La Democracia (newspaper)

La Democracia
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Luis Munoz Rivera
Founder(s) Luis Muñoz Rivera
Editor Americo Marin[1]
Luis Muñoz Marin[2]
Founded 1 July 1890[3]
Political alignment Liberal
Language Spanish
Ceased publication 1948[3]
Headquarters Imprenta "El Vapor"[4]
Calle Cristina
Ponce, Puerto Rico

La Democracia, founded on 1 July 1890, was a news daily published by Luis Muñoz Rivera in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It crusaded for Puerto Rican self-government.[5] At a publication length of 58 years, it was the longest continuously-running Puerto Rican Spanish newspaper of its time, and one of the longest continuously running Puerto Rican newspapers of all time.[6]

History

La Democracia was for many years the official organ of the Liberal Party. It began in Ponce in 1890, as a newspaper with three issues per week, but in May, 1893, it became a daily.[7] After ten years in Ponce, in 1900, it moved to Caguas. In 1904, it moved again, to San Juan.[8] Originally not a daily, it became a daily when Muñoz Rivera imported a Marinori press from the United States.[9] The Marinori press could produce 25,000 copies of a newspaper in one hour.[10]

Coverage

The publication was mostly directed towards politics, but it also included poetry and stories published by Puerto Rican artists. The newspaper brought immediate controversy, which eventually led to Muñoz Rivera's arrest. Protests were organized throughout Puerto Rico and he was released after his father paid 15,000 pesetas as bond. Muñoz Rivera sold his half of the store, in order to raise funds for the publication's establishment.[11]

Among the better known writers and contributors in La Democracia were Carlos del Toro Fernández, Gumersindo Rivas, Mariano Abril, Luis Rodríguez Cabrero, and José A. Negrón Sanjurjo, Rafael Matos Bernier, Antonio R. Barceló, José Coll y Vidal, Alfredo Vargas, José Dávila Ricci, Luis Muñoz Marín, Sebastián Dalmau Canet, Samuel R. Quiñones.[12]

Legacy

La Democracia "laid the groundwork for Ponce's journalistic tradition."[13] The structure where La Democracia was edited and printed still stands in Ponce, on Calle Cristina across from Hotel Melia; a plaque on it identifies it as "site of Imprenta "El Vapor" of Luis Munoz Rivera".

Other Ponce-based papers

See also

References

  1. ↑ Socorro Giron. Ponce, el teatro La Perla, y La Campana de la Almudaina. 1992. p. 277.
  2. ↑ Luis Muñoz Marin. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  3. 1 2 About La democracia. (Ponce, P.R.) 1890-1948. Library of Congress. Chronicling America: Historic American newspapers. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  4. ↑ Socorro Giron. Ponce, el teatro La Perla, y La Campana de la Almudaina. 1992. p. 277.
  5. ↑ La Democracia. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  6. ↑ Caminata Guiada: Centro Histórico de Ponce. Municipio Autonomo de Ponce. March 2011. Page 3.
  7. ↑ Socorro Giron. Ponce, el teatro La Perla, y La Campana de la Almudaina. 1992. p. 277.
  8. ↑ Puerto Rico in the Great Depression: Cultural Life (Originally from: Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquén. Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, Federal Writers Project. The University Society, Inc., New York. 1940.) Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  9. ↑ XIX_CIUDADES_PRINCIPALES.pdf El libro de Puerto Rico: Capitulo XIX: Ciudades Principales: Ponce: Breve Sipnosis Historica, by Juan Braschi. E. Fernandez Garcia, editor. Francis W. Hoadley & Eugenio Astol, co-editors. San Juan, Puerto Rico: El Libro Azul Publishing Company. 1923. Page 1067. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  10. ↑ An Impressionist at the Paris Exposition. The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 42. No. 253. November, 1878. p.595. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  11. ↑ Luis Muñoz Rivera. El Patriota. Puerto Rico 1924. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  12. ↑ Luis Muñoz Rivera. Proyecto Salon Hogar. Biografias de Puerto Rico. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  13. ↑ Municipalities / Ponce: Founding and History. Archived 29 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Encyclopedia Puerto Rico. Retrieved 23 September 2012.

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