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Host
Edwin Desamour
Guests
Luis Lozada
Ray Collazo
Producers
Abigail Melendez
Eric Melendez
Publish Date
September 15, 2025
The first episode of The Domino Dialogues brings two longtime voices from Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community to the table.
Luis Lozada, who spent four decades behind the camera at WPVI-TV, and Ray Collazo, a longtime radio personality from WDAS, sit down with host Edwin Desamour to talk about the paths that brought them into media and the neighborhoods that shaped them.
Both men arrived in Philadelphia from New York City as young people. What they found here was different. They talk about crossing unfamiliar neighborhoods, navigating racism, and discovering the local institutions that helped Puerto Rican culture take root in the city.
Along the way, the conversation moves easily between memory and humor. Stories about public swimming pools, corner stores, and student protests, give way to reflections on what it meant to be among the first Puerto Rican voices in Philadelphia’s media landscape.
And in true domino table fashion, the conversation takes a turn into food traditions when the group debates an unexpected topic: whether anyone else grew up drinking ponche de malta; malta with eggs.
On Air, In Focus sets the tone for the series. Around the domino table, stories surface that might otherwise remain scattered across generations. Here, they become part of the record.
Topics Discussed
- Migration from New York City to Philadelphia in the 1960s
Puerto Rican representation in Philadelphia media
Ray Collazo’s years on WDAS radio
Luis Lozada’s career at WPVI Channel 6
The Federation of Puerto Rican Students at Temple University
Student activism and the push for open admissions
Growing up Puerto Rican in different cities
Cultural traditions like ponche de malta
About Our Guests
Luis Lozada
Luis Lozada is a retired chief photojournalist who spent forty years documenting Philadelphia through the lens of WPVI-TV. Born in 1951 and raised in Queens, New York, Lozada developed an early interest in photography after receiving his first camera as a child.
After participating in the Upward Bound program, he attended Temple University, where he began pursuing journalism. Lozada started his career at Channel 6 as a production assistant and went on to become one of the station’s most respected visual storytellers, eventually retiring as Chief Photojournalist. Over four decades, his work captured countless moments in the life of the city while helping open doors for Latino journalists in Philadelphia television news.
Ray Collazo
Ray Collazo is a longtime Philadelphia radio personality, educator, and cultural voice whose career helped bring Latin music and Puerto Rican perspectives to local airwaves. Born in 1953 in Humacao, Puerto Rico, Collazo moved to the Bronx as a child before relocating to Philadelphia in the 1960s.
He attended Temple University, where he began working in radio and hosting a salsa program on WRTI. Collazo later became the only Puerto Rican DJ on WDAS, where he spent decades sharing Latin music and culture with audiences across the region. In addition to his radio career, he also served as a teacher in the School District of Philadelphia, continuing his commitment to community and education. Listen to a rare recording of Ray Collazo as a DJ: https://youtu.be/xLW2lQmt1-o?si=9J-VdNhnygUfbXlU
During Episode 1 of The Domino Dialogues, Luis Lozada reflects on student activism at Temple University in the early 1970s. The following articles from The Temple News document protests organized by student groups advocating for educational access, solidarity among minority communities, and responses to national events affecting students of color. These archival pages provide historical context to the movements and moments referenced during the conversation.
Conversations like this one help connect personal memory with the historical record. Through The Domino Dialogues, Somos Society continues building a living archive that preserves the stories of Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community.