On this episode of Banking on KC, Joe Arce, publisher and founder of KC Hispanic News, joins host Kelly Scanlon to reflect on his decades in media and his mission to give Kansas City’s Hispanic community a platform for their stories, voices, and culture—while inspiring the next generation of Latino journalists to carry on that work.
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Joe Arce Transcript
Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. As Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close, we're featuring one of the leaders who has shaped Kansas City's Hispanic community. Joe RC Joe is the publisher of KC Hispanic News, and for decades he's been a steadfast voice in the Hispanic community, mentoring young journalists helping launch scholarship programs and using the power of media to highlight Hispanic businesses.
Culture and everyday heroes. On this episode, Joe reflects on his journey in journalism, including his stint as a reporter at WDA Ftv Fox. Four. The impact of giving voice to a community and why preserving and promoting Hispanic heritage has been his life's work. Welcome Joe.
Joe Arce: Thank you for having me.
Kelly Scanlon: We're absolutely excited to be able to tell your story.
You tell everybody else's story, so now you know we're gonna, we're gonna do that for you. Let's talk first about KC Hispanic News. What did you see in Kansas City's Hispanic community, the West side, when you launched? The paper several decades ago now. And how has that mission evolved over nearly three decades of publishing?
Joe Arce: We're celebrating our 29th anniversary September the 16th, of which coincides with expanding Heritage month. And you know, we're excited about that serving and being supported by all the readers in Kansas City and. The folks that we've interviewed over the years been an incredible ride.
Kelly Scanlon: How much of the Hispanic population is your readership?
Joe Arce: Well, you know, the Kansas City area is about a hundred thousand plus of Hispanics, and we are a metro wide newspaper covering both Kansas and Missouri. And we also are on. Facebook, we're also on our website so we're in the thousands and thousands of readers on a, on a daily basis. And the nice thing about it's that you can go anytime to our archives if you miss a story and you can uh, read a story that you might've missed as well.
Uh, it's been exciting at the same time. We've grown a lot over the last 29 years. One of the reasons that I started the newspaper back in 19. 1996 was the fact that news operations, just mainstream news operations were not covering or doing well, covering the Latino community. And we had the same issues.
We have the, the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly in our communities. And I wanted to be that vehicle to report the good, the bad, and sometimes the ugly, as I say, simply because of the fact that it's important that we. Learn from the our community, what their expectations is in terms of, uh. Coverage that they would like to see.
I, when I first started, I had a reporter ask me is there enough Hispanic news in Kansas City for you to start this newspaper? And lemme tell you, there is a lot of news to be covered in Kansas City and when I was in television, I remember from time to time I would have to argue with management. To cover a story in the Latino community.
They said to me at one time, well go ahead and cover that if you have the time, but we really want you to cover this story. Right.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. Do that in your spare time. Yeah.
Joe Arce: Yeah. So if you got the time, go ahead and cover it. And I, and I did, and sometimes my stories were at the beginning where? At the bottom of the, the newscast.
But I got that story in
Kelly Scanlon: You did. Yeah.
Joe Arce: And then eventually they worked up to the second and, and, and third section of a newscast. And sometimes I led with the story as well. Just like my interview with the, with with the Richard Nixon.
Kelly Scanlon: Oh, yes. I read about that. I, I mean, y yeah. You were supposed to go get B-roll, if I remember.
And you came back with interview.
Joe Arce: Exactly. I love that term by the word B-roll. That's good. Yes, I sure did. And I was just fortunate. But as I mentioned to you earlier, you know, I pulled a Sam Donaldson and uh. I had a secret service on me and they were upset, but, but I, I, they were, I got the interview, but the thing of it was I only had a holler at the, at the former president and he came towards me, and so I was able to get my question in.
Kelly Scanlon: That's a great story. Um, let me just backtrack and say, first of all, congratulations on 29 years. Thank, thank you. In parentheses days, that is a real feat. So, so congratulations on the staying power. And along those lines, how is the Casey Hispanic News different
Joe Arce: that we do a lot of in-depth reporting. We covered a lot of local news whether it be a school board story, whether it be a city hall, the police department, or whether it be maybe a special occasion for a family.
Um, one of the major roles I believe we played was when COVID hit. Community and folks were looking for information and they needed it in both languages. Uh, because some folks could not read the English version, but they could turn right away and, and, and go to the Spanish version. And that was so important and we had to keep.
Updating, you know, we took, so to speak, a bath when it came to advertising because at that time, yes, a lot of companies were, were pulling back. They were, and we had to continue to provide information because every time we turned around someone was dying from COVID or they were getting ill from COVID.
