By Violet Smale
When perusing the morning paper or turning on the weather report, most Americans don’t think twice about the language in which they receive their news. In a country with no official national language, it is an underrated luxury to receive news in one’s native tongue.
María Marta Guzmán of WBIR in Knoxville, Tennessee, hopes to expand the market. Forty-two million Americans (roughly 12.5% of the total population) speak Spanish as their first language, according to Best Diplomats. An additional 15 million people speak Spanish as a second language. Yet, newsrooms have some catching up to do with these rapidly rising numbers.
Guzmán’s work towards a more inclusive newsroom began at DePaul University, where she founded the Spanish language newspaper La DePaulia in 2020.
“We started La DePaulia because we saw that there was a gap for bilingual coverage in Chicago, there weren’t as many platforms that offered English and Spanish stories. So, a lot of the time, our Spanish audience couldn’t read the news,” Guzmán said.
“Little by little we were able to find our own identity in the newspaper. We covered a lot of Latino-based stories. A lot of stories of what was happening in Little Village, and Pilsen, in Belmont Cragin. . .it was truly special because we were able to do stories of our own community,” said Guzmán. “That’s also very powerful, because a lot of the times when you speak to someone that looks like you, that’s Latino, they tend to open up more, if they are sensitive to sharing a certain story, so you’re able to create that relationship.”
Now in her post-college career, getting a story picked up, says Guzmán, is the greatest challenge of all.
“You can pitch all these great stories and you know why they’re important. And you know why they deserve to be covered. A lot of the time, you need to convince your editor,” Guzmán said. “That takes a lot of pitching, convincing, and telling them why we should cover that story. And a lot of the time, they turn that down.”
Guzmán hopes those looking to break into the multilingual media market won’t be easily discouraged. Having the resilience to continue pitching your story, as well as the drive to pursue the story on your own, are Guzmán’s keys to success.
“If you don’t get the green light from your editors, you yourself are a platform. You can cover that story for your own platform…there’s so many platforms where you’re able to create your own brand and your own platform to tell your stories. If that’s a website, if that’s on Instagram, if that’s on Twitter…so, if you get the ‘no,’ then I would say go through yourself and do that story.”
There is power in bilingual reporting, Guzmán says. She continues her bilingual coverage in Knoxville, where she advocates for Tennessee’s growing Latino population.
“There’s a lot of Latinos in the South, a lot of immigrants in the South. It’s often not talked about, it’s kind of the silent unknown, but it’s huge.” Guzmán said. “If we were to cover bilingual stories, you’re getting stories from two different communities. You’re reaching an audience with two different backgrounds. And so, you’re having a much greater impact, and you’re reaching a much greater crowd.”
Guzmán hopes to see a more diverse industry in the future. A vested interest in multilingual communities could change the news industry for the better by serving a greater population.
“As an industry, we need to do a checkup and think about how we’re investing our resources. A lot of the time, the bilingual coverage is the afterthought. It’s sad because there’s a lot of power in bilingual reporting. If only people were able to see how powerful it could be to a station, because you’re opening up so many doors.”
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