El Tecolote is a free bilingual, biweekly newspaper published by the nonprofit

Acción Latina Acción Latina is a Latino cultural nonprofit organization founded in 1970, and located in the Mission District at 2958-24th Street, San Francisco, California. They publish El Tecolote bilingual newspaper, lead the Paseo Artístico community ar ...

, and based in San Francisco that covers the

Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...

and the surrounding area for the Latino community. It is the longest running bilingual newspaper that is printed in both English and Spanish in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The newspaper can also be read online daily.

History

El Tecolote can trace its roots to student activism from 1970. The newspaper began as a project in a

La Raza In Mexico, the Spanish expression ('the people'; literally: 'the race') has historically been used to refer to the mixed-race populations (primarily though not always exclusively in the Western Hemisphere), considered as an ethnic or racia ...

Studies class at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

that was created by Juan Gonzales, who wanted to try to channel more Latinos into

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

. The final project of this class was to create a bilingual newspaper in English and Spanish. The founder and first editor was Juan Gonzales. It was first printed and came out on August 24, 1970. It was named El Tecolote, Spanish for "The Owl." Its signature

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

is the wise owl. In 1971 the newspaper moved out of the university and into the Mission District, becoming now part of the community. The paper is published and managed by Accion Latina, a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization that promotes social activities that help empower the Latino community in San Francisco.

Latino community newspaper

The newspaper is written primarily for the Latino community in the Mission District, capturing the everyday life of Latinos, and focusing on local and community affairs that affect them, and covering stories that are often ignored by the

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...

. The paper writes original news stories, telling news from the Latino point of view. Promoting Latino civil rights, helping to create community identity, and writing stories about the culture of the Latino community are some of the goals of the paper. The paper is largely staffed by volunteers, and many college students and young journalists have written for the paper.

Online, social media, and podcasts

The paper has met the challenges of technological change in media by adapting to the digital age by adding a website and now also having

online publication Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, Online magazine, digital magazines, and the development of digital library, digital libraries and cat ...

. The stories that come out in its printed newspaper are picked from the stories that have come from its online publication. And the paper now has a

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page, a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

account, and is on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. On March 1, 2021, the publication launched its podcast, Radio Teco. The digital arm of the long-standing bilingual El Tecolote newspaper, the podcast dives into the rich and nuanced cultural history of Latinx communities across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Episodes are released every Monday, with occasional bonus episodes released throughout the week. The podcast follows the launch of the bilingua
Making of a Candidate/El Camindo del CandidatX
podcast mini-series, which debuted on October 30, 2020.

Coverage and distribution

The paper covers the Mission District and the surrounding areas of

Excelsior Excelsior may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * "Excelsior", an 1877 picture book in verse by Bret Harte, published as an advertisement for the Sa ...

Bernal Heights Bernal Heights ( ) is a residential neighborhood in southeastern San Francisco, California. The prominent Bernal Heights hill overlooks the San Francisco skyline and features a microwave transmission tower. The nearby Sutro Tower can be seen fro ...

, and the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Wi ...

. The paper has thousands of people reading it online, and the paper also distributes 10,000 free copies every two weeks throughout the Mission District and the East Bay by way of restaurants, libraries, clinics and social service centers.

References

External links