Stamp to honor newsman Ruben Salazar

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Postal Service has announced plans to issue a stamp in honor of a Hispanic newsman killed during a 1970 riot in Los Angeles.

The stamp commemorating Ruben Salazar, who was news director for the Spanish-language station KMEX at the time of his death, will be issued in 2008, Postmaster General John Potter said Monday. Potter described Salazar as “a ground-breaker for Latinos in this country” whose work spoke to everyone, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Salazar, brought to the United States from Mexico as a young boy and a naturalized citizen, grew up in Texas. He worked for the El Paso Herald before joining the Los Angeles Times.

In August, 1970, Salazar was covering a protest in East Los Angeles against the Vietnam War when he was hit by a tear-gas projectile fired by a sheriff’s deputy. The projectile shattered his skull.

"From the battlefields of Vietnam to the streets of East L.A., he reported the news with a rare combination of toughness and humanity,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “It's great to finally see his legacy honored on a national level with the issuance of this postage stamp."