Hispanavisión Televisión co-founders, Maria and Ron Bevins, have been married for nearly 50 years. Ron, completing his service in Vietnam after being drafted into the Army, was looking for adventure abroad. Maria had been working as a schoolteacher and had big ambitions. When they met on a sleepy, Mexican beach in 1971, they were married less than a month later.

Maria and Ron have been part of this community for decades. They were first drawn to the Yakima Valley from Western Washington in 1977 after Maria earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington. Maria and Ron moved to Yakima to take advantage of a student loan forgiveness program incentivizing young public service professionals to relocate here.

While Maria embarked on her career with the Yakima School District, Ron started his own business, Central Washington Satellite, selling full-size satellite equipment to local families wanting low-cost television. As cable television grew more popular, and with a burgeoning Hispanic population in Yakima, Ron recognized the need to adapt and followed his instincts to pursue broadcast TV.

Ron founded Hispanavisión Televisión in 1990, growing it into the local fixture it is today. Growing up, Ron’s kids, Nani, Lluvia, Mateo, and Orson each had the opportunity to learn and work in every facet of the business—from editing and production work to billing and sales, in front, and behind the cameras. The business had really become a central part of their family’s life.

Orson was ten years old when his dad started the TV station, and much of his youth was spent learning and discovering the local TV business. After high school, Orson pursued a degree in geography at San Diego State University and entered a career in public service. His experience includes employment at the county of San Diego and several local districts, as well as working for the Quechan Indian Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation. Sharing his father’s desire to continue their family legacy, Orson moved back to Yakima with his family and took over management of Hispanavisión Televisión upon his father’s retirement at the end of 2019. Today, Orson continues the work of the Bevins family and is committed to providing today’s best and most relevant television programming to Spanish-speaking residents in the region.