Del Mar College alumnus and Texas Standard Digital Producer Raul Alonzo set to give talk about Texas Farm Workers Union on March 17

Article by: Richard Guerrero, Jr.

Just a few short years ago, Raul Alonzo was a managing editor for The Foghorn, where he assigned stories to student reporters and also wrote news stories about campus events and life at Del Mar College. Today, he’s a digital producer with the statewide public radio daily news magazine, Texas Standard, which airs locally on KEDT 90.3 FM at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Alonzo is returning to one of his alma maters to give a free guest lecture, “Searching for the History of the Texas Farm Workers Union,” which is hosted by Del Mar College’s Social Sciences Department beginning at 6 p.m. Monday, March 17, in Room 100 in the Venters Building on Heritage Campus. His enlightening lecture is based on the series he wrote years after an inspiring interview that was conducted during his time as a student journalist. 

On the Texas Standard website, Alonzo writes, “This series has been a dream project I’ve had in mind ever since I interviewed someone who first told me about the Texas Farm Workers Union years ago […] It’s a story of epic strikes and marches, but also one that occasionally brushes up against controversy.”

The series on the Texas Standard site can be found at www.texasstandard.org/texas-farm-workers-union-tfwu-history/.

Alonzo joined Texas Standard in September 2022 after working several years in design and copy editing for the USA Today Network’s Design Center, the GateHouse Media Center for News and Design, Journal Media Group and the E.W. Scripps Company.

Alonzo initially pursued a history degree at Del Mar College before switching to journalism.

“Upon switching to Journalism, I got involved with the campus paper, the Foghorn, where I eventually became a Digital Editor and later a Managing Editor for the paper. During my time on the Foghorn staff, I was able to interview such notable figures as author Gary Soto, talk show host Tavis Smiley, and iconic labor organizer Dolores Huerta,” he says. “I was also able to attend the College Media Advisors conference in New York and Chicago during this time.”

He also competed and won several awards in Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) annual conferences, including:

• 1st Place, Newspaper Division 2, General Column 2015
• 1st Place, Literary Magazine Feature Story 2014
• 1st Place, TV Advertising (on-site live contest) 2014
• 3rd Place, General Column 2014

After attending Del Mar College, the Corpus Christi native graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in media arts and a minor in digital journalism from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC).  Alonzo made the Dean’s List every semester he was a student at TAMU-CC and was the recipient of two School of Arts, Media, and Communication awards: Outstanding Journalism Student and Outstanding Media Studies Scholar. He was also inducted into the Lambda Pi Eta Communication Honor Society.

Alonzo became a staff member of the Island Waves, a student-produced newspaper at TAMU-CC, in fall 2018, and won first place in editorial writing at the 2019 TIPA conference.

Alonzo says he’s looking forward to visiting with faculty and staff at the College, which is where he began his educational journey in 2009.

“I was really humbled and excited to be asked to come down for this lecture. The story I'll be talking about actually very much starts at Del Mar for me, so to be able to share it at my old stomping grounds is kind of a full-circle moment,” he says.

Alonzo’s lecture is open to the public.

Details:

• Monday, March 17, 6 p.m., Guest Lecture by Raul Alonzo, DMC Alumnus and Digital Producer with The Standard.
• Location: Room 100, Venters Building, Heritage Campus, 101 Baldwin Blvd. (78404), get online directions and campus map.
• Cost: Free.
• Questions? Contact Associate Professor of History Dr. Dawson Barrett at dbarrett2@delmar.edu or the DMC Social Sciences Department at 361-698-1228.