La Opinión
La Opinión is a Spanish language daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the six counties of Southern California. With a circulation of 125,624 that reaches 484,695 readers per day as of 2004, it is the largest Spanish language newspaper in the United States and second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles (after The Los Angeles Times).
History
The paper was first founded and published on September 16th, 1926 by Ignacio E. Lozano. The Lozano family emigrated from Mexico to San Antonio, Texas in 1908 where Lozano first founded a Spanish language daily newspaper known as La Prensa in 1913.
With the increase in the Mexican population Los Angeles experienced during the 1920s, Lozano believed he had a strong based for a Spanish newspaper in the growing city and founded La Opinión on September 16th to coincide with Mexico's Independence Day. The Lozano family retained control over both La Prensa and La Opinion until 1959 when La Prensa was sold.
In its early existance La Opinión consisted primarily of news from Mexico to accomedate the reading preferences of its audiance, made up in large part by recently emigrated Mexicans. La Opinión one of the few newspapers to provide comprehensive coverage of the deportations and repatriations of Mexicans during the 1930s as well as the Zoot Suit Riots of the 1940s.
The Lozano's continued to be involved in the operations of the newspaper. Leticia Lozano, the eldest child of Ignacio Lozano's son, worked at La Opinión from 1976 to 1984. Her younger brother, José Ignacio Lozano, was named Assistant Publisher in 1977 and Publisher in 1986. In 2004, José became Vice chairman of ImpreMedia, the parent company of La Opinión. He works together with his sister, Mónica Lozano, who became Publisher of La Opinión.
Today
La Opinion has vastly diversified its coverage from purely Mexican to include the Central American, South American, Cuban, and Puerto Rican populations that have grown in Los Angeles over the last quarter century. It now includes reporting on isseus relevant to a wide variety of Hispanics. In the words of former Publisher Ignacio E. Lozano Jr.: Our mission was no longer to be a Mexican newspaper published in Los Angeles, but an American newspaper that happens to be published in Spanish.
Since 1986, La Opinión's editorial staff has doubled in size and the paper has grown to include bureaus in Sacramento, California Washington, DC and Mexico City. In 1999 and 2000, La Opinión was recognized by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists as the Outstanding Spanish Language Daily Newspaper of the Year.