Hola America’s impact in the community over 20 years featured on Hola America News By Jonathan Turner of QuadCities.com Hola America News printed its first issue on Aug. 29, 2000, and is celebrating 20 years as the QuadCities’ bilingual newspaper and a positive force for information, cultural pride and public service throughout the region. “The 20th anniversary of Hola America News is a testament to its hard work and longstanding importance in the media for both Latinos and the community at large,” Nick Salazar, state director for the Iowa chapters of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said recently. “Throughout the years, the young Latino population has been quickly moving away from print media to digital media and away from Spanish media to bilingual media,” he said. “Hola America has shown its resiliency throughout the years by making these adjustments accordingly and while most importantly maintaining its printed media in Spanish to keep our parents and grandparents informed in the Quad-Cities and across Iowa.” “While mainstream, regional, and local media usually portray a narrow view of Latinos on the surface, Hola America, as a news publication by and for Latinos, has covered a broader range of issues, activities, and viewpoints for its audiences providing a complete picture of the Latino community that otherwise would have been ignored or misrepresented,” Salazar said. “Hola America being able to cover a deeper range of issues in the Latino community played an instrumental role in the activism and growth of LULAC in Iowa throughout the years,” he added. “Hola America, in a place of servitude, has helped LULAC elevate the stories and issues from the Latino community that traditional media could not cover.” Juanita Zertuche, president of LULAC Council 5285 (representing Rock Island County), said from the beginning it formed about eight years ago, “Hola was part of helping us with anything we needed.” “Getting our name out in the community, they were always very supportive,” she said, noting Hola had been members of the long established LULAC Council 10 on the Iowa side.
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