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Newspaper El Tucsonense (Tucson, Ariz.) 1915-1957

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About El Tucsonense (Tucson, Ariz.) 1915-1957

Published from 1915 until the early 1960s, El Tucsonense was one of the most influential and longest-running Spanish-language newspapers in Tucson, Arizona, and cultivated a strong reputation in the Mexican and Mexican American community in Southern Arizona. The paper was founded by Francisco S. Moreno, who had worked as a printer at other Tucson newspapers. Moreno, from Sonora, Mexico, was involved in community organizations, such as serving as president of the mutual aid society, Sociedad Mutualista Porfirio Díaz. When Moreno died in 1929, his wife Rosa Elias de Moreno became owner of El Tucsonense. Over the years, the couple’s sons managed the paper with different editors, including Ricardo Fierro, who edited the paper for almost thirty years.

In its inaugural issue, El Tucsonense expressed its goals, in part: “Laboraremos por el mejoramiento de nuestra raza…” (“We will work for the improvement of our race…”). The paper remained “ostensibly dedicated to promoting the Mexican American middle class and furthering its business interests,” and was “noteworthy for developing a sense of Americanism among the Mexico-origin population within the United States” (Nicolas Kanellos, Hispanic Periodicals in the United States, Origins to 1960). Thomas Sheridan wrote in Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson that El Tucsonense was conservative in tone and was “the voice of the city’s Mexican businessmen, who provided most of its advertisements.”

Published for most of the first half of the twentieth century, El Tucsonense carried news about Southern Arizona and Mexico, reporting on the community, politics, and labor issues, and events like the Mexican Revolution. It covered national and international news, from the Bracero Program to both World War I and World War II. The newspaper included poetry and a literary column, arts and theatre news, and in later years, a sports section. In May 1923, El Tucsonense ran a special issue that introduced the new home for the paper, a print shop that was later called Old Pueblo Printers, where the building still stands today. The special issue profiled members of the Mexican American community and ran two articles – “El Tucson de Ayer” and “El Tucson Actual” – about the past and current city of Tucson.

The newspaper had several different masthead designs over the years, initially publishing with a simple title, then using more decorative script and images, such as drawings of San Xavier del Bac, a historic mission near Tucson; saguaro cactus; the sun shining behind the mountains; and an image of a building on the University of Arizona campus. In its last two decades of publication, the masthead incorporated a drawing of its print shop and later a city scene of Tucson’s downtown buildings with the mountains in the background. Throughout its run the paper varied in frequency, first publishing twice weekly from 1915-1919, three times a week from 1919-1933, twice a week from 1933-1956, and then weekly in its final years. A more complete digital archive of El Tucsonense, 1915-1957, is available open access as part of the University of Arizona Libraries’ Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press digital collection.

Research provided by the University of Arizona Libraries.

Provided By: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

About this Newspaper

Title

  • El Tucsonense (Tucson, Ariz.) 1915-1957

Dates of Publication

  • 1915-1957

Created / Published

  • Tucson, Ariz. : Moreno & Cabral, 1915-

Headings

  • -  Hispanic Americans--Newspapers
  • -  Tucson (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Pima County (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Hispanic Americans
  • -  Arizona--Pima County
  • -  Arizona--Tucson
  • -  United States--Arizona--Pima--Tucson

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly,
  • -  Vol. 1, numero. 1 (Marzo 17 de 1915)-
  • -  Ceased 1957.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Latest issue consulted: año 9, vol. XVIII, num. 39 (diciembre 29 de 1923).

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn95060694

OCLC Number

  • 5632297

ISSN Number

  • 2640-7019

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

El Tucsonense Tucson, Ariz. -1957. (Tucson, AZ), Jan. 1 1915. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn95060694/.

APA citation style:

(1915, January 1) El Tucsonense Tucson, Ariz. -1957. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn95060694/.

MLA citation style:

El Tucsonense Tucson, Ariz. -1957. (Tucson, AZ) 1 Jan. 1915. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn95060694/.