Hanging With A Few Heisman Winners and Hall of Famers Was A Totally Unexpected Experience!

Watching our favorite sports heroes in person or on television is an exciting past time for most people. Getting to meet one or two them in person, maybe even getting their autograph and or even being photographed together, is a rarity for most individuals, one that most folks will cherish forever, as they boast about that special moment while they point to photographic proof that is placed on their mantel or hanging on their living room walls.

My experience with today’s modern gladiators represents not only meeting them and getting their autograph, but in actually working with them on special and prestigious projects, as well as developing special long-term friendships.

By virtue of working with many youth and community service-oriented organizations, I have been fortunate to have worked with many major league baseball players and NFL Hall of Fame sports figures, like Jim Otto and David “Deacon” Jones, as well as with several Heisman Trophy winners such as Jim Plunkett, Marcus Allen, Mike Garrett and O.J. Simpson.

Actually, my first exposure to a famous sports figure was when I went to work for Los Angeles City Councilman John Ferraro, who gained much fame and notoriety playing tackle for the University of Southern California between 1943-47, a tremendously successful  career partially interrupted by service in the US Navy in 1945. I joined Ferraro’s staff in 1972 as an administrative assistant, working in his press and community affairs department. It was during that time that I also got to know Ferraro’s close friend and fellow teammate, Jim Hardy, the former USC and seven-year NFL quarterback who led USC to consecutive victories in the 1944 and 1945 Rose Bowls. The Trojans beat Washington in the 1944 game, 29-0, and Tennessee in 1945, 25-0. He was the Rose Bowl MVP in 1945. Jim was serving as a member of the LA Coliseum Commission when we first met at that time in 1972. According to Oldest Living Pro Football Player Still living web site, Hardy (at 90) is still alive!

It was the Ferraro press team that put together all the data needed to submit John Ferraro's name for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, which he was admitted to that select group in 1974.

"While working for John Ferraro, I also was appointed as member of the board of directors along with NFL great Rosey Grier on Mayor Tom Bradley's "Project Heavy," a program designed to help inner-city youth. Rosey (who was one of the members of Los Angeles Rams' "The Fearsome Foursome" along with David Deacon Jones) was also one of my guests on my TV show ("Bienvenidos") on KNXT Television, Channel 2."

That (Ferraro) experience was the last time I ever thought I would be around sport legends; however, that was soon to change when I became the first Latino member of the board of directors of the Boys Scouts of America, Los Angeles Area Council, in 1987. I was asked to join the board to help the scouting organization in recruiting Hispanics as active members. Having been a boy scout during my youth, and remembering the invaluable lessons I learned from that experience, I thought it would help young Latino men grow stronger. Soon thereafter, I was appointed as the public relations chair of the board, alongside many corporate giants such as Lod Cook, the Chairman and CEO of ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company),

The Boy Scouting organization held many fund raising events, including a joint venture with the Los Angeles Raiders football team, and its twice-winning Super Bowl coach, Tom Flores. Flores the first Mexican American to quarterback a professional football team, while becoming the Oakland Raiders first slinger in 1960. Flores coached the Oakland Raiders to one of its Super Bowl Championships in 1981 and repeated that feat in 1985 after the team moved to Los Angeles. While in Los Angeles, the Boy Scouts of America connected with the Los Angeles Raiders to hold a fund raising golf tournament and named it “The Tom Flores Celebrity Golf Invitational.” The event featured one NFL super star being included in each foursome sold to various corporate sponsors. It became an instant hit and raised millions of dollars for the scouting program. 

 

Jim Otto, the legendary center and NFL Hall of Fame inductee for the Oakland Raiders, was one of the event’s biggest supporters.

Marcus Allen, Heisman Trophy winner and NFL Hall of Fame player from USC was one of the regular participants at the celebrity golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club. One of the classiest (if not the most friendliest and affable) sports figure I ever met.

Joe Ortiz is pictured with Al Locasale, assistant to Al Davis, owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders. Both Joe and “lokey” were members of the committee that coordinated both the Tom Flores Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament, which was named the Los Angeles Raiders/ Boy Scouts Invitation Golf Tournament after Tom Flores was hired as the General Manager of the Seattle Seahawks in 1985. After serving as Seattle’s general manager and later as its head coach from 1991 to 1994, Flores became even more active in the golf tournament well into the early 2000’s. After the Raiders moved back to Oakland, Al Locasale, continued his leadership with the tournament and the scouting program in the Bay area.

