La Prensa de Minnesota Looks up Rural Partners

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on February 12, 2008

I am still working on a wrap-up report for our trip to Maltrata, but meanwhile, there are other interesting things happening I would like to post.  I mentioned that I went to Maltrata with a group of parents, kids and the principal of St. Dominic’s Catholic school, but my mission was a bit different, I went to explore the possibility of establishing a community based eco-tourism business.  This part of my report is still in the works, Juan Matus of the Mexican Consulate said they are very interested in what comes out of the trip and in supporting a possible tourism business in the State of Veracruz, where the town of Maltrata is based.  The support from the local government has already been promised and having the Mexican Consulate in St. Paul behind this project will improve its possibilities for success. I will do this part later, for now here is another development in a different front.

Las Thursday February 7th, I had a meeting with Mario Duarte, founder of La Prensa de Minnesota, and Marco Fernandez Landoni, Editorial Director of the Latino Communications Network LLC (the parent company that owns La Prensa and other media outlets such as La Invasora Radio Station).

The purpose of the meeting was to explore a possible partnership with the Northfield News to incorporate a Hispanic/Latino context to the regional news.  Though the conversation was the first of many that may need to be had in order to define what this all means, I see the need for a mass communications tool in our region that addresses the Latino/Hispanic culture, and I hope they set-up some sort of arrangement that can expand this community and the region’s perspectives.

I took a picture of Sam Gett, Jaci Smith both of the Northfield News and Mario and Marco with a frame of the Jesse James Gang in the middle, I was surprised by how much of the James gang history Mario Duarte already knew and since there seem to be no place in Northfield where there isn’t one of this paintings, I figured it was part of my job was to get them used to it right off the track.