Despite 200 years of service to Spanish-speaking communities, Spanish-language newspapers' contributions to U.S. journalism have been overlooked. Juan Gonzales is founder/editor of El Tecolote newspaper in San Francisco and he is department chair of journalism at City College of San Francisco. This article is adapted from an earlier contribution to the Journalism History Journal.
Historians in the United States have often, consciously or unconsciously, neglected the contributions of ethnic communities in this country. The historical study of North American journalism is no exception. Courses in the history of journalism continue to foster the impression that newspaper publishing was a feat mastered only by Anglos. This is reinforced in the college textbook, "The Press and America" by Edwin Emery, and in the classroom where journalism professors expound on the “glorious” contributions by such men as James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, but generally ignore people who worked at Spanish-language newspapers and the contributions of other journalists of color.
When one explores what Latinos, African American, Asians and Native Americans have accomplished in the field of journalism, one can uncover a rich and extensive history. This is especially true of Latino journalists in the United States.
Within the Spanish-speaking community, newspaper publishing has been an activity that spans 200 years and begins in 1808 with El Misisipi in New Orleans.
But even before the United States staked a claim to the Southwest, Spanish-language journalism existed in the area. El Crespusculo de la Libertad (The Dawn of Liberty) was published in 1835 in Taos, N.M., by a missionary priest named Jose Antonio Martinez. The weekly tabloid championed the rights of Indians and Mexicans, and opposed the practice of giving large land grants to individuals, calling for the sharing of land by all people.
On the eve of the annexation of the northern half of Mexico in 1848, 70 Spanish-language newspapers existed at different times in the area we now know as the U.S. Southwest. Over the next 52 years, until the turn of the century, 500 publications would be founded in cities from coast to coast. The areas with the greatest number of publications during this period were New Mexico Territory (86), followed by New York (122), Texas (107) and California (71).
When the railroad reached New Mexico in 1879, facilitating the delivery of newsprint and supplies, the number of Spanish-language newspaper dramatically increased. By 1891 the publishers had established a press association — La Prensa Asociada Hispano-Americana — to share resources.
In California, newspapers were generally four-page weeklies or semi-weeklies, moderate in tone, regionally oriented and affiliated with political parties. Some were subsidized by federal, state or local government as part of the provisions in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which stated that California was suppose to be a bilingual territory. The subsidies came in the form of contracts to print the laws in Spanish as public notices.
Two dailies did exist for a short time in San Francisco: El Eco del Pacífico (1852-1857) and El Tecolote (1875-1879). A group of political writers known as “Los Tecolotes” were also active in San Francisco.
One of the more notable Spanish-language newspapers in California’s history is El Clamor Público (The Public Outcry) — a forerunner of today’s progressive Latino press. A 17-year-old printer named Francisco Ramirez, who had been Spanish page editor of the Los Angeles Star, founded it in Los Angeles in 1855.
Many of these early newspapers became the public defenders of their communities, exposing discrimination, defending workers rights, and promoting pride in the Spanish language and Latino culture. They explained U.S. laws, urged parents to send their children to school, and helped exiled Latin Americans stay in touch with their homelands. Most of all, they created a public dialogue on issues of importance to the Spanish-speaking community.
Today, there are some 400 Spanish-language newspapers active in barrios throughout the United States. It is evident that these publications and their predecessors are clearly part of the historic fabric of U.S. journalism. It is ironic that over the years little has been said or written about it. No doubt, the study of North American journalism should reflect the diverse society we live in. It is pretty evident that it hasn’t.
