El Tecolote, Beloved Bilingual English/Spanish Newspaper
Literary Dialogs with Nina Serrano Celebrates the 50th Anniversary
I am so excited about this interview on the 50th anniversary El Tecolote, a bilingual English/Spanish newspaper much beloved in the Latinx community of San Francisco, California, because I was around for the beginning! I still remember the thrill 50 years ago of slipping my civil rights story written in English under the door of the first storefront of El Tecolote and the excitement of reading it later in two languages knowing it had 10,000 readers!
The “El Teco” crew are a fun and inspiring group. I spoke with Juan Gonzales, the newspaper’s founding editor, Alexis Terrazas, the current editor-in-chief, and Eva Martinez, past head of Acción Latina, the publisher of the newspaper.
Fifty Years of Publishing a Bilingual Community Newspaper
The success of fifty years of publishing a bilingual community newspaper is remarkable. And doing it twice a month in 10,000 copies is even more remarkable, especially in a time of corporate media domination when so many other newspapers have collapsed. Juan, Alexis and Eva are full of interesting stories and optimistic future plans.
El Tecolote literally means the owl. It also refers to the night train, night bus, and night plane. It is also a metaphor for wisdom. It has taken a lot of wisdom to make the paper last 50 years.
In keeping with the times, the newspaper now also publishes a podcast, Radio Teco. Many of the podcasts are aired on La Raza Chronicles on KPFA 94.1, Tuesdays at 7 pm.
La Raza Chronicles interview about El Tecolote Anniversary
This Literary Dialogs with Nina Serrano interview will be broadcast on Tuesday, July 13 at 7 pm on La Raza Chronicles/ KPFA 94.1 fm.
You can help celebrate the anniversary by contributing to their “50 for 50” campaign where all contributions made before August 24, 2021 will be doubled.
photo courtesy of El Tecolote
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