Celso Rodriguez

Celso Rodriguez was born and raised in Uvalde, Texas. Twenty-nine days after he turned 17 he entered basic training with the U.S. Air Force. He served four years including 2 ½ years in Germany.

One year after leaving the military he moved to Ohio where he has lived for more than 42 years.

He has a 26-year-old daughter, Raquel

He has been an activist in Toledo’s Latino community for the last 39 years.

First, he worked with La Raza Unida de Ohio as a Field Representative in 1970. A year later he became Director of the Youth Development Program at the Economic Opportunity Planning Association (EOPA), the anti poverty agency in Toledo. In 1974 he became Executive Director of the Guadalupe Community Center, Inc. During his three-year tenure at the community center he increase the agency’s budget five fold and expanded needed services.

After leaving the center in 1977, he went to work for the ABC television affiliate, TV-24, as a Sports and Farm News anchor on an early morning news program. A year later he became a general assignment reporter. His beat was City and County government as well as the state and federal courts. In 1983 he became News Director, a position he held for two years. During this time he was offered a job as an Executive Producer with ABC News in Chicago but he turned it down choosing to remain in Toledo.

In 1987 he went to work for The Blade as a Circulation District Manager. His responsibility was to ensure that newspapers were delivered in a prompt and proper manner to subscribers. During this time he served as Secretary in the union local for six years and attended several national newspaper conventions. He then took early retirement from the Blade in 2000.

During this period of time, he started a radio program in 1989 on WRED 95.7, that lasted for seven years until the station was sold. In 1989 he also co-founded and named La Prensa, a publication still in business.

Eight months before his retirement, he co-founded El Tiempo. The Latino community in Toledo embraces El Tiempo because it provides needed local information and because it focuses on achievement and accomplishment. This is done by design to provide Latino youth with role models as they grow into adulthood.

Volunteer service to the community includes being treasurer of MEChA at the University of Toledo in 1973 when he co-founded and co-chaired the 1st MEChA Scholarship Dance. He co-founded the oldest Mexican Festival in Toledo and served as Chair for three years. He has served on Adelante, Inc. Board of Trustees for ten years including four years as Board Chair. He is co-founder and co-chair of Latino Fest the largest Hispanic festival in the Toledo area. He serves on the University of Toledo President’s Latino Advisory Committee and is co-founder of the Latino Alumni Affliliate. He served on three committees with the Toledo Public Schools. He has served as treasurer and vice-president of the Northwest Ohio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and has been president of VIVA South Toledo Community Development Corporation for six years. He serves on the Crime Stoppers Board of Directors, the Toledo Lucas County Housing Fund Board and the Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. Central Board of Trustees.