Former ABC13 reporter Elma Barrera paved the way for so many. She looks back on her career and staying true to her roots.
For 34 years, she was a constant on Eyewitness News, making a name for herself right along with legendary anchors Dave Ward and Marvin Zindler."I always said Barrea, so how could I change it?," said Elma Barrera. "It's hard to forget your roots."
"When you were here at KTRK and they didn't have Univision, how was the Hispanic community getting the information they needed?In August of 1983, when hurricane Alicia hit, it was Elma who was able to step in and guide the Hispanic community through the devastating hurricane."I walked into this room and they gave me a job," she said.
"I went behind the building and sobbed. That was the only time that I had broken like that," she said.The community still remembers her reporting when tragedy struck the Hispanic community. The Moody Park riots sparked after José "Joe" Campos Torres, a Mexican-American veteran, was beaten and killed by several Houston police officers in 1977.
"I did all these stories and it was second nature to me. It was kind of different, but it was second nature because I spoke Spanish and other people, you know, kind of wanted to do the stories, but they wouldn't have been able to," she said.
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