DETROIT (WXYZ) — For the last 30 years, the team at the Latino Press in Southwest Detroit has worked to keep Spanish speakers in our community informed.
The newspaper, which is written 100% in Spanish, covers events happening in South and Central America in addition to events in Michigan. The first issue launched in May 1993.
The owner, Elias Gutierrez, says when he got to the United States from Chile he had no plans of launching a newspaper.
"I needed information and I don’t find no information. Nothing. No print or nothing. So I started a flyer but after the flyer, the printing company asked why don’t you make a newspaper," said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says the paper first launched as a monthly issue and eventually graduated to a weekly paper. At that time the newspaper only had three employees. Today, seven staff members help to write stories and print around 15,000 copies each week. The articles can also be found online.
With so much growth, there were also many challenges.
"When you're coming to this country, you need to understand the culture, economic culture. And (at) this time nobody, no banks would give me loans for my business. So I worked on other things to have money for printing," said Gutierrez. "We didn’t understand totally the laws in accounting so we made many mistakes."
The owner says his favorite part of the job is not the writing. It's the ability to help other immigrants in need.
"We do many events around the year for helping people. We have, in May, a Mother’s Day baby shower. We give a present for almost 40-50 moms," he said. "60% of my Job is in the community, the other part of working the paper. We serve in the community for many other things."
Gutierrez says while he doesn't know what the future holds for the newspaper, he's proud to mark 30 years in the business.
