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Alfredo Santos, 'La Voz de Austin'

What started out as a collection of neighborhood publications (La Voz de Dove Springs, La Voz de Montopolis, La Voz de East Austin) soon merged into a single, bilingual publication devoted to the community it serves with an eye on the past and great expectations for the future. Next to an ad for spiritual card reader Juanita Flores may be an article about the Defend the Honor campaign (which has criticized the absence of Latinos in the new Ken Burns documentary, The War). On another page, an essay by a ninth-grade student who attended the Social Justice Summer School, another project of the newspaper's diligent publisher, Alfredo Santos. To round things out, there's a "Word Power" column, an English/Spanish list of useful vocabulary words to learn and know. "No one can argue in the name of education, that it is better to know less than it is to know more," the Word Power opening reads, which tidily sums up the mission of La Voz de Austin. While its focus is distinctly grassroots, it hits its niche with accuracy and considerably more heart than its larger rivals.

La Voz Newspapers
PO Box 19457, 512/291-9060
www.lavoznewspapers.com