by Marvin J Ramirez
From The Editor Marvin J. Ramirez
It was 16 years ago, when San Francisco and the Bay Area communities saw the first edition of The Reporter, as it was called then.
It was all in English, and at that time it had not ocurred to me yet, to produce a bilingual publication. However, because my journalist father didn’t speak English, he suggested that I should make it bilingual. Without telling me why, I kind of thought what was his reason: he wanted his elderly friends at Centro Latino – where he ate lunch and sociolized everyday – and himself, be able to read his son’s journalistic work. He was very proud of me.
Prior to that, when I went to pick up the first edidion at the printer – on 16th Street, and was driving on route to SF State University to distribute it there, I stopped at the intersection of Mission and 26th streets’ traffic light. I saw a group of old friends standing at the door of Barnes Gómez’ Golden Gate Liquors.
The Reporter
There was Gómez and a few of his personal friends chatting. At that moment it ocurred to me to give them a copy of the paper. I got out of the car and brought them a few copies of The Reporter, which, after doing so, I thought of it as a community newspaper. My first idea was to make it a campus paper.
The first edition, as you can see in the graphic, was poorly laid out. I was barely learning my first steps in newspaper design. I was almost two years short from graduating with my Bacherlor’s Degree in Journalism.
I saw a new horizon in my life. I gave my entire life to my new project, to chronicle much of the life of the Latino community within my limitations, of course.
I want to thank everyone of my advertisers for still being with us for these long years. Some have been faithfully supporting this endeavor, this labor of love serving you all.
Every year we ask you all our readers and merchants to place your business card and an ad of your business to congratulate this effort. And we ask you again to help us bring in the funds we need to continue serving you.
