By Arturo Castañares
Publisher
Today marks my 10th Anniversary with La Prensa San Diego.
I transitioned into journalism after 25 years in politics and government hoping my combination of experience and insight would help me better interpret and deliver breaking news to our community.
I expected it would be hard, but never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined all of the things that have happened during my tenure at the helm of the oldest Latino news outlet in San Diego.
Although La Prensa San Diego was already in its 39th year after launching as a Spanish-language newsletter in 1976, it was still a small community newspaper with a limited following among the general public and broader elected officials but I knew it had the potential for more.
My goal was to help inform the community of important political and social issues that affect our neighborhoods but had gone without much, if any, input from our residents and adequate attention from our leaders.
We hoped that a better-informed community would engage more in politics, in voting, and empower the self-determination that the growing Latino community in San Diego deserves.
As we started writing more about public officials and their actions (or inactions) we began attracting new readers and interactions from concerned residents from within and outside our traditional audience who brought more issues to our attention.
As we expanded our investigative reporting, we found more instances of corruption, violations, and waste by public officials that were going unreported and damaging the public’s trust in our government.
We exposed corrupt and conflicted school officials in San Ysidro and residents soon demanded their resignations. Two Superintendents, one Assistant Superintendent, and three School Board members resigned, with one Superintendent even being sentenced to federal prison for his corrupt acts.
We highlighted the City of San Diego’s purchase of street lights that they claimed were not surveillance cameras but soon were proven to be used surreptitiously by police until they were shut down to develop proper policies and procedures to protect the privacy of residents.
We exposed and successfully sued a secret committee of local fire and police chiefs that had been meeting behind closed doors —in violation of state public agency open meeting laws— to distribute over $250 million in federal funds that local agencies used to purchase armored personnel vehicles, riot gear, and surveillance equipment without any public notice, oversight, or approvals.
We diligently covered the controversial 101 Ash St building scandal, breaking the story that the decision to lease the building came at a meeting inside the Mayor’s office, and later, uncovered and exposed that the City’s broker received undisclosed kickbacks of more than $9.4 million from the landlord that led to him returning the money and pleading guilty to a misdemeanor corruption charge.
We uncovered and exposed illegal activity by a Chula Vista Councilmember and her political consultant brother that led to their indictments by the District Attorney’s office and multiple felony convictions for them both.
We exposed a Chula Vista mayoral candidate for lying about his residency and background when no other media outlet would criticize him for fear of upsetting his wealthy oligarch backers, and we went against the conventional wisdom that he was sure to win the election he eventually lost.
We sued the Chula Vista Police for withholding videos recorded from their drones and became the first lawsuit in the country to enforce the public’s access to records unlawfully shielded as “investigative” when they were not connected to any actual investigation. The case went up to the California Supreme Court twice and set a new legal precedent that will ensure the public has more access to police records to provide more transparency.
And we discovered and leaked the Board of Supervisors’ plan to appoint a politician to lead the County who was wholly unqualified and they appropriately gave up on the ploy after being exposed, saving taxpayers from another political scandal.
Along the way we also exposed a former Mayor for not living in the City while vying for a political appointment, a candidate for City Council who lied about her college education, and a lawyer with a history of domestic abuse who was being considered for an important County post before we exposed his past.
Besides our investigative reporting, we have also highlighted positive stories in our community and spoke up when leaders have fallen short.
My personal editorial Perspectives have drawn attention to important issues like the killing of Angel Hernandez by transit security guards, and criticized powerful leaders like the Mayor, City Attorney, wealthy developers, and even the media when they fell short of protecting and serving the public.
I called out one of the most powerful labor union leaders for using an offensive Spanish-language taunt against the first Latina ever elected to the County Board of Supervisors. No mames!
We opposed powerful incumbent politicians in their elections even when we knew it would be unpopular —and sometimes even against Latino or minority candidates— when we believed their actions or inactions were not in the best interests of our community regardless of their ethnicity.
We stood up when others didn’t and we’ve taken a beating for it —even if it has made me the skunk at the party and drawn the ire of powerful people.
Of course, we expect gripes and take flak from those who have disagreed with our coverage and dislike being the targets of our pens but we take it in stride as a necessary part of the robust public debate protected and encouraged by the First Amendment.
Despite the hits, the rewarding part of the work has been receiving awards and recognition from journalism groups and community leaders who validate and highlight our coverage.
In 2021, I received the prestigious Ruben Salazar Award for Excellence in Print Journalism presented by the Latino Journalists of California. The award was created the year after the Los Angeles Times reporter was killed by police during a peaceful Vietnam War protest in 1970.
In the last two years, we twice won the San Diego Taxpayers’ Association’s annual Media Watchdog Award reflecting our continuing focus on protecting the public’s interests and exposing catastrophic wastes of taxpayer money.
We have also won several awards from our peers in the Society of Professional Journalists, including twice winning their annual First Amendment Award, and their Gloria Penner Award for Political Reporting named in honor of one of my mentors and longtime local news leader.
From Day One I committed that we would not let advertisers, partisan politics, or even friends direct or affect our reporting, leading to criticism from both Democrats and Republicans that we favor one side or the other when we have no reason to cater to either one; that’s simply not our job.
As a matter of fact, our coverage has been rated by Ad Fontes Media as “Middle” on its bias standard and “Reliable” for analysis and fact reporting.
I take this work seriously and risk my reputation —if not my life— to deliver information in an increasingly hostile and divisive environment.
It has been an honor to have a platform worthy of people spending their time reading our content. It is an honor to be even a small part of the media landscape that serves the public.
I want to thank my family, friends, teachers, and mentors, countless journalists who have been supportive, and our readers for trusting us as a source of information.
December 1st will be the 49th Anniversary of La Prensa San Diego and, as we begin our 50th year, we will be focused on expanding our team and our coverage in a build-up to our 50th Anniversary next year. Exciting changes are coming!
Thank you for your time in reading our work. Thank you for your support. And thank you for wanting to be a more informed community.
I remain at your service.
Art
