Leonel Martinez
Leonel Martinez: I told you Latinos would embrace Obama!
It doesn't take long as a columnist to discover that, as if being scolded about your real opinions isn't bad enough, a lot of readers are anxious to slap fight you over something you never said. Take the argument that relatively few of the nation's Latinos voted for Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential primary because they are racist.
Leonel Martinez: As life races by, kids are what matter most
I thought my son had drowned.
Leonel Martinez: There's lots to celebrate at Chicano graduation
When I graduated from Cal State Bakersfield 25 years ago this June as the first in my family to earn a college degree, about 12 percent of the campus' undergraduates were Hispanic.
Leonel Martinez: From Lamont to the Latin Grammys
If you need a quick trim, Marcos J. Reyes is your man, but you may need a GPS device to track him down.
Leonel Martinez: Lost friend made childhood larger than life
In fourth or fifth grade, I bet my friend, Henry Ramirez, a dime that the word “fishes” was correct. I won.
Leonel Martinez: Clichés to avoid like the plague
Most people don't even know they exist, but newspaper copy editors are like a hit squad for bad writing.
Leonel Martinez: Reporting on Cesar Chavez' death, L.A. riots uncomparable
Some may curse the day, but 25 years ago, I took my first full-time newspaper job.
Leonel Martinez: Immigrants not boosting crime rates
The caller was angry, which isn’t unusual in my line of work.
Leonel Martinez: Latino-black relations not so strained
You've heard of the "N" word that's used as a slur against African Americans, but some Spanish-speaking Latinos have one that's just as nasty and begins with the previous letter. I won't repeat that slur, so let's just call it the "M" word.
Martinez column: Forget the psychobabble profiles of candidates
A friend and I were having lunch in downtown Bakersfield years ago when he started impersonating an FBI profiler by psychoanalyzing then-President Bill Clinton.
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