How the editor and publisher of The Latino Spirit spends his weekend
Between making calls with interpreters and video editors, translating stories, and finding food donations for the Latino community, media entrepreneur Diego Maya still finds time to join a soccer team of men in their mid-50s, spend time with his family, and do the laundry on weekends.
Editor’s note: This is the first of bimonthly series, titled “Finally, it’s the weekend,” that chronicles community and ethnic media journalists and media representatives in New Jersey and how they spend their weekends.
Two weeks ago, Diego Maya was on the 5th floor of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Austin, Texas, attending the Independent News Sustainability Summit, when he spotted a group of journalists he knew across the hall walking towards him.
The journalists joined Maya and one of them introduced himself as a former New York Times reporter. Then he asked the question that Maya would often struggle to answer: “Can you tell me about what you do?”
More often than not, Maya isn’t comfortable introducing himself as a journalist. He is worried that he may rankle journalists if he identifies as one of them. That is partly because of his old-school notion that journalism is sacred and advertising is profane — and Maya does both at the same time for his news outlet, The Latino Spirit, rather than keeping them apart.
“Kleibeel [Marcano, a longtime friend and editor-in-chief of Reporte Hispano] is an editor, a reporter. He’s a journalist, I am not,” Maya said. “I am a media and social entrepreneur.”
But Maya, who was born in Cali, Colombia and raised in New Jersey since he was 12 years old, shoots and edits short videos, writes, translates stories, interviews elected officials and New Jersey residents — all the same tasks that any journalist would describe what they do, with only slight variations based on language and subject matter.
Because of his unique approach to news and information — blending news with live Spanish-language interpretation and ads from state and city agencies and using digital and social media platforms differently than most media practitioners — Maya has been able to serve his community and make a profit for his news outlet.
Dirty laundry matters
I have three kids — Grace, Paloma Nico — and a home full of responsibilities. A weekend for me, typically, involves spending some time with my children and doing the chores that one cannot do during the week.
On Saturdays, I ask my children to hand me over their dirty clothes so I can take them downstairs to our laundry room, so we can begin separating the clothes and washing them by colors. As a business owner, I have to work seven days a week — but I also need to do my job as a parent seven days a week.
So, I need my mornings to attend meetings in different parts of the state.
Showing them the ropes
As I travel around the state — to Paterson, Camden, Trenton, Lakewood or elsewhere — I take my 16-year-old son, Nico, with me. He is currently in high school, but I’d like to show him around so he learns some of the things that I do, and that includes food drives.
As a social entrepreneur, I work with several volunteers to gather funds and purchase food from food banks to distribute to inner cities, particularly those areas with a high concentration of Latinos.
Family bonding
On Saturday afternoons, I generally go out and eat with my son. That’s when we discuss some of his school activities and the things that keep him busy. Then we go home together and I check the clothes that are waiting for me at the laundry so I can start drying them.
By the time I am done with all these tasks at the end of the day, I’m really tired and mentally drained, so I have to lie down in bed.
Hard stop at 9:00 pm
Sometimes I have to check my email one last time just to make sure nothing has happened, or check my phone to see if someone has called me.
There’s always something going on: the interpretation for a state official’s message isn’t clear, a story needs to be translated, or our social media platform needs to be updated with new content.
But I have to go to bed at 9:00 pm, especially when I’m dead tired, or else I will miss that window and I won’t be able to get any sleep.
Soccer games for the middle-aged
I wake up at 5:00 am on Sundays, which gives me more time to organize my clothes and my room. Then I wake my kids up for church and we all attend the 7:00 am Mass. Then I have my own soccer game to go to. Believe it or not, I am part of a soccer league that consists of men in their mid-50s. I never thought that I’d be doing that until I got a call from my college buddies, who asked me to join the team.
The game takes up much of my Sunday morning and then I go back to being a parent and a husband. We all go out, drive around or do some hiking somewhere in Princeton, Lambertville, or sometimes West New York. My children’s mother, Bianca, who was born in Slovakia, and I talk to our fifth, sixth, and 11th graders and catch up with what’s going on in our kids’ lives.
Don’t forget to dry the laundry
Before Sunday is over, the clothes are already dry and I have to take them out of the dryer and fold them. And folding—I’m sure everyone can relate — takes a lot of time.
Of course, my childen help me with the cleaning, folding, and other household chores. But, like me, she has a busy schedule working for the Mercer County government. But folding clothes gives me more time to think and reflect on what I need to do for my media business and to organize my meetings for the coming week.
And it reminds me how grateful I am for my work, my family, and everything that I have.
Anthony “Oni” Advincula is the ethnic and community media coordinator at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact him at advinculaa@montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.
