Hispanic Heritage Month 2026: Vicente Calderón on 40 years of cross-border journalism

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Welcome in San Diego, it's Jade Hindman. On this episode of KPBS Midday Edition, I talk with veteran journalist Vicente Calderon about his career on both sides of the border. This is KPBS Midday Edition, connecting our communities through conversation. Hey, this Hispanic Heritage Month, we're featuring voices, making waves in the community. Vicente Calderon is a veteran journalist with more than 40 years' experience on both sides of the border. He got his start in radio in the mid-'80s, and he would go on to work as a TV anchor and reporter in both Tijuana and Los Angeles. And in 2004, Vicente created TijuanaPress.com, Tijuana's first digital news site. And that's where he works today as editor-in-chief. On top of all his daily deadlines, Vicente is also a fierce defender of press freedom. Every year, he brings awareness to the ongoing issue of violence against journalists in Mexico. Vicente Calderon joins me now to talk about his life's work. Welcome back to Midday Edition, Vicente.

Thank you for having me on again.

Glad to have you here. So tell me, what's your earliest memory of wanting to become a journalist?

Actually, it wasn't because I didn't talk about being a journalist until I got into, I graduated as a psychologist and I wanted to talk about mental health. In the 80s, that was kind of a taboo issue. And the only idea I got was I can get closer to the media, to the local press and try to talk about mental health. I'm very glad to hear that things have been changing in that sense. And we have that as an issue that is in the top of mind of many people, no?

Wow. No, it's great. It's great. Tell me about the early days of your career working in radio in Tijuana. What did that experience teach you? Were you able to use your psychology background then?

I think so. This has been helping me to stay healthy, kind of. We're in a kind of in this environment that we are facing as journalists. No, it was just an accident. I began as a DJ in a local kind of Mexican music, country music station. And they gave me the opportunity to work on news because it wasn't very common that people, young people was doing radio news at the time. And I walked my way to the newscast and then I moved to television. And they assigned me in the late 80s to cover the Hispanic community of San Diego. And that's when I began to go across the border every day because that was possible in those years. A task that would be very, very difficult to complete today in the current conditions of the border.

Right. I mean, OK, so from being a DJ to like radio newscast, then you went on to work in TV, both in Tijuana and Los Angeles. What was different about being a TV reporter and anchor in those two cities? And then compare that to San Diego, too.

It's very, very complicated because at the beginning we used to I learned from older people who are my colleagues. colleagues who were very generous to teach me how to learn to do the