Bicentennial
Bicenntenial
In 1808, El Misisipí newspaper was founded in New Orleans in support of the movements for independence from Spain of the emerging Spanish American nations. In 1812, La Gaceta de Texas was founded in Nacogdoches, Texas, as a spearhead for the founding of the first Republic of Texas. In 1824, philosopher-novelist Father Félix Varela founded El Habanero in Philadelphia to militate for independence of Cuba.
From these origins in political activism, the Latino press went on to serve as the intellectual and cultural center of Latino communities from coast to coast.
Newspapers were founded to create a forum for the natives who lived from Florida to California before mainstream American culture was extended to these lands through conquest and purchase of territories. The press grew to accommodate and serve Hispanic immigrant communities from the mid nineteenth century to the present, and as always remained intimately connected to the political and cultural movements in Spain and Spanish America.
Two hundred years later, Latino media are flourishing in new and such transnational forms as satellite television, the Internet and bilingual periodicals.