Joe is picture here with friend Jim Gott, former pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They met through Jim’s wife (Kathy) who worked with Joe on several projects for the Hollenbeck Youth Center in East Los Angeles.

Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL Hall of Fame player, O.J. Simpson, was among many of the NFL super stars that participated at the Tom Flores Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament held annually at the famous Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Pictured here in 1993 photo, Joe Ortiz, the event publicist, first became friends with O.J. Simpson after they first met at the 1976 news conference where OJ announced he had received a contract to represent “Treesweet” Orange juice. Joe was the first newsman to interview OJ concerning that endorsement.

Joe Ortiz (center) is flanked by several Los Angeles Raiderettes at the Tom Flores Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament held annually at the famous Riviera Country Club. Ortiz (a veteran radio and television personality and public relations guru in Los Angeles) served as the event publicist for 12 years. He also coordinated the silent auction with the Raiderettes.

Another Heisman Trophy (1965) winner Joe had the privilege of knowing and working with was USC running back Mike Garrett, when both served on the Hollenbeck Business Police Council board of directors, the parent company of the Hollenbeck Youth center, founders of the Los Angeles Inner-City Games. This was during Garrett's tenure as Athletic Director of USC, where he was appointed in 1993. Unfortunately, due to NCAA violations, Garrett was released in 2010. Nevertheless, he was a legendary athlete and a great civic leader.

Joe Ortiz (lower left center) is joined by NFL Hall of Fame player, David "Deacon" Jones (center) by a few of the Los Angeles Raiderettes at the award ceremonies for the Tom Flores Celebrity Invitational Golf Invitational Tournament held annually at the famous Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. The most popular and successful non-PGA tournament raised millions of dollars for the Boy Scouts of America’s handicap program.

Joe actually met Jones (one of the members of the "Fearsome Foursome") with the Los Angeles Rams in November, 1969, while Joe was going through orientation as a new Job Agent for the California State Employment Department. The week-long training was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Long Beach, the same facility that the Los Angeles Rams used to party at during football season.

“I met Deacon at the Hyatt one night and we hit it off right away. We sort of partied together until the wee hours of the morning. We never saw each other again until 1988 while participating at the Tom Flores Celebrity Golf Tournament. Obviously he didn’t remember that first evening, but we partied again for many years thereafter.”

Joe became close friends with legendary defensive end Ben Davidson. They first met at an event in Irwindale sponsored by his client the Miller Brewing Company. Being that Davidson was born and raised in the East Los Angeles community (and he spoke Spanish); they both hit it off real quickly. However, it wasn’t until Big Ben became a regular at the Tom Flores Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament that their friendship grew stronger.

Davidson was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Avis (née Wheat) and Benjamin Earl Franklin, Senior.  He attended Woodrow Wilson High School in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles, but did not play football in high school; because of his height (6 feet 8 inches), basketball and track were more to his liking. While attending East Los Angeles Community College, he was spotted by the football coach and asked to join the team. He was subsequently recruited to play at the University of Washington where he flourished as a member of two Rose Bowl winning teams and gained entry into professional football. Davidson was selected in the fourth round of the 1961 NFL Draft by the New York Giants, but was traded before the season started to the Green Bay Packers.

He was part of the 1961 champion Packers, who beat the Giants 37-0 in the championship game.[2] He was then traded to the Washington Redskins for a fifth round draft choice, playing there in 1962 and 1963, until he was waived in 1964 after not meeting the team's strict weight guidelines.[3]

Davidson is best remembered for playing in the American Football League with the Oakland Raiders, who signed him as a free agent and where he thrived as a pass rusher under Coach John Madden. He played in Oakland from 1964 through 1972, and was part of the league merger in 1970. He was an AFL All-Star in 1966, 1967, and 1968. In mid 1970s, he also played for the Portland Storm in the World Football League.

Joe Ortiz was on hand to greet and congratulate Lakers’ coach Pat Riley at a special reception held at Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s office after the basketball team had won the NBA Championship in 1985.

The 1985 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1984–85 NBA season. The Boston Celtics were looking to repeat as NBA Champions for the first time since the 1968–69. The Celtics had home court advantage for the second year in a row as they finished the regular season with a 63-19 record while the Los Angeles Lakers compiled a 62-20 record. The Lakers looked to bounce back from the previous year's painful loss to the Celtics in the championship series, and were still seeking to beat Boston for the first time ever in NBA Finals history. Also for the first time, the Finals went to a 2-3-2 format with Games 1 and 2 in Boston while the next three games were in Los Angeles. The final two games of the series would be played in Boston, if required. This change of format came after David had a conversation with Celtics legend Red Auerbach in 1984, who didn't like the frequent traveling between games.[1] The 2-3-2 format would be used until the 2013 NBA Finals, after which the 2-2-1-1-1 format returned the following year.

