Pioneering Chicano Journalist From El Paso, Texas, Dead At 71

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- Pioneering Chicano journalist Joe Olvera of El Paso, Texas, has died. He was 71.

Olvera worked as a reporter for the El Paso Times, the El Paso Herald-Post and KDBC-TV. He also He also served as an editor for the USA Today “Across the USA” section.

He passed away over the weekend of a heart attack, reports the El Paso Times. In the last few years, Olvera also had battled diabetes.

The Times describes Olvera as a “giant” among Latino journalists. In addition to his work for newspapers, he authored several books on the Chicano culture -- a movement that came of age in the civil rights era of the 1960s.

Among his books are “Voces de la Gente” (Voices of the People) and “Chicano -- Sin Fin. Memoirs of a Chicano Journalist."

He later launched forays into politics, running unsuccessfully for mayor of El Paso in 1981.

“He loved El Paso,” Rick Melendrez, former Democratic Party county chairman, told the El Paso Times. “He loved the pen. He expressed himself about La Raza with the pen, beautifully and succinctly. He expressed the Chicano movement more than anyone else.”

Accolades have poured in after his death, but none more eloquent than those of his daughter, Diana Olvera Garcia.

“He really was a great man," she wrote on her Facebook page. "El Chicano sin fin. Forever in my heart."

A GoFundMe account has been set up to help offset funeral costs. To contribute, visit gofundme.com/ztsu4xc4.

>>> Photo courtesy of the El Paso Times