Elma Barrera changing career paths

(8/02/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- We have some news of our own in our Eyewitness News family. After 34 years of hard work and dedication, reporter Elma Barrera is retiring.

You may already know that Elma is the first Hispanic TV reporter in Houston and one of the first in the nation. She came to Channel 13 in the 70s as a news intern and was hired as a reporter. She's been through just about everything over the years with the Houston community.

She has spent her working life chronicling the life and times of Houston. To see those stories now is to see the history of a city. It's also to see a reporter who made history. Elma Barrera was the first Hispanic woman to be a news reporter in Houston TV, if not the country, which is revolutionary in itself. A lot of people remember the first time they saw her on their living room TV sets.

"I think everybody was abuzz," said attorney and friend Michael Solar. "It was exciting to see someone who was Hispanic, someone who could roll their R's and tell their story from a different perspective and one that was informed, insightful, and articulate."

The times demanded that. In the early 70s, there was unrest in Houston in the wake of the death of Joe Campos Torres, who was killed by Houston police, who left his body in a bayou. A year later, there were the Moody Park riots. Elma was there reporting, bringing perspective to stories that was unique at the time.

And Elma had another more personal perspective. She was born and raised in Texas to parents who would take her with them to pick cotton when times were tough. She can hold her own in any interview, but her friends say her heart is with people who don't always have a voice or an advocate.

Friend Dorothy Karam told us, "She's a great listener. She knows how to relate to people. She makes friends easily."

Elma has come of age along with the city and the community. A lot of children grew up watching Elma on TV, watching the possibilities of what they, too, might aspire to be.

"Her tenure with Channel 13 has reached far beyond anything she could have imagined and I think her career and her experiences are testimony to what's possible in Houston as well," said friend Olga Rodriguez.

Elma helped build the road on which new generations of Hispanic women now travel to jobs in TV, in the media -- a road Elma is traveling still at Channel 13. Now, though, she'll have her own office. She won't be reporting every day, but she'll be as involved as ever. She wouldn't have it any other way. Neither would Houston.

We here at Eyewitness News got a chance to wish Elma the best Wednesday afternoon. You'll still be seeing Elma around. Elma will stay on at the station, working on community affairs projects.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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