Google Doodle is marking on Tuesday the life and legacy of Raoul A. Cortez, a pioneer of Spanish-language radio and broadcasting in the U.S. and a civil rights activist, on what would have been his 118th birthday.
Cortez, who was Mexican American, founded the first Spanish-language radio station as well as the first TV station aimed at Hispanics.
Guest artist Rafael Lopez, who is also Mexican American, aimed to depict "the various roles Cortez played in furthering Latino culture and civil rights in the U.S.," according to the Doodle.
Cortez was born on Oct. 17, 1905 in Veracruz, Mexico, and his family immigrated to San Antonio, Texas, when he was young.
In 1946, he founded KCOR-AM, the country's first fully Spanish-language radio station owned and operated by a Latino, as the San Antonio Radio Hall of Fame noted. It launched with the slogan "La Voz Mexicana" ("The Mexican Voice").
According to the National Museum of American History, in order to get Federal Communication Commission approval despite World War II-era restrictions on non-English radio — the government feared it could spread seditious messages — Cortez argued that the radio station could be a tool to mobilize support for the U.S. war effort among Spanish-language speakers.
Later, seeing a dearth in television aimed at Hispanics, Cortez founded KCOR-TV Channel 41 in 1955. It was similarly the first Latino-run Spanish-language broadcast in the U.S.
Cortez was also an ardent civil rights activist and leader in the Mexican American community in Texas. As one of the directors of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), he oversaw the Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District case, which successfully ended the segregation of Mexican Americans in Texas public schools.
He also had an instrumental role in the Bracero Program, meeting with U.S. and Mexican presidents to help facilitate the movement of Mexican farmworkers between the U.S. and Mexico on short-term work contracts to stem the lack of laborers during World War II.
Lopez, the artist of the Doodle, said he was inspired by Aztec symbolism in KCOR-AM's branding in designing the Doodle.
"I came across a modern Aztec mask that became a distinct symbol for KCOR broadcasting in San Antonio. It became a powerful symbol of the station's close ties to the Mexican American community," Lopez told Google. "Inspired by this mask, I used an Aztec motif, geometric triangle patterns to acknowledge the vision and influence of Cortez’s truly pioneering work for Mexican Americans."
