Leon Krauze Speaks to SMC
Univison KMEX news anchor León Krauze spoke at Santa Monica College on Thursday, March 22 to talk about how knowing as second language helped in his experience in the journalism field.
Krauze was one of many speakers that were a part of the Spring 2018 lecture series organized by Communication and Media department, but this lecture was also sponsored by the Modern Languages department.. Previous speakers included several Marvel and DC comic television writers, as well as Jenny Lorenzo, a popular YouTube personality.
Krauze hosts a segment on Univison KMEX every Wednesday at 6 p.m. entitled La Mesa, which involves a simple table and provides a platform to have conversations with his guests to go in-depth into their lives.
During his lecture, Krauze talked briefly about his experiences interviewing high-profile figures such as former President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders, but he emphasized that it’s the story of those who are not often given a voice that hold a lot of weight.
“As long as we keep the focus wholly on story-telling and we don’t forget the importance of telling the story of the powerless than journalism, at least the journalism that I care about, which is community-oriented journalism, will have a long and healthy life,” Krauze said.
Giving people a voice was a constant theme throughout the lecture. He brought up the musical Hamilton as an example of how the story of Alexander Hamilton went from being forgotten to being the topic of popular discussion.
Afterward, he invited the audience to ask him questions. Audience members asked many questions that included whether Krauze would ever interview President Trump, how important learning Spanish was to increase career possibilities, and the difference between having an opinion and being biased.
Dr. Toni Trives, chair for the Modern Language and Culture department, thought it was a wonderful opportunity for students.
“He did an excellent job as a speaker here on campus and brought a lot of information about how important journalism is in our society and the importance of foreign language,” Trives said.
Students such as Gabriel Gaurano, a film production major, found Krauze to be well-spoken.
“It’s inspiring to hear someone with a different occupation talk about the importance of telling stories, because I do relate to that idea of telling stories of people who might not really get the platform that people usually do,” Gaurano said.
Faculty members such as Sharyn Obsatz from the Journalism department said that several students spoke with her about changing their major.
“You could that he’s a super engaging person as a television personality, but he’s also a very deep person,” Obsatz said.
Krauze has given lectures at places such as USC but found the audience at SMC to be very engaged and said that the message of his lecture was to “make the invisible in our society fully visible.”
“I would say go out and talk to people. We are all in this celebrity-orientated culture, we are all obsessed with celebrities and public figures, but go and talk to the powerless,” Krauze said. “Go and talk to the street vendors, go and talk to the people who are there walking the streets.”