"I didn’t get the opportunity to work as closely with the Lakers as I did with the Raiders and the Dodgers; however, I did host an event where I got the opportunity to interview Lakers greats such as Jerry West,  The "Iron Man" A.C. Green and Byron Scott. A friend of mine has the only remaining copy of that interview, although she says she can’t find it!"

Joe Ortiz (second from left) is seen here with members of the board of directors of the Manny Mota International Youth Organization. Manny Mota (center with uniform), the legendary designated hitter formerly with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was a Los Angeles Dodgers coach for many years. His youth organization raised scholarship funds to build a baseball complex in his hometown in the Dominican Republic, as well as scholarships for local Los Angeles youth. Joe served as the public relations director for the organization for over ten years.

Through that relationship, Joe met numerous Los Angeles Dodgers including Mike Piazza, Steve Garvey, Jim Gott and many others. The photo above is with Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza, with Joe's daughter Christen (left) and her friend Claudia during a special fund raiser for the Manny Mota Youth Foundation. "The 'Pizza Man' (Mike Piazza) was my favorite LA Dodger," beams Christen.

Tom Flores (far left) legendary NFL player and twice Super Bowl winning coach for the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders, is joined by publicist Joe Ortiz (center) and Budweiser chairman John Anderson, along with several Los Angeles Raiderettes, at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. The prestigious country club annually hosted the Tom Flores Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament to raise funds for the Boy Scouts of America, Los Angeles Area Council. The unique event featured at least one current or former NFL superstar among the foursome participants.

Heisman Trophy winner and two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, Jim Plunkett, was a regular at the celebrity golf tournament. Jim joins his close friend and twice Super Bowl-winning coach, Tom Flores, during one of the few times the event was held at the Pelican Hills Country Club. No two Latino NFL greats have ever distinguished themselves on the grid iron as have Flores and Plunkett. Sadly, no two Latino sports figures have been shunned by the NFL Hall of Fame as these two professional football players, which still remains a shame in the annals of sports history.

 

"In addition to meeting and working with legendary and major league athletes, developing close and strong working relationships and personal friendship with great sports leaders like Tom Flores, Manny Mota and Ben Davidson, has been the opportunity to know that I may have played a minor role with enhancing their leadership efforts."

One of the athletes Joe is most proud to have met throughout his career was a young football player from the East Los Angeles community that is a shining example of what he considers true “commitment to Excellence.”

Randy Garcia was voted the “CIF High School Football Player of the Year (1972)” and was interviewed by Joe on his TV Show (Bienvenidos) that year. Garcia, a Wilson High School graduate, went on to play quarterback at Nebraska behind 1980 LA Rams' Super Bowl quarterback, Vince Ferragamo. Garcia is now a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, and also quarterbacked LAPD Centurions, the LAPD's football team. Joe and Randy were reunited after many years at one of the team's games at the LA Coliseum, which was sponsored by his client, The Miller Brewing Co

During the so-called 1992 “Rodney King” Riots of Los Angeles, two of the most highly visible African American leaders were Senator Diane Watson and NFL Superstar Jim Brown, who were constantly on media urging community residents to remain peaceful and calm.

Senator Watson, who was currently campaigning for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, immediately brought her campaign to a halt and converted her office into an emergency food and supply center. " "As her campaign press deputy, it was my responsibility to book her on as many media outlets as possible to giver her and her dear friend Jim Brown the opportunity to speak to other community leaders to promote peace and calm." While Jim Brown, the Hall of Fame running back for the Cleveland Browns has been hailed as the number one football player in the history of the NFL, few fans realize that he has been a civic and community leader in Los Angeles for many decades. Brown, who also made his presence felt in the motion picture arena, founded Amer-I-can, an organization designed to enable individuals to excel in academic achievements.

The riots broke out within minutes after  a verdict came in that exonerated a group of Los Angeles police officers for the much publicized beating of Rodney King. Senator Watson and her campaign staff met at Jim Brown's home in the Hollywood hills throughout the period that Los Angeles was in flames.

