Hispanic Archival Collections
Newspapers
Please note that some of our collections have a related oral history from the donor or subject of the collection. Many of these are available online via our Houston Area Digital Archive website.
Below is a list of our Hispanic newspapers in chronological order. Note: These are not always complete runs.
N/A La Prensa (San Antonio) Spanish 1916-1928 RG D 0082 Gaceta Mexicana Spanish 1928 RG 1314 LULAC News English 1932-2012 RG D 0025 Compass Bilingual 1967-1972 RG D 0080 El Sol Bilingual 1968-1991 RG 0945 La Raza Bilingual 1970-1971 RG D 0043 Papel Chicano Bilingual - Mostly English 1970-1973 RG 0944 Con Safos Bilingual - Mostly English 1971 RG D 0027 La Vida Latina Spanish 1971-1979 RG D 0031 La Cronica de Texas Bilingual 1974-1975 RG D 0020 El Mexica Bilingual - Mostly Spanish 1974-2002 RG D 0030 La Grafica Spanish 1976 RG D 0022 La Voz Del Barrio Bilingual 1977-1978 RG D 0021 La Prensa Bilingual 1978 RG 0943 Tejas News English May 14, 1978 RG 1400 La Voz de Houston Spanish 1980-2004 RG 1392 Viva Magazine English 1989-1994 RG 1402 El Dia Spanish 2002 RG 1403 Semana Spanish 2002 RG 1406 La Prensa de Houston Spanish 2002
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Below are historical and biographical details for some of the above publications. RG D 0080 El Sol
El Sol is a Mexican American newspaper that operated from 1966 to 1989 in the Houston area. It was published by several people including Moe Sanchez and Lynn Montgomery. El Sol was aimed at Mexican Americans with an estimated circulation of 17,000 in 1968. El Sol’s objective was to educate Mexican Americans and to address issues of poverty in this community. The topics covered include: general news, social news, politics, and editorials.
El Sol is arranged chronologically. The earliest editions are bound.
Material related to El Sol can be found in the MSS 0352.033 Mexican American Small Collections in folder 7 “Houstonians of Mexican Ancestry.” This folder contains four detailed reports on the living conditions of Houstonians of Mexican Ancestry particularly those who live in “El Barrio”. Report 4 briefly mentions El Sol by including a quote that was taken specifically from one of their issues: “The government can give us opportunity within certain limits,., but in the end it is the individual that will determine if he succeeds or fails. One thing Washington cannot give us is character.” Report 5 includes a history of El Sol and its importance within the Mexican American community
RG D 0043 Papel Chicano
The English-language newspaper Papel Chicano was started in 1970 by a group of Mexican American youth activists in Houston who created the Mexican American Cultural Corporation, an affiliate of the Chicano Press Association. The staff included Johnny Almendarez, Carlos Calbillo, Leo Tanguma, Kris Vasquez, Enrique Perez, Al Duran, and others. Papel Chicano was headquartered in Houston's Magnolia Park subdivision, which had a large Mexican American population. The paper was part of the Chicano Movement, taking a militant political stance. The paper reported on grassroots activism, protested discrimination (from individual incidents to the lack of city services in the barrios), and freely criticized both Anglo politicians and more conservative Mexican American groups.
The major subjects in this newspaper series include: Houston; Mexican American Politics and Community Affairs; the Chicano Movement; the Chicano Moratorium; the Huelga Schools; the Mexican American Youth Organization; the Mexican American Education Council, the Brown Berets, La Raza Unida, and the United Farm Workers movement. This newspaper also highlights some important male figures in the Chicano Movement: Reies Lopez Tijerina, Corky Gonzalez, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and Cesar Chavez.
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Several issues have articles on the local as well as national Chicano Movement, the meaning of a brown/mestizo identity as well as fiesta patrias (patriotic festivals) celebrations, welfare rights and food stamp application information, Chicano studies, Chicana-specific concerns and involvement in the Chicano Movement, immigrants, police brutality, electoral politics, the broader Latino community (Puerto Ricans), and the Native American Civil Rights Movement. Volume 2, Issue 6 is a special reprint of the newspaper El Grito Del Norte, a Chicano Press Association newspaper that was headquartered in New Mexico.
The collection is also preserved via microfilm.
RG D 0027 La Vida Latina
La Vida Latina was a bilingual, Houston publication produced by Johnny P. Hernandez. Columnist Jose M. Falconi presented historical information, linguistic facts and jokes in his column “Falconerias. Guadalupe “Lupe” Quintanilla, professor at the University of Houston, contributed the column “Rinconcito Universitario.” Bishop Patricio Flores also contributed a column to La Vida Latina. La Vida Latina included a section titled “Houston People” where they displayed photos of Hispanic Houstonians. Additionally there existed the column “Nosotras las Mujeres” which featured successful Houston Hispanic women.
This collection is arranged chronologically and contains an incomplete run of La Vida Latina.
RG D 0031 La Cronica de Texas
La Cronica de Texas was a bilingual newspaper from Houston Texas. It is unclear who published it. Based on an anniversary issue it can be inferred that that the newspaper was established on March 7, 1974. La Cronica was operated by three individuals: Frank Gibler (Director Editor), Guillermo Aguayo (General Director), and Manuel Lozano ( President). The newspaper served to inform the Mexican American community on political issues, entertainment, Hispanic events and more.
