It’s hard to believe that La Comunidad News has been a giant part of Dane County’s Latino community for 25 years.
To celebrate that, La Comunidad News has announced that it will host a 25th Anniversary Celebration to recognize a quarter-century of local community journalism and commitment to the Latino community in Dane County on Saturday, Oct. 8, 5:30-p.m.-midnight, at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus.
“I may have a few less hairs than when we started but overall it’s been such a wonderful experience,” Dante Viscarra, consultant publisher of La Comunidad News, tells Madison365. “Overall, it’s been an amazing 25 years.”
“I remember first sitting down with my dad [Rafael Viscarra, publisher of La Comunidad News,] and he asked me, ‘How does our community participate in our Democratic system? How are they getting informed? How are they staying on top of the issues?’” Viscarra adds. “This was back when we just had 1,500 Latinos here and the community was small. You’d see [Latinos] once in a while at West Towne Mall, but not like today. We had two soccer teams back then. Now we have more than 80 soccer teams. That shows you how much the Latino population has grown during that time.”
The Viscarras set out to provide the Madison-area Latino population with a publication that connects them to their own culture, celebrates traditional Latino holidays, honors successful community members, and connects people to their community.
“We wanted to provide them with news that has a direct impact on their lives with a local flavor,” Viscarra remembers. “That was the idea behind it. Looking back, we’ve followed that vision and mission pretty close.”
The Latino population has exploded in Madison and Dane County over the last few decades. Quite a contrast from how Viscarra remembers those early days 25 years ago. “I remember there being a lot of Cubans and, of course, folks from Mexico. They were just families back then – the Avila family, the Barrientos family,” he remembers. “Now, in 2016, we have so many communities from so many different Latino countries. [We have] associations with memberships in the thousands from Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, and more. It’s amazing to see how much the Latino community has grown.
“The Mexican population is still the biggest and you’re seeing people from 15-20 different regions of Mexico here in Madison now,” he adds. “Twenty-five years later, we are more diverse within our own community with our cultures, languages, and dialects.”
Journalism has also changed quite a bit over that quarter-century with the rise of the Internet and social media.
“People will say that print is dead, but I just think that it’s a change in technology and whoever didn’t embrace that, didn’t make it. You have to be at the vanguard of what’s happening in the tech world,” Viscarra says. “There’s a lot of positive things in this new digital era we are living in. I can’t think of a better time to be a journalist or an entrepreneur and look forward to what is coming ahead. I’d like to see more Latino kids getting involved in the field.”
The La Comunidad 25th Anniversary Celebration will take on Saturday, Oct. 8, 5:30-midnight, at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and will feature a live performance from a Madison favorite, Grupo Candela, a banquet dinner, Kizomba dance lesson, a dance competition and dance performances from local salsa, bachata and tango dancers.
In addition to celebrating its rich history, the newspaper will announce upcoming changes that showcase its commitment to moving forward with the community that it serves.
“This newspaper really has been a labor of love for me for so many years. Our family is really proud of the La Comunidad,” Viscarra says. “It’s going to be a really fun event. Grupo Candela will be playing. It will be an exciting celebration of 25 years.”
To purchase a ticket for La Comunidad News’ 25th Anniversary Celebration, click here.
