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Editorial

15 Years of Struggle

Por Mariel Fiori
October 2019
Now that the magazine La Voz turns 15 I think it's time for me to confess one thing: when La Voz turned 10, I thought I would not be able to continue with the magazine anymore. I had a very small girl and another baby on the way. I had, and have the responsibility to coordinate a great effort that begins with the idea of ​​bringing a print publication with a very unique content to 500 distribution points in five counties of the Hudson Valley.

Almost everything we do in the magazine is logistics, from distribution and attending events, to diagramming and organizing events. It is also creativity, and business. In the capitalist economy that has been a way of life for the last couple of centuries, money is needed for projects like this to be sustainable.

And money has been something that we have always needed, and obtained, through our sponsors, businesses (as local as us), who rely on this medium to deliver their messages. Yes, we sell advertising, a certain space as chosen in our Media Kit, but we do not sell editorial content spaces, or as it is called in English: "advertorials" or "sponsored content". More than once I had to make what for some may be a difficult decision not to accommodate an advertisement in the magazine, because it did not fit our mission (empowering with information, knowledge is power, remember?); because we don't sell our content to the highest bidder. It was not difficult for me because that, at least, I have very clear. The hard part is the next step: how to get other funds to continue producing La Voz.

The magazine is found online and also through our electronic newsletter. Every day, more and more subscribers are added, not only to the paper version, but to the online version of the magazine as well. Something really very positive. Something also positive is the recognition achieved by exhibitions such as Voces, currently at the Kingston Reher Center (see this month's resource guide for more information) that for the first time puts La Voz magazine  (and the radio show La Voz with Mariel Fiori) as an artistic expression in an exhibition curated by MFA Susie Ximénez. I believe that what Between Spaces does is to call attention to the lack of representation, and the poor representation, of Latinx in the English media. The fact of still existing, of speaking, or, of writing in Spanish, is already a form of resistance. And the fact of doing so with the intention of inspiring others also helps to erase stereotypes about us, Hispanics, or Latinx.

Another way to finance this independent and non-profit project, but which still needs funds to pay for paper, printing, distribution, graphic design, collaborating students, other contributors, full-time staff (two at this time for a publication that reaches more than 30 thousand readers per month), is through donations. Donations that come to us at lavoz.bard.edu/donar, or with grants or from Bard College itself, our home since the beginning of the magazine.

One way that lives up to the middle name of La Voz, Hispanic Culture and news of the Hudson Valley, that is, culture, is to organize fundraising events with a strong cultural aspect. We have had salsa classes, concerts, Latin jazz, art auction and plays in Spanish. And speaking of theater in Spanish, from October 18 to 20, La Voz, along with iD Studio Theater (the same one that last year brought the play, Pedro Infante: Cien años pienso en ti) presents Cumbia de mi corazón, a theater play In Spanish with English subtitles. Tickets cost $ 20 and all proceeds benefit of La Voz. Come all!

If you like what you see, show it! Come with your friends and family to one of Cumbia de mi corazón's presentations in Kingston, Bard or Poughkeepsie (see the central pages for more information). It will be a very good way to support La Voz and the Hispanic artists who work with all their hearts to make us joyful and thoughtful.

Reflection, information, knowledge, empowerment. You are the force that drives us. We continue in the fight!

Mariel Fiori
Managing Editor

 

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La Voz, Cultura y noticias hispanas del Valle de Hudson

 

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