Ruben Salazar's Style of Writing Essay

Introduction

Ruben Salazar was born in the year 1928 in Ciudad Juarez, and brought up in El Paso, Texas. He took part in journalism-related actives where most of his work appeared in Los Angeles Times and was declared the first Mexican-American to cover a story in Chicano community. He was commonly known for taking part in documentary-related activities, and died at a time when the National Chicano March was taking place and was not able to withstand the teargas projectile that was shot on that day. Salazar was among the journalists who were able to cover almost everything in a story and therefore got a lot of support from people. He also put his heart on a subject of matter and therefore he is someone whose works is worth studying. Therefore, throughout the paper, we are going to analyse Ruben Salazar's characters, figurative language and symbolism in his works.

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Character

Looking at one of his works titled, "Red Open Parley in Cuba Today to Promote Revolution," Salazar tries to show some of the events that were going to take place after Fidel Castor had been elected the leader in Cuba. In this case, one of the characters that he used was Fidel Castor who was a leader in Cuba and took part in some revolution activities. Castro is mentioned as one of the people who were able to steer the country to independence and also made sure that people were equal when it came to opportunities. Salazar used this character because he had a background that was healthy and also managed to make sure that his people were following all that he had put in place. This a clear indication that Salazar was only determining to cover stories of people who brought change to the society.

In the same article, Salazar states that Castro was still going to use the speech that had made in the Tri-Continental Conference in the year 1966 because it had some positive sentiments attached to it. In the article, Castro states, "The Work of a revolutionary is to make revolutions and to make a revolution of facts not of works," (Salazar 1). There was a clear indication that revolution was the order of the day and Salazar was also interested in seeing that the people of Cuba were now free from any form of oppression. This implies that the kind of characters that he was choosing to use in his works were those who could bring reforms in the society and also those who did not have any grudges or negative attitude towards the journalists.

Looking at his other work title, "A big Pig, A Midget, an Angry Newsman," we get to see that were still some characters who were used by Salazar to pass his message across. In this case, he was using a manager whom he described to be a midget and also had a white pig that he used as a pet. In the story, he was trying to show the way the war in Vietnam was about to take place also how people behaved as they were in the mood to prepare for any attack that would place on that day. The manager has used an example of people who are known to be wealthy but are still ready to help those who are helpless in the society (Salazar 20). In this case, the manager is depicted as a character who many like in the society and still has the power to protect them in case of any animosities. This an indication that Salazar wanted to have a group of characters that were ever ready to do good things in the society in general.

Still in the article, "Red Open Parley in Cuba Today to Promote Revolution," Salazar has used another character to show the fact that communism was the order of the day in Cuba and that everyone was supposed to be able to embrace it wholeheartedly. Alexei N. Kosygin is one of the people who was met by Castro as he was trying to spread the news of peace to different places. Kosygin was supposed to address all the issues that had been put in place so at to be able to promote communism in Latin America (Salazar 20). All the kind of characters that were used by Salazar had a role to play in the news that he was developing and spreading. In that case, he was perfect when it came to referring to his characters.

Figurative Language

Salazar was perfect when it came to using of figurative speech because he made sure that the kind of headlines that he provided to his articles was a total reflection of the trending activities in the country. For instance, the title, "Red Open Parley in Cuba Today to Promote Revolution," was a topic that was figurative. He did not refer to the actual form of revolution that was taking place in Cuba because it was not everyone who was happy with the kind of activities that were taking place at that time (Salazar 23). In that case, he chose to state that the Red Open Parley was the day when Castro was going to declare his motive when it came to revolution and making sure that people were free and ready to enjoy the kind of services that he was going to offer after that.

The other article or work of Salazar that makes use of figurative speed is the one that he titled, "Why Students are kicking the Product Around so." In this article, he was focusing on some of the issues that were facing the students as they were trying to pursue the works of literature. Many of them had been subjected to torture because they were getting information regarding how the government works which was going past the boundaries of their study. In that case, they kept on holding protests so that they could be allowed to take part in research come up findings that would help in bringing reforms to the educational sector (Salazar 23). Also, the topic of the article was still figurative because it did not directly state that the students were engaging in protests but it kept it clear that they wanted justice to be done having in mind that they were ready to fulfil the missions and tasks of the professors who had given them assignments to handle.

Symbolism

Symbolism is a literary element that most good writers and journalism have been using in their works especially when they are talking about sensitive issues in the society. In this case, Salazar was able to use some objects as symbols to be able to pass a given message to the audience. Looking at his work that is titled, "A Big Pig, a Midget, and Angry Newsman," we get to see that the used symbolism to a great extent. In work, "A big pig" was used to refer to the pig that was owned by the manager as a pet and also meant that the manager had a dwarfy body. The pig has been used a symbol of wealth and having a big body size which was the exact characteristics of the manager.

Salazar still used symbolism to refer to himself in that he did not want to mention that he was part of the activities that were taking place in his articles. He referred to himself as the "Angry Newsman" so that one could be able to figure out that he was writing the story for himself. He did this especially when he wanted to let people know the kind of troubles that he was going through and also the things that were going on his mind (Jackies 34). The "Angry Newsman" was a symbol of the journalists who were being oppressed because they were presenting stories that were not supposed to be heard by the public.

Conclusion

In conclusion, all the works of Salazar were full of great characters, figurative speech and also symbolism. All these were his ways of making sure that everyone got the message from the articles that he was writing. He was sure that nearly everyone would understand the kind of news that he was passing and in indeed he was able to convince manner using his works. He was an advocate for peace and unity, and that was why he was using figurative language and people who were ready to save the society as well.

References

Salazar, Ruben. "Red Open Parley in Cuba Today to Promote Revolution." Los Angeles Times. 1967 pg. 1

Salazar, Ruben. "A big Pig, A Midget, an Angry Newsman." Los Angeles Times. 1965, pg 20.

Salazar, Ruben. "Why Students Are Kicking the Product Around So." Los Angeles Times. 1970

Salazar, Ruben. "Latin Newsmen, Police Chief Eat...bit Fail to Meet." Los Angeles Times. 1970

Jackies, Alen. "The Ruben Salazar File." Los Angeles times. 2011