Article: When it comes to diversity, kids' programming ahead of the curve.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

During Jeff Valdez's youthful days in a Denver housing project, very few events were significant enough to interrupt outdoor playtime with his neighborhood pals.

The serving of lunch? Maybe.

An onslaught of bad weather? Sometimes.

The rare sighting of a Latino character on TV? Absolutely.

"I swear, whenever it happened, my mom would yell out to us and we'd come running into the house because it was such a shock," Valdez recalls. "Then we'd just sit there staring at the screen and going, `Oh wow!' It was a validation of yourself."

These days, Valdez strives to assure that such televisual validity is more common and meaningful. ...

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