Raoul A. Cortez was a Mexican-American media executive, best remembered for founding KCOR, the first full-time Spanish radio and television network in the United States, in 1946.
But how much do you know about his family before his death? In this write-up, We will bring you details of Raoul A. Cortez children for you to know about Raoul A. Cortez Son Raoul Jr. and Raoul Cortez daughters, Rosamaria Toscano and Irma Nicolas.
Who is Raoul A. Cortez?
Raoul A. Cortez was born in 1905 in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, one of nine siblings. His father owned a radio station in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. As a young man, Cortez sold eggs on the streets to earn money for airtime on local radio stations, where he would produce a variety hour in which he sold advertising.
In the 1910s, the family emigrated to the United States, soon after the start of the Mexican Revolution. Cortez eventually settled in San Antonio, Texas, where he took on a number of different jobs, such as dressing windows for Penner’s men’s store and working as a sales representative for Pearl Brewery.
He got his start in media working as a reporter for La Prensa, a San Antonio–based Spanish-language daily newspaper. His aim was to earn money to buy air time on local radio station KMAC and once more produce his own Spanish language variety hour and sell the advertising time for his shows.
Who are Raoul A. Cortez Children?
Raoul A. Cortez had three children in total before his death, his children consist of one male child and two females. Raoul A. Cortez’s son is known as Raoul Cortez Jr. while Raoul Cortez’s daughters are Rosamaria Cortez and Irma Cortez.
The three children were born to his then wife Genoveva Valdés Cortez who he spent a long period with as a partner and were still together until his death on December 17, 1971, in San Antonio, Texas.
A Look Into Raoul A. Cortez’s Career Before His Death.
In 1944, Cortez applied for a license to open his own radio station. To get around wartime restrictions on foreign language media, he stated that part of the station’s purpose was to mobilize the Mexican-American community behind the war effort. The license was granted to him, and he eventually opened KCOR 1350 AM in San Antonio in 1946, the first all Spanish-language radio station owned and operated by a Hispanic, using the signature line “La Voz Mexicana, the Voice of Mexican Americans.”
At that time, radio stations east of the Mississippi River had to start their four-letter identification codes with ‘W’, and stations west of the Mississippi with ‘K’. The following three letters came from Cortez’s surname, making KCOR.
Cortez served in various leadership roles with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a leading national organization which fought for the civil rights of Mexican Americans.
He served as director for District 15, which included San Antonio, and led the organization for two consecutive terms as president in 1948 and 1949, during which he oversaw the Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District case, marking the end of segregation against Mexican Americans in Texas public schools. Cortez was active in helping the wider community of citizens in South Texas, including raising funds to help victims of the 1954 floods in the Rio Grande Valley. He also worked with Mexican President Miguel Aleman and U.S. President Harry S. Truman to ameliorate the plight of Mexican immigrant workers, through the bi-national “Bracero Program”.