Members of the “Official Tom Flores Fan Club” include its president, media personality and publicist Joe Ortiz (above left), Coachella Valley High School football legend and school leader, Richard Ramirez(above right); legendary Super Bowl winning coach (twice for the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders) Tom Flores (lower left), and CV High Alum Lori Lara Rabago.

"One thing is certain, we will never stop working toward achieving one of our major goals, which is to get Tom Flores inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame!"

My Response to Professor Acuna's Comments Concerning Lack of Positive Latino Role Models in Sports Arena

 This article by highly respected Chicano Studies Professor, Rudy Acuna, appeared in several media, concerning what he believes is the lack of positive Latino role model in the sports arena. Following after his article is my response:

Guest Voz: Play-by-play of the Latino athletes who have fumbled at being role models

• Guest Voz
• zNew Headline

September 27, 2013

By Rodolfo F. Acuña

Last July, salsa singer Marc Anthony, responding to a question on television’s stereotyping of Latinos, answered that “the entertainment industry doesn’t owe us anything.”

While Mr. Anthony is entitled to his opinion, he like all of us, who are Mexican American or Latino, owes something to our communities. A lot of people fought and suffered so we could have rights – history did not begin for Puerto Ricans when Marc Anthony started to sing.

Entertainers and athletes have historically had a special place in the Mexican American/Latino community. As kids, we often vicariously live through them.

I used to scour the sport pages for items on Enrique Bolaños and Art Aragón, although truth told they were not particularly good role models. For example, I remember how one evening I witnessed a street fight between Aragón and Lauro Salas in Echo Park – both had been drinking heavily.
Sadly, this is a pattern followed by most Mexican boxers. Who can say how great Oscar de la Hoya could have been if he would had been a role model for the kids of East LA. Instead, he chose like so many other boxers, to party his chance to become a champion and beat Mayweather.

For me, it was a series of disappointments.

Although I was not a good athlete, I liked sports and looked up to the good players. I never got beyond over-the-line softball, which I would play from 9am to 10pm at a local playground. In those days, school playgrounds stayed open til 10 at night.

The only baseball player who was Mexican that I can remember is Bobby Avila – a Mexican-born second baseman who in 1954 edged out Ted Williams for the batting crown with a .341 batting average. However, Avila had his heart in the homeland, and he did not reach out to us pochos – it did not help that he played out east where they did not have a large Mexican fan base. Avila never became a news item and did not motivate many of us.

Ironically the player Avila beat out, Ted Williams, arguably the greatest hitter of all times, was a Mexican American. Williams’ mother May Venzer was a Mexican American; she married Samuel Williams and moved to San Diego where she raised Ted as a single mother. Williams in 2001 wrote that ‘if I had had my mother’s name, there is no doubt I would have run into problems in those days, [with] the prejudices people had in Southern California.”

Williams was partially raised in Santa Barbara where he visited his Mexican grandmother, who barely spoke English. He spent time there with his cousin Manny Herrera and the rest of his mother’s family.

Williams never wanted to be a role model, but he surely would have had an impact on a lot of Mexican children if he had reached out. To be fair, he played for the Boston Red Sox and not the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Football was another favorite.

We have always had our share of college and pro-football players. Mario Longoria, my former student, wrote a great book, Athletes Remembered: Mexicano/Latino Professional Football Players, 1929-1970. Mario does a fantastic job of chronicling early players.

My favorite is Joe Kapp who played quarterback in the American and Canadian football leagues. Kapp played at the University of California, and in the CFL he starred for the BC Lions. During the 1960s, he played for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings – a market that was not known for a large Mexican fan base.

Kapp was a rough-and-tumble player who Sports Illustrated called “The Toughest Chicano.” He did not shy away from the label Chicano, but his last name and where he played limited his exposure in the Mexican American community that had a fanatical loyalty to its local teams and did not follow much more than the local newspaper sports pages.

Joe’s passes were not pretty, but he got the ball across the line. Joe is listed among the 100 toughest players to ever play the game.

Jim Plunkett was another quarterback that I followed fanatically, from the days he made All American at Stanford to his days on the Oakland Raiders. Plunkett never ran away from the label but his personality and last name did not generate a following. Born to Mexican American parents with an Irish-German great-grandfather on his paternal side, he came from a poor family. His parents were blind; they had three children who Jim had to help by contributing to their support at an early age.

Plunkett was drafted by the New England Patriots where a porous line set him up to be tackling dummy. He played for them for five years before he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers. In 1978 he was traded to the Oakland Raiders. The late Al Davis said he was a basket case when he arrived but Jim patiently waited two years on the bench, which paid off when he took the Raiders to the Super Bowl and became the MVP.

