The challenge

When the "Línea Directa" series was first broadcast on January 25, 1990, there were no local Spanish-language television programs in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and thousands of Latino newcomers had no access to information on available services. "Our role as community leaders has been to pioneer the use of commercial Spanish-language television as an effective vehicle for public education," López says. "When we first started working together in 1985, the Washington metropolitan area was undergoing a historic population shift. Civil war and economic upheaval in Central America triggered massive migrations that resulted in the explosive growth of Latino communities in and around the nation's capital. The great majority of these newcomers came from rural areas in El Salvador and Guatemala, and faced critical needs in the areas of health, education, housing and employment." Unscrupulous employers, landlords and lawyers took advantage of this vulnerable new community, while Spanish-language television was nothing more than an entertainment medium. Salcedo and López saw the information vacuum as an opportunity to serve the Latino population by providing information on predatory lending practices, the parental role in education, domestic violence and the criminal justice system. They also saw the need for public education on such health issues as H.I.V./AIDS, cervical and colon cancer, heart disease, drug and alcohol abuse, hepatitis, depression (which affects Latino women more than any other racial or ethnic group) and teenage pregnancy. Over the last 17 years, the Latino community in the metropolitan region is estimated to have grown to 400,000.


Seeds of commitment

Arturo Salcedo Martínez was born in Colombia and, after completing his degree in Social Communications and working as a regional News Director for the largest radio network in Colombia, he arrived in the United States in 1984 at the age of 24. He was active in political street theater and acted in telenovelas, or soap operas. Eduardo López came to this country from El Salvador when he was nine and graduated with degrees in photojournalism and management from Syracuse University in 1979. The two men have worked together since they were city employees of the Washington, D.C. Mayor's Office of Latino Affairs. By 1990, they had created "Línea Directa," and had succeeded in placing the program on the prime time schedule of the local Univision Spanish-language television station.

In 1994, Salcedo and López lost their city jobs because of budget cuts, and "Línea Directa" lost its city funding and went off the air. To revive it, the two men formed a nonprofit corporation called Educational Videos in Spanish (now E.V.S. Communications) and sought grants to support programming. They went back on the air in August 1995, by buying a weekly time slot on the Univision station. E.V.S. Communications has only three full-time staff members. "At various times during the history of 'Línea Directa,' both of us have gone into debt, rejected attractive job offers, lowered our pay or completely stopped taking a salary," Salcedo says. They contend the source of their conviction can be found in their parents' sacrifices, which "gave opportunities we could never have aspired to in our home countries of El Salvador and Colombia."


Accomplishments

After more than 12 years on the air, "Línea Directa" has become a highly respected community institution in the nation's capital, broadcasting crucial messages directly into the living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms of thousands of Latino households. Through an innovative public service partnership, Línea Directa is produced in the studios of NBC4 in Washington, D.C., and is broadcast each Sunday evening at 6 p.m. through the Spanish-language television station, Telemundo. In 1991, after two days of riots in the Latino neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, Latino leaders and District of Columbia Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly had a candid discussion during a "Línea Directa" one-hour televised community forum about the underlying causes of the violence. This was the first appearance by a city mayor on Spanish-language television. The exchange was widely credited with helping to defuse the tense situation that existed between Latino residents and the Metropolitan Police Department.

Many of Salcedo and López's successes are measured in subtler ways. For example, Salcedo told a writer for The Washington Post that he keeps three crumpled dollar bills that a Salvadoran woman gave him years ago to help support the show because this reminds him of the impact "Línea Directa" has had on viewers. In 1994, "Línea Directa" was the first local program to speak openly about the use of condoms, infidelity and the spread of H.I.V./AIDS in the Latino community. The program's innovative four-part series broke many traditional Spanish-language television taboos, featuring on-camera interviews with men and women living with AIDS. In 1996 and 1997, "Línea Directa" partnered with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (N.H.L.B.I.) to increase the Latino community's knowledge of heart disease. The two-part series focused on the development of cardiovascular problems in Latino families, and marked the first time that the National Institutes of Health had supported a local television Spanish-language public education campaign. The effort was so successful that N.H.L.B.I. produced 10,000 copies of the programs, and entered into an agreement with the National Council of La Raza to distribute the series nationwide.

In 2000, "Línea Directa" again made local television history by becoming the first Spanish-language program to enter into a public service partnership with a major Washington news organization. NBC4 is now supporting the production of "Línea Directa" by providing E.V.S. with access to the technical personnel and broadcast studio facilities needed to videotape the series on a weekly basis. This alliance with NBC4 has allowed E.V.S. to double the number of "Línea Directa" programs produced each year, and to reach a weekly audience of more than 65,000 viewers.


Their leadership style

Arturo Salcedo Martínez and Eduardo López connect viewers to real organizations and resources. That linkage is a result of their personalities. Arturo connects easily with people and creates opportunities to speak both to national leaders and community people. Salcedo serves as the writer and on-camera host of the "Línea Directa" television series. "Eduardo is the strategic guy," reports Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of Casa of Maryland. López coordinates the videotaping and editing of all E.V.S. productions. He also writes the organization's publicity materials and proposals. They develop the topics they will cover in their program through direct inquiry. They reach out to local community nonprofit organizations to determine the kinds of programs that are needed and maintain ongoing communication with members of the Latino community, speaking to them directly about their programming suggestions. Salcedo and López make all decisions about the future of E.V.S. jointly. The two men work in close collaboration with bilingual community-based organizations in the Washington metropolitan area. "Through 'Línea Directa,' hundreds of local Latino leaders, social workers, doctors, teachers, parents, laborers, counselors, and psychologists from every economic background have been able to share their thoughts and experiences directly with 'Línea Directa' viewers," according to Cecilia Alvear, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.


The future

Salcedo and López partnered recently with the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Public Welfare Foundation to produce a series of "Línea Directa" programs on the rights of Latino workers. They are also co-producing programs on the dangers of tobacco, on traffic safety, and on the health of Latino women. At the national level, they have produced two award-winning television public service announcements, and will soon launch a major Spanish-language public education campaign on lead poisoning, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, they are working closely with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists on a national "Línea Directa" program. Locally, their goal is to continue expanding their relationship with NBC4 in order to help Latino families become a more integral part of life in Washington metropolitan area. To this end, they are planning to produce a series of programs featuring interviews with city, county and state political leaders that would mark the first time that any of these political figures answered questions on Spanish language television about their programs and their commitment to the welfare of Latino families. In coming years, both would like to be working on the production of original Spanish-language television dramas to provide critical information on the same kinds of social service issues they currently cover. Programs would feature well-known Latino actors presented in a soap-opera format to help viewers connect with program messages. "We feel strongly that these programs represent the next step in the development of Spanish language public education," the two leaders wrote in a recent essay. "They would provide educational institutions with a groundbreaking new way to communicate with Latino families nationwide."


More about Arturo Salcedo Martínez and Eduardo López

"No one is more passionate and driven to help the Latino community than Arturo and Eduardo."
— Lidia Soto Harmon, Senior Vice President of First Book (a non-profit organization that helps distribute new books to children in need) and former Program Officer for the Fannie Mae Foundation