LatinX Voices

2Paving the Way

Hispanic Newspapers in the U.S. before World War II

Nicolás Kanellos, Ph.D.

Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies, University of Houston

This chapter is adapted from the book Hispanic Periodicals in the U.S., Origins to 1960: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography, co-written by Nicolás Kanellos and Helvetia Martell.

Throughout the last few centuries, Hispanic communities from coast to coast have supported newspapers of varying sizes and missions—running the gamut from the eight-page weekly, written in Spanish or bilingually, to the highly entrepreneurial large-city daily, written exclusively in Spanish. Since the founding in New Orleans in 1808 of El Misisipí, probably the first Spanish-language newspaper published ...