Part of the problem in Plunkett’s time was that the media unlike in the case of Marc Anthony did not hype Plunkett to the growing Mexican American/Latino market.

Indeed, his narrative is still left out of the history books.

Others like Anthony Muñoz, arguably the best left tackle to play the game failed to become a role model. He played for the University of Southern California and the Cincinnati Bengals. He was 6-6, 275 pounds in high school. His grandparents were from Chihuahua, Mexico.

However, he established roots in Cincinnati where he founded The Anthony Muñoz Scholarship Fund. The last time I checked out the recipients there was not a Latino among them. In a literal sense, Muñoz never came back.

I had high hopes for Mark Sánchez.

I really thought that he would rise above his middle-class background and reach out. For a brief moment, he captured the imagination of many of my friends by wearing a red, white and green mouthpiece. It seemed to be telling people that he was proud to be a Mexican American.

Through no fault of his own, he landed with the New York Jets playing for a coach and an owner that could have cared less about an offensive line. This insured that he met the same fate as Plunkett, and for the past two years he has spent most of his time on his butt.

But to set the record straight, Sánchez made this train wreck inevitable by trying to play Broadway Joe Namath for the past four years.

It takes dedication and work and discipline to be a role model.

The last of many great players was the greatest tennis player of all times – Richard “Pancho” González. A high school dropout from Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights, he literally grew up in the public tennis courts of East LA. Early in his career he was excluded from the country club courts where, as a Mexican, he was not welcome in what was a gentleman’s game.

Pancho probably suffered the harshest racism and discrimination of any Mexican American athlete. Despite this, he was a champion. However, Pancho was so bitter and emotionally damaged that he never became a role model.

In my opinion, entertainers and sports figures have an obligation to children to be good role models. After all, it is our patronage and loyalty that has contributed to their prosperity.

In answer to Mr. Anthony, we all owe the past.

Dr. Rodolfo Francisco Acuña, called the “father of Chicano Studies,” is a historian, professor emeritus, activist and the author of 20 titles, 32 academic articles and chapters in books, 155 book reviews and 188 opinion pieces. Currently, he teaches Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge

THE FOLLOWING ARE MY COMMENTS:

Professor Acuna!

I have the utmost respect and admiration for you and your views, especially as they relate to Chicano Studies and the history of Mexican Americans. Sadly, your piece on Latino sports figures who have fumbled the ball as positive role models from the sports arena comes short of the Chicano Legacy goal line.

You did mention Jim Plunkett, Mark Sanchez, Oscar de La Hoya, and Anthony Munoz (among others) who have distinguished themselves to a certain degree, but did not always measure up to being the best sports figure role models we need in the Latino community. You also heaped a certain amount of bravado on Joe Kapp for being a tough Chicano; however, as accomplished as he was in the NFL, his off-field brawling antics are legendary on YouTube (http://haliburtonhighlander.ca/2011/12/01/nifty-grudges-with-joe-kapp-and-angelo-mosca/ where at the age of 73, got into a brawl with an old NFL nemesis, which, personally does not score high on the positive role model scale.

More importantly, the fact that you failed to even mention Tom Flores, the first Latino head coach to win an NFL Super Bowl victory (twice) is mind-boggling. Tom, who was the first Latino quarterback in pro football history, as the original quarterback of the Oakland Raiders (in 1960), also has Super Bowl rings as a player (backup quarterback to Len Dawson of the Kansas City Chiefs), and another ring as an assistant coach for the Oakland Raiders under football icon John Madden. No other person has achieved this. He is also the first Latino to ever be hired as a General Manager for an NFL franchise (Seattle Seahawks), and for the last 15 of his 50 years in pro football, has been the color anchor of the Oakland Raiders Radio network along with Greg Papa and Jim Plunkett. Everyone in pro football knows it was Tom Flores who resurrected Jim Plunkett’s career after being cast off by the New England Patriots, to play for the Raiders in Oakland and Los Angeles, where he was voted the MVP in the two years the Raiders won Super Bowls.

More importantly, throughout his career, Tom Flores has been involved in many charities, raising funds for youth to excel in education and sports through his Tom Flores Youth Foundation out of Fresno. Tom also hosted the Tom Flores Celebrity Golf Invitational Tournament for over 15 years, in conjunction with the boy Scouts of America and the Raiders, and has raised over a million dollars for handicapped youth . Tom, who now lives in Indian Wells in the Coachella Valley often speaks to various youth groups throughout the country (like the Coachella Valley High School football team), encouraging them to excel in education and sports.