So we wanted to make sure that we had that information available to them. Unfortunately, a, a close friend of mine, um. Her name was Olivia Lopez. Her son died at the beginning of COVID. And I covered that story. And this is when it was so heartfelt that I, I felt that we're not gonna skip an issue. This is how important it's to this community.
So we did that.
Kelly Scanlon: You bring up something that I was thinking about as I was preparing to talk with you today, and that is. Your relationship to the individuals in the Hispanic community. I mean, you're immersed in the Hispanic community and you cover it as well, and many of these people are your friends, and so that distinction between being a reporter and being a friend has to collide At times.
Joe Arce: They do, but I, I have to be professional about that. Mm-hmm. When I see that there's a, an issue like that, that comes up, I may have to separate. Mm-hmm. There was a situation, I'm sure you, you're aware of it, where Lisa Galvin, I had done a story on her. She had called me like maybe a couple of months before she passed.
She asked me if I would do a story on her because she wanted for her father to know why she loved mariachi music, and her father was a mariachi performer. And I wasn under the impression that she wanted to share this story because her, her father was getting up in age and she wasn't sure if he was going to be around.
And she wanted to, wanted him to know how she really felt about what he taught her about Latino music, Mexican music, and mariachi. Well, lo and behold, she died. Yes. And that, that really touched me because I was under the impression that was gonna be maybe a, a something that she wanted for her father before he passed.
Right. And so, uh. There's a lot of heartfelt stories in our community, and we dig into that. We also have written so much about kidney disease, heart disease and, and we do indepth pieces. This is one of the things that I, as the publisher and owner of the paper, I take a lot of pride in. The fact that we provide so much information that sometimes these stories can go a little longer than we really want them to, but the information is so important.
So I feel as though I had a couple of my reporters over the years ask me, how many words do you want on a story? I said don't worry about words. Mm-hmm. I'll, I'll worry about the words. Tell me the story, write the story, and I'll, I'll deal with the space. Yeah.
Kelly Scanlon: Like I said, you are also very involved in the community and just an example of that was about 20 years ago you partnered with the University of Central Missouri to establish the Caesar East Chavez Scholarship, and today it awards $15,000 to.
Four students, and that's every year. Uh, since its inception, the scholarship program, I believe, has awarded more than a half a million dollars, but it started at a $10,000 award. And so it's progressed up to 60 now per year. So why did you start it and what kind of outcomes have you seen from it?
Joe Arce: We started it through a partnership with the University of Central Missouri through their president, and they were wanting to outreach into the Latino community.
They wanted to grow their population, the student population there at the university. And they came to me and asked me, what can we do to grow our population? And I said, invest in our community. And Howard, do you wanna go about that? I says, create a scholarship. Create a scholarship in the name of Cesar Chavez.
They immediately said. This is a great idea. Let's move forward and over the years. We've been blessed to continue this partnership. We're now, I believe, 22 years. This particular scholarship is so special because for many of the Hispanic students had this scholarship not be available. They may not have been at the university.
They may not have that diploma. So this is why it's so important.
Kelly Scanlon: What is the criteria? I mean, I think of Cesar Chavez's quote about the end of all education should be serviced to others. And, and so I'm curious, is the eligibility criteria centered around that?
Joe Arce: We look for students that can relate to Cesar Chavez and some of the students.
To be honest with you, a lot of the younger students, they have no clue who Cesar Chavez was. And what he stood for and the fact that he's an American hero. So we want them to write an essay. And believe it or not, we want them to, to, to go online. They can get the information from there because we want that for them to get educated about who this man was and what he stood for.
And a lot of times when they write their essay, they can relate to the life of Cesar Chavez because some of those students are actually living that same life. Yes.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah, that's a good point.
Joe Arce: Another issue in dealing with Hispanic community was the parents. They don't wanna let go. They don't want their child to leave the, the area or the neighborhood.
They prefer for them to go to school here locally. And, but it's a, it's a good experience for the students to, they're only an hour away from Kansas City, and so sometimes I've had to knock on a door visit with the parents to convince them that this is a really good opportunity for their child. And four years later, the parent comes back and says, thank you very much.
And I appreciate that.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, well, of course they would. And the university evidently appreciates it too, because if I remember right, you were bestowed an honorary degree,.
Joe Arce: A doctor's degree in, in 2017.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. Well that's, that's wonderful. You've been involved in so many different boards, committees, and like I said, so many much civic involvement.
But you founded the Hispanic Media Association and you helped launch the Latino Summer Fest. Mm-hmm. And that was all to help mentor young journalists, not just students broadly, but. Young journalist inter race scholarship funds. Talk with us about that.
