Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of stories highlighting Latino Idahoans as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
This isn’t the first rodeo for KTVB en Español talents Hector Mendoza and Brenda Rodriguez.
The two TV reporters met at a station in Eureka, California, in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, when they started a news program in Spanish. That newsroom is where their real-life friendship began. Their comfort with each other is obvious on KTVB’s sleek set, where a teleprompter recently read, “habrá baile, música en vivo y mucho más,” part of a discussion about a First Thursday event in downtown Boise.
“If it’s not us, then who?” Mendoza said of the Spanish program. “Hopefully … we’re going to be that glue or that bridge that will connect one thing to the other.”
KTVB en Español has been available for three years. But in the past year, KTVB has started a twice-weekly show that runs Tuesdays and Fridays on social media and at ktvb.com/espanol .