Why build a news publication en Español?
It all started as a joke. I was crouching down next to a drawer, organizing files for immigrants who took English language and citizenship classes at a local nonprofit organization in Queens. “Señorita Periodista,” said Martha, the president of the organization, calling out in Spanish for me as “Miss Journalist.” I immediately corrected her. I wasn’t a journalist.
I was 19 and I was there as a community outreach intern. Yes, I was studying communications in college and I could write press releases, but I was by no means a journalist.
For years I had told myself I could never be a journalist because I thought that, as a Colombian woman with a thick accent, I couldn’t dream of doing the kind of groundbreaking investigative reporting I wanted to do; the kind I found hard to read, but with thoughtful use of the language and a serious outlook on the world. The kind of journalism The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and a long list of other publications were doing.
I had lived in New York for just four years, but I had already given up on Spanish language press. I thought those journalists didn’t see me as the educated, well-rounded individual I aspired to be, so why would I read them? They insulted my intelligence, and that of millions of educated Latinos across this country I now called home.
Martha corrected me back. She said I could be the journalist I didn’t see in the media, and that I should do it for people like the ones whose folders I held now in my hands. I saw it differently. I could be the journalist I didn’t see in the media, if and only if I learned to do it in English.
But why do it in English?
Life has twists and turns, and I fell in love with the Spanish language and its complex dynamics. I love the way it has rebelled against and defeated the language expiration dates other languages have encountered throughout immigration cycles in the States. That love doesn’t stop me from seeing one major flaw: The way Spanish-language journalism continues to be practiced across the U.S.
Colonialism, racism, and general neglect of Latino America doesn’t make Spanish a pressing matter for people who can live in two languages. But we have to start seeing Spanish as a skill, that should be nourished, celebrated and taken to the next level.
Historically, the media have served to educate and broaden people’s knowledge and vocabulary. The decay — or lack of growth — in Spanish-language media is worrisome if we see it as the only thing that actually defines and connects Latinos throughout the United States.
This brings me to today. I am part of the Tow Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism because I aim to launch a news platform in Spanish for people in Queens. I want to create, experiment, and push forward Spanish-language media through journalism that respects their readers — no matter if Spanish is their first language, or if they live in-between Spanish and English.
I want to do journalism is Spanish because… why not?
