Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980
Title: Native dance by Spanish-American. Fiesta, Taos, New Mexico. Photographer: Russell Lee (1903-1986). Source: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)
National Hispanic Heritage Month—approved by President Lyndon Johnson and expanded in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan—runs from September 15 to October 15. In addition to providing a special opportunity to celebrate Hispanic culture, Hispanic Heritage Month serves to highlight the long and important presence of Hispanic Americans in North America.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 was created to enable researchers at all levels to explore nearly 200 years of Hispanic American history, culture and daily life. This fully searchable online collection features more than 350 titles published in Spanish and bilingually in Spanish and English. Below is the nameplate and a brief description of 16 key titles found in this renowned resource, created in partnership with the University of Houston and its Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, a national program under the direction of Dr. Nicolás Kanellos.
El Clamor Público (Los Angeles) El Clamor Público (The Public Outcry) created landmark awareness of the poor treatment suffered by Hispanics in California. Founded by 17-year-old Francisco P. Ramírez, who turned the Spanish section of the Los Angeles Star into a separate newspaper, El Clamor Público provided a state-wide focus on injustice and oppression.
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• Includes 103 issues published between 1855 and 1857 El Cosmopolita (Kansas City) El Cosmopolita helped Hispanic Americans in the Midwest maintain their relationship with the Spanish-speaking world while simultaneously supplying vital housing and employment information and defending them from exploitation.
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• Includes 258 issues published between 1914 and 1919
La Crónica (Laredo) One of the most influential papers along the U.S.-Mexican border, La Crónica was published and written entirely by Nicasio Idar and his eight children. The paper provided support for the civic and political projects of Hispanic Texans and helped establish Mexican schools in Texas.
• Includes 100 issues published between 1910 and 1914
Demócrata Fronterizo (Laredo) This Mexican immigrant paper features the writings of Sara Estella Ramírez, a passionate voice for gender and labor issues.
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• Includes 81 issues published between 1917 and 1919
El Heraldo de México (Los Angeles) El Heraldo was hailed as a “people’s newspaper” for its blue-collar profile and focus on immigrant workers.
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• Includes 3,129 issues published between 1917 and 1928
Hispano America (San Francisco) This independent, non-political paper offered immigrants news of their homelands in addition to informing them of the culture and customs of life in the United States. Publisher and editor Julio G. Arce’s syndicated weekly column satirized Hispanic-American culture and helped transform his paper into the most important Hispanic publication in the Bay Area.
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• Includes 459 issues published between 1918 and 1931
Latin Times (Chicago) This post-World War II bilingual title, founded by the children of political refugees, became the voice of a new generation of Hispanic-American citizens.
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• Includes 874 issues published between 1958 and 1975
El Misisipi (New Orleans) In 1808, El Misisipi became the first Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, starting a tradition of Hispanic American periodicals that soon spread across the country.
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• Includes one issue published in 1808
Las Novedades (New York) In the early 20th century, Las Novedades served the interests of a wide range of Spanish speakers, even while Cuba and Puerto Rico were waging wars of independence against Spain and tensions were high.
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• Includes 276 issues published between 1888 and 1918
El Nuevo Mexicano (Santa Fe) The longest running of the nearly 40 Hispanic newspapers that sprung up in New Mexico in the late 19th century, El Nuevo Mexicano strove to strike a balance between cultural preservation and assimilation.
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• Includes 41 issues published between 1890 and 1908
La Prensa (New York) Adapted to meet the needs of Puerto Ricans and other Spanish-speaking nationalities that immigrated to New York City in the 20th century, La Prensa became the nation’s longest-running Spanish-language daily.
• Includes 2,196 issues published between 1919 and 1929
La Prensa (San Antonio) This important 20th-century paper was founded by Ignacio E. Lozano, one of the most powerful political, business and intellectual figures in the Hispanic immigrant community.
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• Includes 17,233 issues published between 1913 and 1959
Pueblos Hispanos (New York) Published by Juan Antonio Corretjer, a Puerto Rican nationalist and an ardent socialist, this significant paper covered politics and culture in the Soviet Union as well as socialist movements in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Peru and Ecuador.
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• Includes 77 issues published between 1943 and 1944
Regeneración (Los Angeles) After the Mexican government prohibited publication of his work, radical journalist Ricardo Flores Magnón emigrated to California and began publishing Regeneración. The paper proved to be one of the most influential advocates for social change in the southwestern United States.
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• Includes 253 issues published between 1910 and 1917
La Revista Católica (Las Vegas, New Mexico) La Revista Católica (The Catholic Magazine) was founded by Italian Jesuit Donato M. Gasparri. The foundation of the Catholic press in New Mexico, La Revista Católica gave the local Mexican community both a voice and the means to parochial education.
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• Includes 363 issues published between 1888 and 1895
Traducción Prensa (Tampa) The only Spanish morning daily in the South in its time, Traducción Prensa advertised itself as an American newspaper published in the Spanish language.
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• Includes 15 issues published between 1941 and 1956
Praise for Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980
“Revealing a rich, multi-faceted heritage and transmitting the pulse of regional communities over time and space, these online newspapers will transform our perception of Latino history for generations to come.”
—Virginia Sánchez Korrol, Ph.D., Historian and Professor Emerita, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
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