A new publication in the Four Corners region,
El Valle, combines Spanish and English to focus
on Hispanic people.
“We have a real strong
Hispanic community in the Four Corners area and we’re growing,”
says publisher and editor LaVerta Valdez-Johnson. “Not many hear
about us because our events are not covered in local newspapers.”
She estimates that Hispanics make up between 11 and 15 percent of
the population in the Four Corners, the region where Arizona,
Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. “I would like to bring some
pride back to the Hispanic people,” Valdez-Johnson
says.
Elaine Hill, president of the northwest New
Mexico Hispanic Association, says the paper features artists and
entertainers the community never knew existed. El Valle
also focuses on history, with the April issue covering
the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Future
issues of El Valle will investigate pregnancy
rates and breast cancer in the Hispanic population, says
Valdez-Johnson, who hopes to increase the size of the 12-page,
monthly paper and the number of bilingual articles in it as the
current circulation of 4,000 increases. The paper is funded almost
entirely by advertising; subscriptions are $10 per
year.
For more information, write Valdez-Johnson
at P.O. Box 1554, Bloomfield, NM 87413; 505/632-8312; fax:
505/632-7720.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Hispanics have a new voice.
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