In the summer of 1983, The Times published a series on Southern California’s Latino community. It was produced by a team of Latino editors, writers and photographers. The idea was to move beyond stereotypes and to produce stories that described Latinos in their full dimension, using feature articles, first-person stories, oral histories, commentaries and photos. They covered stories of success, struggle, art, politics, family, religion, culture, education, farm labor and history. In 1984, the series won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. The stories are now available in digital form for the first time.

Please note: Our standards on certain terms such as “illegal,” “illegal immigrant” and “blacks” have changed, but we have preserved the original text in order to provide an accurate account of the work in print.

Credits

This page was designed and built by Christian Orozco, Denise Florez, Fidel Martinez, Lora Victorio and Dan Gaines. Original 1983 “Latinos” logo by Steve Lopez. Logo retouching by Vanessa Martínez. Photo editing by Calvin Hom. Research by Cary Schneider and Julia Franco. Special thanks to Angel Rodriguez, Louis Sahagun, Nancy Rivera-Brooks, Frank Sotomayor, Monte Morin, Shelby Grad and Richard Nelson.