After 39 years of publishing La Prensa San Diego, founded and run by the Muñoz family, the time has come to turn over the reins.  Ownership of La Prensa has been turned over to Art Castañares, who will ensure its continued publication.

On one hand, I wish I could say it was a hard decision. But in fact, it was inevitable and therefore an easy decision.

In 1976, when my father Daniel L. Muñoz started the publication, the goal was to provide a voice for the Chicano/Hispanic community. A voice was needed to express the pain felt by the community when politics caused adverse effects. At the same time, La Prensa provided an outlet for voices in the fight for self-determination.

The paper was an outgrowth of a newsletter from the political organization, the Spanish Speaking Political Association, which my father was one of the founders. A part of the organization was the newsletter ‘Tezozomoc Speaks’. The newsletter grew to the point where it became obvious that a regional newspaper was needed for Hispanics.

The ‘Tezozomoc Speaks’ newsletter became ‘La Prensa San Diego’.

In the beginning, La Prensa was a community operated venture. Like all good Chicano happenings, the first thing they did was to hold a party introducing the new publication, even though they had not yet printed a single copy.

Following the party, the business of putting out a publication began. In November 1976, the first edition of La Prensa San Diego hit the streets. It was a modest effort.

The paper was not created by journalists. Instead it was created by community activist who wanted change.

“La Prensa San Diego was born out of the desire to provide a vehicle of communication for the large community of Mexican-Americans-Latinos that call the San Diego borderlands home.’

“The goal, to create a medium of communication that understands the language, the culture, the subtle nuances of the Mexican-American existence, and — more importantly — their needs.” Daniel L. Muñoz

With the November 1, 1976 publication, La Prensa started a 39 year journey, publishing every Friday.

The first ten years of publication was a struggle. La Prensa was one of only about 45 Hispanic publications in all of the United States and we believe it was the only bilingual publication. Back then there was no such thing as a Hispanic market, or ad agencies that focused on the Hispanic market like you see today. Everything we did and everything we tried was breaking new ground for bilingual publications.

For Dan Sr., it was indeed a struggle. It would become a question of making a mortgage payment or putting that money into the newspaper. For him and his wife, Lydia, the paper and its goals were too important to give up. They would sell the house.

We worked hard and long. We would work late into the night, not only working on La Prensa but we made ourselves available to others for graphics work, typesetting, whatever we could do to make extra money to pump back into the paper. I remember working until 2 sometimes 3 in the morning doing what it takes to survive.

And survive we did! But it wasn’t the money made that sustained us, it was the response that we received from the community. The publication was never about making money, though we did believe that we could and would make money. It was about the community and the community responded positively to what we were doing. They believed in our efforts and that our intent had their best interests at heart, always!

As noted earlier, La Prensa was a bilingual publication for very specific reasons. Our audience was the Chicano/Mexican-American community that lived, worked, studied, played, and most importantly voted. That was the audience we wanted to reach and this audience was bilingual. At the same time the power structure was dominated by the white Anglo-Saxons and they needed to know about our community and the only way to reach them was in English.

In a nutshell this was La Prensa San Diego.

We have often been asked, that after all these years of publication, have we succeeded? What are our victories? These are difficult questions to answer. First, we are not alone in this effort. To succeed or to realize a “victory” takes a whole community moving forward toward a goal. We were and are just one part of this community moving forward. We can enjoy the realization of success but we cannot take any more credit than the next man or woman, only the satisfaction that indeed there has been change over the years and that we were a part of that change.

Secondly, in regards to victories, it is a case of a glass being half-empty. For example, since 1976 one of our main focuses has been education. We have seen changes over the years, from the days when there was no such thing as bilingual education, nor were there many Hispanic educators in the classroom. Since those days education has changed to reflect changes in those areas along with many other changes. However, 39 years later, the education system is still failing our Hispanic students and they continue to be at the bottom when it comes to graduation rates and college success.

Often times we take a look back at the issues of 1976 and reflect that the issues back then are the same issues we face today. Subtle changes have occurred, but basically we face many of the same challenges.

For La Prensa San Diego, the question now was about moving forward into the future. I took over the newspaper from my father more or less fifteen years ago. At first, he moved toward retirement, but then we mourned his sudden death.

For me, two issues have come front and center. First it became harder and harder to keep up the everyday energy and enthusiasm needed to do a good job after 39 years.

Secondly, social media and all that it is comprised of is beyond me, something about teaching an old dog new tricks. La Prensa can and should be taking better advantage of this new media.

And, lastly it came down to a question of the longevity of the publication. If I don’t turn the paper over to a younger, more enthusiastic individual, the paper will cease when I do retire. Without the sale of the paper, I would have retired in two years or thereabouts.

My intent is to see that La Prensa San Diego continues on into the future.

Art Castañares is the new publisher of La Prensa San Diego. He will take the paper and shape it into the vision that he believes is in the best interest of the paper and the community.

I initially stated that it was an easy decision to make because it was the right decision, but that will not diminish the fact that I will miss the newspaper. I will probably cringe now and then as I watch new changes come about, but most of all I will miss the readers. I appreciate the fact that every week you the readers have taken the time to pick up a copy of the publication and read what we have had to say. I know that you probably didn’t agree with some of our positions, but I believe you appreciated the honest attempt to provide you with the news and ideas that reflected the best interests of our community.

With that, it is time to say Adios!

Daniel H. Muñoz, Jr.
Editor