Feliz Cumpleaños NewsTaco

The most exhilarating and terrifying thing about doing something like NewsTaco is that there are no instructions. It wouldn’t have mattered because we’re not the type to read instructions — unless the illustrations are large and self explanatory. There was no such thing at the very beginning, an entire year ago. All we had was an idea, and a big empty space to see if it would work.

This month marks News Taco’s first anniversary. It’s a good time to pause, if only to thank you – if you’re reading this, you know who you are. For your patience, your loyalty, your ideas and for rooting for us — gracias.

Like most ideas that seem to click or resonate, this one was born of need, and frustration. We were frustrated to find that there was no place on the Internets that provided news, information and analysis for Latinos and from a Latino perspective. So we dared ourselves to do it.

Here’s what happened: we found a niche when we weren’t exactly looking for one. We found a space where there was a lack of Latino news, and started shoveling. Then we found that we weren’t alone; that there are many Latinos “out there” who felt the same information vacuum. The feeling is that we’ve got something of real value, but only because of our community. I’ll pilfer wholesale from the known axiom: If News Taco publishes on the internet and no one reads it, is it something?

A year ago it wasn’t more than an idea. Now it’s a growing community. And that’s something.

You encourage us when we’re on a roll, speak up when you think we’re wrong, roll your eyes and laugh when we make jokes that only our community can understand. For that we’re deeply grateful.

I remember when my children first learned to walk. They enthusiastically tried to navigate sharp corners without knowing how to take their speed into account. They’d miss the doorway, hit the wall, plop on their backsides and laugh at their own hilarity. That’s the best way I can describe the joy of something new.

If we have a regret, it’s only one. That our dear brother Carlos Guerra isn’t here to lift a glass with us — or to call us from the jetty in Port Aransas to talk endlessly about News Taco and pretty much anything and everything else. He would have liked what we’ve built. He would have liked you, our readers.

At the very beginning the idea of NewsTaco held us together — that and a sense of instigation and the joy of disruption. A year later there is a deep respect for each other’s talent, a shared vision and the love of the roller coaster day-to-day stuff that comes with doing what we do.

I’m going to make use of personal privilege to thank my fellow News Taqueros. Gilberto Ocañas for keeping us on the track and Sara Inés Calderón for keeping the machine going. Gracias.

To Chelsea McCullough, Elaine Ayo and Renée Saldaña, thank you for your talent and for believing in this little taco of ours.

To all of our contributors and partners, you that fill the NewsTaco spaces with your ideas and energy and words, gracias mil. For your creativity and patience, thank you.

I had breakfast this morning at the last place I shared a taco with Carlitos Guerra. It was morning, I was drinking coffee and the Margarita machine was unplugged. I think I heard him say thank you as well. He would have liked what we’ve done. I know I do.

So here’s a proposition as we start a second year. We’ll keep trying our best, doing what we’re doing, and you’ll keep coming back to help us grow our community. Deal?

[Photo by gusdrinks]

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