Most recently, Tom Flores received the Roberto Clemente Award from the National Council of La Raza (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HScBAZVWkg) for his commitment and excellence to the youth of our country. It seems to me (speaking of excellence) that when Al Davis, the founder and owner of the Oakland Raiders coined the phrase, “A Commitment to Excellence,” that he had Tom Flores in mind.

Tom Flores, who worked the fields of Sanger California with his sharecropper parents, picking grapes and other fruits alongside other Chicanitos, had a dream about playing football, and excelled like no other Latino in this country. His hard work ethics carried him far in the sports world, but he always came home to help those less fortunate. Can we find not only a better sports role model, much less one committed to his community? I think not!

Yet, those of us who have been pushing for Tom to be inducted into the National Football League’s Hall of Fame have run into a stonewall convincing the voters to induct him into that coveted fraternity. But, I can see one of the reasons why it has been so difficult. If, not even our own Latino brothers and sisters recognize Tom’s accomplishments (and true character), what can we expect from those voters?

Joe Ortiz, President
The Official Tom Flores Fan Club
https://sites.google.com/site/joeortizassociates/tom-flores-fan-club

Links to Joe Ortiz' Blogs and Web Sites

 

 

Joe Ortiz, veteran journalist, talk show host and blogger, is the author of two books that challenge the Left Behind and Pre-Tribulation Rapture to Heaven myth, and premillennial dispensationalism precepts and doctrines being promoted by many radical right-wing evangelicals and Christian Zionists.

The two books include The End Times Passover (Etymological Challenges to Millenarian Doctrines) and Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation (The Sequel to The End Times Passover), published by Author House. The former radio and television talk show host, journalist and news columnist is the first Mexican American to host a show on an English-language, commercial radio station, beginning in 1971 at KABC-AM Radio in Los Angeles. The veteran journalist operates his own full-service public relations company, as well as writes for local, national and world-wide media and several blogs.

 

Blog addresses below:

The End Times Passover

 

Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation

It Seems To Me...by Joe Ortiz

 

Joe's web sites below:

Joe Ortiz Associates   Web site for Joe Ortiz Associates, a full service public relations company

The End Times Passover   Web site to discuss end times topics and to promote books written by Joe Ortiz

 

Famous fashion critic, Mr. Blackwell, presents Joe Ortiz with the Angel Award for “Best Television Host” at ceremonies held at the famous Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, September 1973.

The Shameless Theft of Mexico's Land

Click this link to see the video>>America's Forgotten War South of The Border

Penn State historian Amy Greenberg says it was the first war in U.S. history that was fought for greed rather than principle: "There was no great ideological reason why we were going to war against Mexico. It was the first war that was started with a presidential lie."

Greenberg argues in her recent book, "A Wicked War," that the war was engineered by President James Polk.

"James K. Polk went to Congress and said American blood had been shed on American soil, but almost nobody except Americans claimed that the land where the blood was shed was actually American soil," Greenberg said. "When Zachary Taylor marched his troops between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, he was marching through land which everybody, including the residents of that territory, believed to be Mexican land."

"So they were basically looking for a fight?" asked Rocca.

"Absolutely. No question about it."

They were looking for a fight because President Polk had a vision for America called "Manifest Destiny."

Link to Amy Greenberg's book: "A Wicked War"

PRIME TIME WITH JOE ORTIZ INTERVIEWS DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA

Probably the most important interview I ever conducted was with Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, the prescient and visionary research specialist and writer from UCLA. In this 1988 interview, Dr. David discusses his book (The Burden of Support), which includes data and statistics that provide insights to the problems that will confront society if education and employment opportunities are denied to Mexican (Immigrants and) Americans. 25 years later, his prognostications are becoming a reality, to the detriment of American society. 

Click this link to access info on the book, "Burden of Support" by Dr. David Hayes Bautista.

http://www.amazon.com/Burden-Support-Young-Latinos-Society/dp/0804718024/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366822475&sr=1-3

Click or Cut and paste this link to your browser for side 1 of the interview
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By9dVV_URABMZVNwQXN3LWpsTkU/edit?usp=sharing

Click or Cut and paste this link to your browser for side 2 of the interview
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0By9dVV_URABMMkdIdEZNN3FqQ28/edit?usp=sharing