Joe Arce: And I witnessed with my own eyes that there were not a lot of people that looked like me in television.
And I looked at the other television stations that was the same case, and people were not aware of the job opportunities within the media field, whether you can write or maybe some people thought, no, I can't be in front of a camera. I don't know how to do this. And they didn't know where to begin. And I felt the need that we needed to provide.
A scholarship for those that maybe wanna consider going into the field of broadcasting whether it be or go to print or even become an engineer at a television station, right? So we wanted to provide the funds for that, and over the 17 years, we raised a half a million dollars.
Kelly Scanlon: That's incredible. Yeah.
So, so you have been touching lots of lives and one in particular that it's been a while since the story ran, there was a young man named Primitivo Garcia, who many years, I think it was late sixties, he saved his pregnant English teacher outside Westport High School when she was being assaulted and he was killed and.
Many years later, you created a two-part Fox, four story and let the broader public know kinda behind the scenes what happened and more about this young man so much came out of that Governor Warren Hearns named him an honorary citizen of the state and declared December 1st. Uh, in his honor, Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awarded him a Carnegie medal and many people including.
Members of his own family credit you and the news coverage for all those honors and an elementary school that still exists was named for him. What was it about that story that so many years later you decided to go back and revisit that?
Joe Arce: His brother came to me. His name was Raul Garcia, and Raul knew I was in television, and he asked me to just mention the fact that his brother had been gone 25 years already.
I said, well, let me look into this a little bit more. Let me spend some time researching. And so I took the family back to Westport High School. I asked them to show me where this happened, right on the sidewalk, right outside of Westport High School. They pointed out the areas and what have you. We learned some things.
We learned that he was with his brother Alfredo, and Alfredo was just as much of a hero as Primitivo Garcia was. But he did not wanna take anything away from his brother who had died. And so he made the ultimate sacrifice. So he said nothing. He didn't want any credit for it, but we knew that he was also a, a hero because the victim.
I told me that and I reported that. She says, oh no, I give credit to both Primitivo Garcia and Alfredo Garcia. They saved my life.
Kelly Scanlon: So, so the story lives on and in the Hispanic community, he became someone inspirational, someone to look up to, and, and made, made the community very, very proud. You also co-founded and chaired the Latino advocacy task force at Matti Rhodes after Violence touched your own family.
Talk with us about that and. What results stand out to you today? From that,
Joe Arce: we did not have a go-to agency talking about the Hispanic community, the agencies that are out there, whether it be Parkway, whether it be Samuel Rogers, Guadalupe Center, and others, no one had the expertise to deal with a family that's just lost someone due to a, to violence drive-by shooting and what have you, and also be able to be bilingual.
Mm, mm-hmm. And so I visited with several of the local agencies and no one was providing that service. They were referring them to other agencies. And I said, no, we need to do something within our own community provide that Spanish. Part as well. And so I visited extensively with the director at that time, John Firo.
And uh, we came up with a plan to create the Latino advocacy task force to be able to provide services to the community, to a family, because a lot of times. Spanish speaking people. They don't have many resources. They don't, they're not, sometimes they're not connected to the community. So we needed to connect them to, to those services.
Sometimes families, you know, and I've dealt with this for the last 20 some odd years, some families within families would say, well, you know, your child's gone. You need to move on. And, and it sounds a little cold, but it does. But, but at the same time though, what they needed was just, um. Some, some services to help them get beyond that.
We've been doing this now for some 20 some odd years, a as well, success stories have come out of that where people are able now to, to, to not necessarily move on their life. When you lose a child or you never move on with your life ever again, it, it, it, it'll change you forever and especially through, through violence as well.
So this is why we have that available now to Kansas City, no matter where you live at in the, in the metropolitan area.
Kelly Scanlon: So talk to us about your 50 years in media. Uh, you've obviously used your platform to elevate Hispanic businesses, cultural institutions. What changes have you seen in Kansas City's mainstream coverage as a result of your efforts of that broadening of perspective?
Have you seen much change?
Joe Arce: I have, and it's positive. Today when I turned on a television center and watch a newscast, I see Hispanic stories. I see Hispanic anchors, I see Hispanic reporters. And whether it be in television, whether it be in radio, KCU r is another great example as well. And we have sports writers, Steven St.
John, so we're seeing a lot of Hispanics and, and, and the beauty of this is that because they're Hispanic. They can go into a Hispanic community as well and they can relate. Yes. And, and most, a lot of them are bilingual too. Then that really goes a long way and people trust them. I had a reporter that was not Hispanic and uh, I remember when she first started, her name was Deborah DeCoster.
