Located in San Antonio, Texas, in the Southtown portion of downtown, there stood a television station. That radio shows belonged to KWEX-DT, channel 41, widely known as the first commercially based Spanish-language station in the United States, and considered to be the founding station of the entire Univision network. The station was erected as KCOR-TV in 1955, but was sold and became KWEX-DT. The building is now facing total demolition; 50-60 percent of the building has already been torn down, but the remaining portion of the structure has temporarily been secured by a court order.

The national Latino cultural landmark is half a century old, and onlookers were on location witnessing the old television station being mowed down by bulldozers. Latino activists and preservationists protested the destruction of the two-story brick and plaster building as sledge hammers swung and jackhammers struck at the foundation of the building, but they didn't stop until the police arrived and forced them to take a look at the court order.

"It's a murder of transparency and of citizen participation and about respect for a process. It's abuse and disrespect of the voices of people not even to be heard," says Maria Berriozabal, former city councilwoman and activist.

The TV station KWEX, itself, has moved on to a new location, which apparently is a good thing as the building was "outdated," according to one former contributor to KWEX.

"To be honest, I'm glad the folks at KWEX have new digs. That old building was outdated and probably not very healthy. I imagine some of the stale decades-old cigarette smoke still hovered in the corners; I'm sure some of the air was still laced with the frustration of those years when we were considered second-class journalists," said Victor Landa of News Taco, who said that he worked at the station for nine years throughout the 1980's as a news videographer.

Landa, now a journalist, also added that while it was just "a pile of brick, wood and mortar," that building was the site of innovation, vision and "grit;" and, that ethnic media has been too easily demolished, in a way that is traditionally American.

There is no telling how long the temporary injunction will keep the rest of the building standing, but those on both sides of the matter are expected to appear in court in mid-November.