Pre-Hispanic. Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, Anasazi, Pueblo and Navajo develop their own languages and systems of reporting information using the media of braided knots, petroglyphs, paintings on bark, pictographs and poetry.
1492. Spaniards arrive and learn to use the languages of the indigenous people to conquer, convert and enslave.
1530s. First printing press in the Americas arrives in Mexico City from Spain, more that 100 years before the first press arrives in the English colonies.
1541. The first printed news story in America, the hoja volante (flying page) reports on an earthquake that destroyed Guatemala City. Written by Notary Public Juan Rodríguez and edited in Mexico.
1808. El Misisipi in New Orleans is the first U.S.-based newspaper serving Spanish-speaking readers in the United States.
1806. La Gaceta de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico’s first newspaper, established.
1813. El Mexicano and La Gaceta de Tejas, devoted to Mexico’s independence from Spain, are established in Texas.
1824. Cuban exile Félix Varela founds El Habanero in Philadelphia as a political, scientific and literary newspaper advocating Cuban independence from Spain.
1828. El Mensajero Semanal and El Mercurio de Nueva York are founded as exile newspapers in New York.
1834. Under Mexican rule, El Crepúsculo de la Libertad is published on New Mexico’s first printing press.
1834. Augustín Zamorano establishes a Mexican government printing press on the West Coast in Monterey, capital of Alta California.
1846-1848. The United States wages war on Mexico that ends in the annexation of the northern half of Mexico.
1855. Francisco Ramírez founds El Clamor Público in Los Angeles.
1870-1890. Spanish-Language newspapers blossom across southwestern territories taken by the U.S. and defend Spanish-speaking people against racist attacks.
1892. Cuban exile José Martí founds La Patria in New York City. The newspaper promotes Cuban and Puerto Rican independence and becomes the leading journal in the propaganda war against Spain.
1904. Sara Estela Ramírez of Laredo, Texas becomes the first Latina publisher. Her newspaper is called Aurora.
1904. Ricardo Flores Magón founds the U.S. edition of Regeneración in San Antonio, Texas, to advocate the overthrow of Mexico’s president Porfirio Díaz.
1908-1920. Many newspapers established that serve Mexican exiles, among these are the Idar family’s La Crónica in Laredo in 1909 and Ignacio Lozano’s La Prensa in San Antonio in 1913.
1913. La Prensa founded in New York City. It continues publication today as El Dario/La Presna making it the longest, continuously running Latino newspaper.
1916-1918. Administration of Woodrow Wilson imposes controls on Spanish-language and other ethnic newspapers during World War I. Ricardo Flores Magon’s Regeneración is closed down.
1920s. Spanish-language radio begins on brokered time purchased from radio station owners. Pedro J. González begins broadcasting in Los Angeles.
1926. La Opinión founded in Los Angeles by Ignacio Lozano Sr.
1940s. Spanish-language and other foreign-language broadcasting come under government censorship during World War II.
1946. Raúl Cortez of San Antonio founds the first full-time U.S.-based Spanish-language radio station, KCOR.
1950s. Rise of full-time Spanish-language radio stations and beginning of Spanish-language television.
1959. Refugees from the Cuban Revolution arrive in the United States and promptly establish an exile press in Miami and the New York-New Jersey area, such El Diario de las Américas.
1961. Mexican Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta begins Spanish International Network (SIN) on a UHF station in San Antonio, Texas, airing television programs produced in Mexico.
1967. La Raza in Los Angeles, Palante in New York and other alternative publications established across the Southwest and the East Coast giving voice to the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements. The Chicano Press Association forms in Albuquerque.
1939. International Broadcasting Company (IBC) founded in El Paso, Texas, to supply Spanish-language programming to U.S. stations.
1968. The Kerner Commission report draws attention to racism in newsroom hiring and coverage.
1960s-70s. Chicano journals, magazines and newsletters are founded, including Francisca Flores’ Carta Editorial.
1970. El Tecolote founded in a San Francisco State La Raza Studies classroom and soon moves to the Mission District where it continues as a bilingual journalism training ground.
1970. Ruben Salazar, a news director of Spanish-language station KMEX and an L.A. Times columnist, is killed by a deputy sheriff while covering the East LA Chicano Moratorium anti-war demonstration. He becomes a modern-day martyr for Hispanic journalism.
1972. California Chicano News Media Association founded in Los Angeles.
1975. Miami Herald launches El Miami Herald, a Spanish-language supplement of the newspaper. It is renamed El Nuevo Herald in 1987.
1978. The American Society of Newspaper Editors adopts a goal of racial parity in newsroom employment by the year 2000 and begins its annual newsroom survey to monitor hiring.
1979. Galavision network launched as the first Spanish-language cable network in the U.S.
1982. National Hispanic Media Professionals Conference held in San Diego, California. National Association of Hispanic Publications established.
1984. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is established and calls for more employment opportunities, for fair treatment and less discrimination on the job, and for a more accurate portrayal of Hispanics by the media.
1987. Univision, a Spanish-language television network, launches a late-night national newscast in Los Angeles with anchor María Elena Salinas. Reliance Capital launches Telemundo.
1990s. Major growth in Latino-focused magazines, Spanish-language radio stations and Spanish-language attached to English-language media.
1994. UNITY ’94 Convention brings together members of the four national journalists of color associations in Atlanta for the largest known gathering of journalists in U.S. history.
2003. Lozano family takes leads in forming ImpreMedia, a network of Spanish-language newspapers across the U.S.
2007. 1,348 Spanish-language newspapers and magazines combined exist in the U.S.
2008-09. Bicentennial year of El Misisipí.