She passed away about five years ago. I missed her even today, but when she first started, she says to me, Joe. Do you think that the Hispanic community's gonna trust me? You know, I, I don't know. And I says, the only thing you have to do is do your job. And they'll trust you. I says, you don't have to be Hispanic to report in the Hispanic community.
You know, and they loved her. Her home was in the Kansas City, Kansas in the Turner area, and she covered the Kansas area, Missouri area as well. And great reporter. Solid. And we missed her even today.
Kelly Scanlon: Looking across your career journey from WDAF, Fox four being a photojournalist to publisher now, a mentor, a community leader, well respected voice, is there a single story that best captures your why?
Why you have spent your life doing what you do? And then a follow up question to that is, how would you like the next generation of Latino journalists to carry that purpose forward?
Joe Arce: You know. I didn't do this alone. Um, I had, I had help along the way, and one of my mentors was a person by the name of Mike McDonald at BOS four.
He was the news director. He offered me so many different opportunities to report supported me. And when I left back in 1997, and I started this paper in 1996, he asked me not to leave. And he asked me to stay. I stayed for another year. He asked me to go to Washington to cover President Clinton's second inauguration, and I said, you know, Mike, you can find someone else to do this.
I don't have to be the one going. He wanted me to go, so I stayed. And I, he wanted me to stay as long as I wanted stay. I, but I could only, I, I did it for another year. Yeah. But it, you know, to, to a certain degree, it was a little bit of a conflict of interest because people were confused. If I was doing a story for my newspaper or for television, I could see
Kelly Scanlon: that.
Sure.
Joe Arce: You know, so, but I, I really have I just so much appreciation for the opportunity that Mike McDonald gave me all these years. And so what I see now and, and in the future. I see more Hispanic reporters covering news and effort before there's so much news to cover. And sometimes I feel like a, the lonely soldier out there because I, you know, I see all these great stories and I wish television and radio would come out and cover them along with me.
'cause these are stories that need to be told. The, also, I want to think, one thing that you didn't ask me, but I wanna share with you, I also had a situation, a personal situation, about three years ago, and that was that my daughter had also caught COVID. Mm. Mm-hmm. And she's a first responder. She's a police officer.
Okay. And I had a friend of mine call me and says, Joe, we would like to do something for you. We would like to do a fundraiser for you and your family. And he wanted a yes or no immediately, and I could've give him that answer. And I had to think long and hard about that. And I called a friend of mine and uh, the reason I called her was because she had lost a son.
And and I was about to lose a daughter. She says, Joe, you need to humble yourself. 'cause this is not about you. The community wants to do something for you. You've done so much for them. They wanna do something for you. And you don't know what your daughter's gonna need. You should allow them to do it.
So after that conversation, I went ahead and gave the okay to do the fundraiser. And my wife was so appreciative and my daughter Rachel, we were all appreciative of how this community responded to me. I'm used to covering news. I'm not used to being the news.
Kelly Scanlon: Right, right. And, and that is, that is hard for anyone to sometimes get their arms around.
That's used to doing for people to be. Gracious is one word you could use and, and to let people help you. Uh, 'cause sometimes that's what they need.
Joe Arce: As you said, during the fundraiser, my daughter sent a message. She sent a picture thanking everyone, and she came so close to dying that we had to bring in a priest
Kelly Scanlon: Oh, wow.
Joe Arce: To give her her last rights. Um, and I mean, to me it's just, it was like as though it was yesterday, but to see her today back at work, back with the police department, Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, and she loves her job and I, you know, I just love the fact that she's there. She's a miracle. And my daughter, Rachel, my.
We're just so happy that she's still with us.
Kelly Scanlon: Oh, that's a great story. Joe. I'm so happy for you. Joe, thank you so much for coming on, sharing your story, spreading the words, the broader community about the stories in the Hispanic community. It's been your lifelong work. Thank you for doing that and, and just the ways you've touched so many people.
We appreciate it.
Joe Arce: Thank you very much.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, regional leader. Thank you to Joe RC of KC Hispanic News for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC for nearly three decades. Joe has given Kansas City's Hispanic community a powerful voice through KC Hispanic News. He's chronicled stories of resilience and pride, highlighted local heroes, and helped preserve the culture and history that shape our city.
Beyond journalism, Joe's leadership has created scholarships, mentoring programs, and advocacy initiatives that continue to open doors for future generations. At Country Club Bank, we share Joe's belief that lasting progress starts with a local commitment. By supporting leaders and organizations that strengthen our neighborhoods, we're helping ensure Kansas City remains a place where opportunity and community can grow together.
Thanks for tuning in this week. We're Banking on You, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, a division of FNBO, member FDIC.