La Prensa ("The Press") was an American Spanish-language daily newspaper based in San Antonio, Texas, USA, that ran from February 13, 1913, to May 29, 1959, under the Lozano family, then until January 31, 1963, under successive owners.
History of La Prensa
La Prensa was founded on February 13, 1913, in San Antonio as a weekly newspaper by Ignacio Eugenio Lozano, Sr. (1886–1953), a prominent exile of Mexico, native of Nuevo Leon, and supporter of Porfirio Diaz leading up to, and throughout the Mexican Revolution. Nine days later, Mexico's President Francisco I. Madero was assassinated. The era was coincident with a large influx of Mexican exiles in America who had fled after a series of revolutionary-related civil unrest. La Prensa, according to historian Richard Griswold del Castillo, PhD, had two missions: (i) to serve as the voice of the Mexican exile community and (ii) to defend and represent the views of the wealthy Mexican exiles who favored Diaz. La Prensa's editorials strongly challenged Mexican public policy. The upshot was that its editorial positions mirrored the political ideologies of Lozano.
From 1913 to 1954, La Prensa was the leading Spanish-language newspaper circulating in South Texas. For many years, it was the most widely circulated Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and had an international readership. During its first two decades, it covered topics pertinent to exiles of the Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to 1930. The lifespan of La Prensa covered eras of World War I, the decline of organized labor in the U.S. during the 1920s, the rise in the U.S. stock market between 1924 and 1929, the Great Crash, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and the Great Depression that followed, the New Deal, World War II, and the emergence of the U.S. as a superpower. Yet through all that, in contrast to mainstream newspapers in the U.S., La Prensa devoted considerable coverage to matters relating to Mexico, and was the leading publication in opposition to the Mexican Revolution. For mainstream U.S. newspapers, matters in Europe were more important than matters in Mexico, which positioned La Prensa in an elevated role as a prime-source for important news involving Mexico.
La Prensa was also a leading voice for Mexican culture, which at the time, was a renaissance of literature, film, visual arts (including muralism), and music (including Carlos Chávez). For Mexico, it was a vibrant period, and yet one of economic challenges and public policy shifts.
La Prensa's domestic and international readership peaked during the Mexican Revolution, due largely to its position as the leading U.S. publication covering Mexico; and, unlike the print media of Mexico, La Prensa was free to print news and editorials of its choosing. In the 1920s, Los Angeles surpassed San Antonio as the U.S. city with the largest concentration of Mexicans. In the same decade, La Prensa's largest readership shifted to Los Angeles. On September 16, 1926, (Mexican Independence Day), Lozano launched the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language daily newspaper, La Opinión. As of the current date – 2=mdy — La Opinión is in its year. It is the nation's oldest Mexican-American daily newspaper, the US's largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, and is still directed by the Lozano family. La Opinión is the enduring legacy of La Prensa.
After the Mexican Revolution, another Mexican cultural renaissance flourished, giving more rich material for La Prensa and the two U.S. cities with the largest Mexican and Mexican-American populations. New York, at the time, had a large Spanish-speaking population, but it was not predominately Mexican.
In 1936, following the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War broke-out. La Prensa was an important publication for politically engaged people of Mexico and exiled Mexicans in the U.S. involved in helping integrate Spanish exiles who were fleeing falangism. In 1953, the year that Lozano died, the Cuban Revolution began.
Yet, circulation of La Prensa declined in the late 1950s due to several factors, namely a waning public yearning to restore pre-Mexican Revolution values, a drop in Spanish literacy by writers and readers of newer generations of U.S.-born American citizens of Mexican ancestry, and a desire by newer generations to assimilate and embrace the pop culture of the post-swing and pre-rock-n-roll eras.