La Cronica de Texas is housed in one box. This collection is comprised of 5 complete issues (Vol 1 #s 36-40), several issues that are missing pages, and a few loose pages. After issue # 38, the newspaper changes to a larger size of paper and the number of pages is decreased from 12 to 8. One issues of interest features Henry B. Gonzalez attending an event that La Cronica covered, among those who were also at the event include the Mayor of Monterrey, Mexico.
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RG D 0030 La Grafica
La Grafica is a Spanish- language newspaper published in Houston by Jesus G. Olivares. Other members of the publishing staff included Guillermo Aguayo, editor, and Alberto Caballos Lara.
This collection of newspapers contains general news, advertisement and supplements. La Grafica reported the social activities of Hispanic Houstonians including Club Mexico Bello and Club Familias Unidas activities and receptions. The publication included local businesses articles, and advertisements, as well as articles of Mexican and Hispanics Artists. Among the subjects covered on the general news you can find: local, national, and international news, with an emphasis on Mexican and Hispanics politics and politicians. La Grafica also gave special attention to Mexican American sports, like the charreria and charros.
RG D 0022 La Voz Del Barrio
La Voz Del Barrio is a bilingual newspaper that was established by Macario Ramirez. La Voz generally circulated on a monthly basis.. Macario created the newspaper to inform Mexican Americans on political issues, the importance of voting, and the keeping of Mexican culture.
Several editors worked with Ramirez including: Dr. Luis Cardona, Dr. Ricardo Ontivaros, Lucila Willingham, Luis Soliz, Jensy Mcgraw, Gloria Reyes, Raul De Anda, Odalmira García, Luis Delgado, Sam Bell, Eduardo López, Norma Pérez, Yolanda Feores, Janice Beue, and Carlos Calbillo. Several of the aforementioned contirbutors to the newspaper were political and social activists in Houston. After the newspaper shut down, Ramirez went on to establish Casa Ramirez Folk Art Gallery in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. To this day, Ramirez continues to serve his community as a political and social activist. Ramirez received the 2013 Mayor’s Hispanic Heritage Award on October 9, 2013 for his commitment to promoting Mexican art in the Houston community.
This collection is housed in the same box as RG D 0021 (La Prensa). It is arranged in chronological order in accordance with the Volume and Number of issue. There are several copies of each newspaper.
RG D 0021 La Prensa
La Prensa was a local Mexican American, bilingual newspaper printed in Houston, Texas in 1978 over a period of nine months. Under the direction of Fernando De la Vega as its editor, Luis Mier as director, and Rosa Amércia Cotto as assistant director, La Prensa informed Mexican Americans on various subjects including: politics, community activities, entertainment, and religion. La Prensa’s
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distribution center was located in the East End region of Houston next to the Leonard’s department store. La Prensa stopped publishing in November 1978 after several key staff members left to work on other newspapers throughout the area and the country. Ms. Cotto was originally from Central America and worked alongside two other staff writers who also originated outside of Houston. John Peñas was from New York and Orlando Boudini was from Argentina.
Several issues of La Prensa are dedicated to the murder of Jose Campos Torres and the trials associated with him. Torres, a Vietnam War veteran, was arrested at a bar and then murdered by Houston police officers in 1977.
This collection contains a complete run of La Prensa newspaper and is arranged chronologically. It is housed with RG D 0022 La Voz Del Barrio.
RG 1392 Viva Magazine
Publisher/editor Blanca Hernandez originally envisioned Viva Magazine when she took over the organizational newspaper of the Houston Coalition of Hispanic Women and decided to expand it to a wider audience. Launched from her home on September 1, 1989, Blanca did all the work to produce Viva Magazine--from selling ads to writing stories--with the personal mission of dispelling the myth that Latinos were a dormant minority community by spotlighting the many accomplishments of the Hispanics in the greater Houston area.
Viva Magazine’s primarily English-language articles focused on education, community affairs, entertainment, electoral politics, immigration, sports, and businesses. In September, 1990, Blanca agreed to have Viva Magazine distributed in the Houston Post as a Friday supplemental and expanded the readership from 50, 000 to 200,000 by 1991 and to 300,000 by 1993. The contributors to the magazine wrote articles that encompassed moderate to leftist points of view.
The major subjects in this newspaper series include: Houston Latino Politics and Community Affairs; Latino Culture; Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans; Chicano Family Center; KQQK Tejano Radio; Hispanic Police Officers; Multicultual Education and Counseling through the Arts; Houston Area Women’s Center; Talento Bilinque de Houston; LULAC, Latino Learning Center; Tejano Center for Community Concerns; and Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists. The newspaper also highlights important local and national Latino figures: Cesar Chavez; Ninfa Laurenzo; Ben Reyes; Selena; and Raul Marquez. Volume 7, issue 9 has the front cover signed by Tejano musician Freddy Fender.
Several newspapers issues focus on Latino health (AIDS/HIV and Diabetes), Chicano Studies and charter schools, Mexican American cultural celebrations (Dia De Las Madres, Dia de Los Muertos, Cinco de Mayo), NAFTA, and debates about ethnic labels.
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