Voices in Our Heads
For Ralph De La Cruz, to Write Stories is to be Human
Ralph De La Cruz, his wife Maria Chaves-De La Cruz, their pets, and their home survived the recent Napa-Sonoma fires. The fires raced through Napa and Sonoma County not long after I interviewed Ralph De La Cruz via phone for this podcast. He and his wife are old friends from their days in Long Beach. Ralph was a writer and columnist for the Press-Telegram during the nineties. I was stunned when I heard the news of the fires and feared that our interview would turn into a story about destruction, memories stolen, and lost lives. But, they were lucky. The fire was stopped a half-mile from their home.
Ralph De La Cruz amongst some of the fire damage in Sonoma County
Ralph De La Cruz was born in Havana, Cuba and immigrated with his parents to the United States in 1962. For 30 years, he has worked as a reporter and columnist in south Texas, south Florida and southern California. Ralph recently retired from the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News to focus on writing screenplays and books. He is currently writing a book about Cuba called, Tears of The Virgin.
Ralph De La Cruz is Human
Ralph wants us to know that he’s human. When I asked him to describe his personality, his reply was simple.
“I hope they see me as being human, as being somebody being very much like them and who have gone through a lot of same experiences and who they can relate to if they were given the opportunity to be in very unique situations like I have.”
For example, fleeing at an early age from your homeland. Not just any homeland but Cuba after the Revolution and the ascent of Fidel Castro. Or the time you witnessed the execution of a serial murderer which was welcomed by many but you wonder how it might affect your views on capital punishment. For Ralph De la Cruz, writing about these events and all the others in his life was about sharing very human emotions with readers.
“When I wrote, I always tried to imagine somebody, like yourself, sitting across a breakfast table from me having a café con leche and discussing something that has happened or is happening in our world and trying to make sense of it”
He was grateful for the job that he had as a reporter-columnist because a lot of people wanted to be heard and Ralph was able to share those voices as a storyteller.
Ralph De La Cruz is a storyteller
…that immerses himself and the reader or listener in the reality of a moment. Although he was 4 or 5 at the time, what he remembers most about the flight by boat from Cuba with his parents is the process.
“We had to go through a town, kind of a garrison, and I had to lay on the floor of the car. They acted like a couple of lovers on honeymoon going to the coast which is where we left from.”
He remembers being in a dark cabin, crying, and his mother consoling him saying, “You’re going to see your sister soon.” His sisters had been sent ahead earlier on the famous Freedom Flights from Cuba, 1965 to 1973.
“Those are images you carry the rest of your life and mages that I hope to get across in the book [Tears of The Virgin].”
Writing came early to De La Cruz. He remembers being in second grade and writing a book report and feeling. When his parents went to Parents Night at the school, his teacher read the book report “…as an indication of great writing.” That left an impression.
“I was so pumped and I think from that moment I started valuing the written word.”
Wanting to become a journalist, as an avenue to write, would come later.
“it’s a lot of fun for me and I enjoy expressing and right now, I’m in a good writing mode and I’m pumped but at the same time, it is often work.”
That First Job You Always Remember
The first professional journalism job for Ralph De La Cruz was at a small-town newspaper in Harlingen, Texas, The Valley Morning Star, established in 1911. He was working for a school for abused kids when a friend called him up and told him about a job for a sportswriter. Ralph didn’t have any clippings of his past writing to show the editor so he made a deal with him.
“I told the guy, his name was Tom Drew, I told him ‘Mr. Drew, I tell you what, I’ll come and work for you for free for a week and if you don’t like what I do, we’ll shake hands and I’ll come back from where I came’.”
And the rest is his history. He was so proud of his first story that somewhere in his garage are fifteen copies of the newspaper’s issue. Eventually, they let him move on up to paid work. But, it was a trip to his parents’ house nearby that set him on the journalism course that came to be his career as a columnist.
“All of a sudden, all these images came to me…and the words followed, they just flowed right through me. It was so much that I turned the car around. I drove to the newspaper…I sat down and wrote out what would be one of my first columns and that column ended up winning the first writing prize that newspaper had ever gotten.”
That night, Ralph De La Cruz found his writing voice. It would be a voice that would take him from that small newspaper in Harlingen, Texas to Miami to Long Beach and the Press-Telegram back to Florida and Fort Lauderdale and finally at the Dallas Morning News where he retired to pursue his current writing career. Along the journey, he found time to work for People en Español.
Thirty years and Many Miles Later
…in the business allows one to give advice to the next generation of journalists.
“To become as versatile as possible in things such as computer-assisted investigative reporting. To use the available resources that are out there. And to have above all else have no room above them except integrity. To only bow to integrity…because I think that’s the only thing that will save the profession in these times.”
To Hear More from Ralph De La Cruz
…listen to his podcast interview by clicking above or on Soundcloud
To read the writing of Ralph De La Cruz, read:
Back to old life? Fat chance
