When we first applied to Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism — the country’s leading school for the field — we were shocked to see that there was no Hispanic or Latino student publication.
NU boasts more than a dozen student publications and resides in one of the nation’s top 10 metropolitan areas by Hispanic population. That’s when we realized: the opportunity was right here and ours for the taking.
Starting a Spanish language desk at The Daily has been a long time in the making. While the possibility of Spanish language coverage has cycled through newsroom conversations since last year, they ended with the conclusion that The Daily does not have the “audience” for it and it would depart from our “brand.” Building a new section required time, resources and a bilingual team the paper did not have — or, at least, was unable to sustain.
For us, those conversations gained a new meaning when federal immigration agents came to Evanston and the Chicago area through the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz.
At the time, we were enrolled in Medill’s bilingual reporting class, where we covered the immigration crackdown’s impact on local immigrant and Latino communities. Our stories reflected the perseverance and agency of these communities as fear and anxiety surrounded them. Above all, our reporting amplified our personal connection to our community.
From there, we saw avenues for bilingual media everywhere at The Daily. We wanted to expand the accessibility of our local political and event coverage and celebrate the diversity and advocacy of our campus’ Latino community.
We also wanted our translated and original coverage to go beyond the subject of immigration to include the complexity and nuance our community has to offer.
It all came down to the priority to make coverage about us, for us, by us.
El Diario showcases translated stories from our English language news coverage and will feature original reporting in both English and Spanish. Our three-person bilingual editing team at El Diario upholds The Daily’s rigorous editing process and high reporting standards in every translation and story we offer, regardless of the language. We seek to lead and empower a growing team of bilingual reporters and translators to pursue stories our community wants to read and see themselves represented in.
We aren’t the first from our Medill cohort to advocate for bilingual campus media. We were inspired by colleagues who have championed Spanish language reporting across other student publications, including the revival of Noticiero Northwestern, and the publication of Spanish media at WNUR Sports, North by Northwestern and Medill News Service.
Although it has taken The Daily some time to launch this initiative, El Diario is committed to serving the community in a time where our language and culture need more visibility than ever.
Bienvenidos a El Diario.
Marisa Guerra Echeverría is a Medill junior. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Teresa Ayala Leon is a Medill sophomore. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
