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HISTORY
HOWARD HUGHES AND THE DIAZ FAMILY
A great part of the inspiration and philosophy that Victor Diaz and his family developed in the establishment of their businesses in broadcasting and the visual arts originated from the inventor and visionary Howard Hughes.
Over a period of three decades (1960-1990) the Diaz family created two organizations dedicated entirely to the community, the International Institute of Photographic Arts (IIPA) and XLNC1 classical radio station.
Alejandro Diaz, father of Victor Diaz, emigrated from Mexico in 1920 at age 18 to the US. Working as a bracero on the rails of the Holy Railroad Faith, the young Diaz traveled from Texas to Chicago arriving in Hollywood where he found work as a server in the Baltimore Hotel in Los Angeles where millionaire Howard Hughes maintained a private apartment.
One of Alejandro’s duties was to serve food to the private suites of the hotel where personalities were lodged, such as Chat Chaplin who on occasion may drop a tip of $100. Repeatedly Mr. Hughes requested the services of the kitchen, requesting the exclusive assistance of Alejandro Diaz with the intention of having the opportunity to practice his Spanish. Because of this exchange, Alejandro had the opportunity to know and begin a friendship with Mr. Hughes.
Once, during one of these many conversations, Mr. Hughes commented to Alejandro about a revolutionary new invention called the radio whose existence had the potential to serve humanity if it were utilized as an instrument of mass education, especially directed into the hidden pueblos of Mexico where a great percentage of the population was illiterate.
Howard Hughes convinced the young Diaz of the importance of returning to Mexico with all of his savings to undertake the business of beginning a radio station, realizing that in so doing he may be on the cusp of an industry of the future.
Alejandro Diaz, motivated by the recommendations of businessman Howard Hughes, bought his first transmitter in Los Angeles and returned to Mexico in 1936 to establish his first radio station called UVA, which became the precursor of all radio transmission in Mexico.
For twenty years Howard Hughes maintained a friendship with the Diaz family. In a 1949 visit to the Diaz family in the city of Guadalajara, Hughes brought as a gift a 35 millimeter camera with a removable slide roll that was obtained during his travels through the pearl of the West. It was this gift that was the motivation for Alejandro’s son, Victor Diaz, in 1965 to open the first color photography laboratory in Mexico called Prolab.
In 1970 he also established the International Institute of Photographic Arts (IIPA), and subsequently began a forty year collection of great color photographic images printed in Dye Transfer compiling over 2.000 images by world famous color photographers. The history of Howard Hughes and his influence on the Diaz family has been kept alive for three generations as a testament to the enterprising and brilliant exchange of like, visionary minds that have helped to shape the destiny of the visual and media arts in Mexico and the Southern California region.
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