of historical events through a journalist and historian’s viewpoint—the SLA Shoot Out in Downtown Los Angeles, the 1985 catastrophic 8.0 earthquake in Mexico City, mobster criminal trials in Los Angeles, and immigration raids throughout Southern California.

After the founding the second Spanish-language television station in Los Angeles—KVEA Channel 52—the memoir describes how the Telemundo television network was assembled in just six months. Later Cruz was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As its chairman, Cruz oversaw the conversion of 1,500 television and radio stations from analog to digital, and later PBS and NPR’s award-winning 9/11 coverage.

The Arizona book launch party for Cruz’ memoir was celebrated in Tucson, Arizona, where his story began 80 years ago. The party started with Cruz being interviewed by veteran journalist Ernesto Portillo, Jr. The event was held at the Sosa-Carrillo-Fremont House Museum. The cultural landmark was built in the 1850s and is preserved by the Arizona Historical Society. The site for the book launch was selected due to its proximity to the Barrio Hollywood neighborhood and to its importance to co-author Rita Soza’s family. Her husband is a direct descendant of Jose Maria Sosa, a second Ensign in the Spanish Army, who served in the presidio in Tucson in 1776 and until his death in 1811. He and his wife Rita Espinosa had a son and two daughters. Their grandson Jose Maria Soza III built the home in 1850.