Grisel Barajas-Espinoza

Grisel Barajas-Espinoza was an Indianapolis broadcaster and Latino community advocate during the 2010s. She served as the program director for Radio One’s La Grande 105.1 FM, a station highlighting traditional music from Mexico. Alongside her work hosting that station’s popular “El Relajo de la Tarde” program, she hosted a Spanish-language television program on Urban One’s Telemundo Indy. Barajas-Espinoza used her local visibility to promote higher education to Latino youth and to broaden knowledge of Latino culture within the Indianapolis region.

The second-youngest of five sisters, Barajas-Espinoza was born to Salvador Barajas Fernandez and Genoveva Espinoza de Barajas on July 12, 1988, in Guadalajara, Mexico. The family moved to Chicago in 1998, and to Indianapolis in 1999. She attended Nora Elementary School (see Nora) as a fifth grader and graduated from North Central High School in 2006. Barajas-Espinoza graduated from the University of Southern Indiana (USI) in 2010 with degrees in social work and Spanish, before earning a master’s degree in communications and media studies from the same institution.

She began her radio career in Evansville, Indiana, in 2013. There, she produced and hosted a Spanglish radio show called “Soul & Salsa” on WEOA’s Magic 98.5 FM, that mixed Spanish- and English-language music with lessons for non-Latino listeners on Spanish phrases and Latin American culture. Barajas-Espinoza came to Indianapolis in March 2017 to become the promotions director and a radio host for the Continental Radio Broadcast Group’s Radio Latina 107.1 FM. Early the next year, she helped establish Radio One’s La Grande 105.1 FM. where she became its first program director and hosted a Spanish-language segment called “El Relajo de la Tarde,” (Relaxation in the Afternoon). The program also reached listeners on Radio One’s Radio Now Houston 92.1 FM. Between music segments she reflected on her family’s immigrant experience, talked about issues affecting the city’s Latino community, and advocated for improved support networks for newly arrived Latinos in Indianapolis. She was also a news reporter for Telemundo Indy.

Barajas-Espinoza was actively involved with many Latino organizations in Indianapolis. In 2017, she became the education and communications director of the Indiana Latino Institute. She used this platform to encourage Latino high school students to pursue post-secondary education and to help college students find appropriate internships.

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barajas-Espinoza worked with Indianapolis organizations such as the Indiana Latino Expo, La Plaza Inc., Project Azul, and the United Way of Central Indiana to circulate safety information within the region’s Latino population. That work was cut short when Barajas-Espinoza died in a motorcycle accident on June 14, 2020.

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