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Louis Sahagún on the banks of the Los Angeles River.

Christophe Intagliata/NPR

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Christophe Intagliata/NPR

Louis Sahagún on the banks of the Los Angeles River.

Christophe Intagliata/NPR

For California residents, seeing a byline from Louis Sahagún usually meant they were ready to read a story that would teach them something new about their own state.

But the recently retired LA Times reporter didn’t start his 43-year career in the newsroom. Sahagún remembers responding to a job offer for a utility vehicle.

“Well, I heard about a job opening for a utility worker, for a floor sweeper. I got the job, I had worked in factories and dropped out of college academics.”

After sweeping floors for a while, he became an editorial messenger. Then one day he walked into the newspaper editor’s office. As Sahagún recalls,

“His name was Digby Diehl. He said, ‘Louis, what makes you think you could come here and review a book for the LA Times, please?’ And I said, ‘What do you have to lose?'”

After his initial assignment to write a review of the “biggest book on the shelves,” Sahagún produced nearly 200 book reviews for the Times. What followed was a career that followed the growth of a journalist and a city.

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A Los Angeles in full evolution

Sahagún quickly moved to covering the city of Los Angeles – and his journalistic reputation was solidified when he and other Latino journalists at the LA Times won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for their reporting on Latino communities. Americans from East Los Angeles.

He also documented how the town he grew up in changed dramatically to what it is today, with the interests of development and wildlife clashing.

Take for example Sahagún’s chronicle of the LA River. The native Angeleno grew up along one of its tributaries, living on a ranch with farmworker parents. His reporting has described the river’s transformation from a turbulent waterway to a concrete canal as a long history of environmental battles, gentrification and displacement. In fact, his own family was asked to move to allow for improvements to the river’s waterways.

Sahagún says his journey has inspired him to continue searching for stories and topics on the margins. And in recent decades, his reporting has expanded beyond Los Angeles, to more unknown corners of California.

“Because I grew up with working-class Chicano parents. In a weird way, I felt like I was writing dispatches for people like the ones I grew up with. And I was taking them to places I never got to go, (like) the Owens Valley, (or) the remote corners of the Mojave And, you know, my mom and dad (would say), “Hey, I read your story. » ; Hey, man, that was great. » Yeah, yeah, that was the applause I was looking for.”

A look back and a look forward

Sahagún says his childhood memories of being surrounded by nature motivated him in his documentation of modern Los Angeles.

“Throughout my career, 43 years as a journalist, I’ve chased these waning scenes, looking for patches, for vestiges of these memories, for what their fate might be, you know, on the path to development today.”

As for why he chose to retire now?

“It’s just time,” Sahagún said. “There comes a time when I believe in stepping aside. You should just do it. Now, I’m not used to it, I have to admit. But I’m not living on schedule for the first time in 43 years.

To hear more about Sahagún’s epic California legacy, listen to the full episode by hitting the play button at the top of the page.

This episode was produced by Jonaki Mehta and Marc Rivers. It was edited by Christopher Intagliata. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.