L.A. newsman José Luis Sierra dies at 56(2)

Journalist Jose Luis Sierra.

Journalist, page 2.

He also realized his children were growing without a close father, and Sierra dumped the war reporting job, returned to Los Angeles, and found a writing and editing position at MundoFox news.  

His son Joshua said his father told him he wanted to be close to them, and serve as family anchor.

“[My father] wasn’t too worried about death,” Joshua said. Sierra told him that “when I die I want you to plant a tree with these ashes at its foot to which you can stay close. And that’s what I’m going to go.”

Sierra’s  music tenor voice and commanding sense of newsworthiness made up for his lack of formal university education in the United States, a pitfall he sometimes regretted with close friends.

Nonetheless, he became a journalism instructor as part of the University of California Los Angeles extended education program, where he taught several beginning journalism classes.

At an eulogy, organized by his family and work colleagues, many praised his work and the professional legacy he left behind.

“He was one who strongly believed the [man in the street] stories provided you with the best tools to develop a good craft in journalism,” said Eileen Truax, a former La Opinión reporter, who met Sierra as his boss in the assignment desk . “He was a very good editor and mentor.”

 Marilú Meza, another La Opinión staff writer, said Sierra quipped  “that sometimes he felt he lived with broken wings in a four-walled room, and he needed to become involved in formal [school] teaching. He was a good man.”

 Jorge Luis Macias, a reporter for the Spanish-weekly newspaper “Unidos,” said Sierra was a boss, a mentor and a guide who encourage him to break from suicidal tendencies.

“He said ‘Look, don’t be an ass and quit those thoughts.’  He wielded a rule of order,  and had a deep cultural vocation. I hope now he’s in heaven he can write a chronicle on Juan Diego (the Mexican catholic saint whom The Lady of Guadalupe appeared to instruct him to build a church in her name)." 

Leonardo Lorca, a program producer at KPFK 90.7 FM radio station, said Sierra was a bohemian who delighted to hang out with Latin American friends involved in the trade, with whom was easy to sing impromptu songs and chat about cultural issues affecting communities in Los Angeles, and beyond.

“We are paying homage to you, and what will endure from you. Here we are, many of us whom met you and knew you celebrating life, and now a departure,” Lorca said.  

Gerardo López, a former editor in chief of La Opinión and current MundoFox editor, said he encouraged  Sierra to cover the police beat with balanced accounts, because he had become a sort of activist for the working classes who often suffered brutality, were abused or wrongfully detained.

“ I told him to include both sides of the story, and let the readers judge. That was our job as journalists, and still is. He was a good crafter of the trade,” López said.

Community leaders also paid respect to Sierra’s work.

“I always saw in José Luis a comrade with lots of respect who knew about many of our problems,” said activist Antonio Rodríguez. “But he also proposed solutions. He always showed solidarity to us.”

As he requested, his body will be cremated, and his ashes would be kept by Joshua, his older son. His brother Jorge said they may also be scattered across the Copper Canyon, or Barrancas de Cobre  in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, or at Yosemite Park in California.

José Luis Sierra married twice, and is survived by his wife Loreta, his sons Joshua and Alejandro, and his daughter Loreta.