Latino News Media

Latino news—journalism that is purposefully and strategically created for U.S. residents of Latin American descent—offers a distinct worldview. Whether offered in Spanish, English, or bilin-gually, this journalism creates a world in which Latinos are virtually everywhere: as victims, witnesses, and perpetrators of crime; at all levels of government; in the professions; and in fields and factories. Like other national and regionally distributed U.S. journalism, its ownership is concentrated, and in most cases is not owned by Latinos. Many Spanish-language media carry Mexican-produced content, but most Latino-oriented news today is produced in the United States, with ongoing contributions from Latin America. Latino news weekly tabloids proliferate at the local level, especially throughout the southwestern United States, California, Florida, and urban centers like Chicago and New York.

This type of journalism has expanded as the U.S. Latino population has grown. Latinos are the largest [Page 833]ethnic group in the United States, surpassing African Americans for the first time in 2002. They are the largest minority population in Los Angeles and New York and make up the majority populations of Miami and San Antonio. The growth of the Latino populations has been attributed equally to continuing immigration from Latin America, and a slightly higher than average birth rate.

About two-thirds of Latinos trace their origins to Mexico. Fidel Castro's 1960 revolution in Cuba spurred millions to immigrate to the United States. Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since the 1898 U.S. military victory in the Puerto Rican campaign of the Spanish-American War. Their immigration to the U.S. mainland increased in the 1960s and has remained a constant flow since. The Latin American civil wars of the 1980s prompted yet other flows of immigrants to the United States from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. While these disparate Latino groups have distinct histories and U.S. settlement patterns, in media terms they share one key defining trait, the Spanish language.