We are Getting Old

Editorial about the 20 Year Anniversary in the February 2024 edition

by Hugo Acosta

Here we go again..! An editorial for another anniversary…! je, je, je…

I lost track of how many times I have written the anniversary editorial for our newspaper… Hmmm… let’s calculate this… I’m pretty sure the first year, I wrote a general editorial (not for anniversary) but for each month of that year, and I probably continued until around May or June 2005… it got so busy, that I stopped doing it monthly… so let’s see 12 or 14 months of editorial when I started the paper in 2004, plus I have to add at least one editorial each year from then… hmmm… assuming I moved the correct amount of balls in my Abacus, we are talking about 33 or 34 editorials… hmmm… I guess that would be not that bad… it could have been more (which for my busy time, I it could have been ‘worse’ – je, je, je), especially if I please my business partner (and girlfriend) Marisol Hernandez, who if it is up to her, I would have to write an individual Editorial, EVERY MONTH…!!! Anyways…

So… like you might already guess… we are celebrating during this month of February 2024, 20 years of existence of the – still – only newspaper in Central New York State.

A few months over 20 years ago this month, I went through some major changes in my life – personally and professionally, changes that in a way made me to come back to my original cultural roots (something that I had abandoned long time ago), where personally – among other things, I needed to relearn back my native language of Spanish, and professionally – also among other things, I decided to go a different direction, from running a ‘Computer Business’ to creating this publication (and you might be able to find more details about my “Crazy Life”, in a ‘Soap Opera’ or a ‘Book’ that I might create in the future – je, je, je).

I don’t have much to say that could be of major importance or prominent significance, with reference to these 20-year Venture that I have had with my partner in life Marisol Hernandez (who actually started to work with me, 10 months after starting the paper). Her and I thought that my editorial content should have high remarks or distinctive features, that has happened during these two decades of publishing a bilingual publication, and I will try to do my best, to mention them here. Let me start by indicating that we both have definitely went through problems, struggles, and difficulties, not only related to our personal life, but also with the business itself, since “Publishing a Newspaper” is NOT a steady trade nor a secure industry.

However, we have also went through good moments and enjoyable challenges, that made us to produce faster, better, and be profitable. We also had many opportunities to meet successful people in our culture (and other cultures), along with interesting friends and Associates, create great relationships with vendors and clients, and discovering many positive issues related to our culture, our people, and how we Latinos are in this country of the United States.

Like everything in life – especially that lasts this long, we had to also go through difficult negative situations and also easy positive moments related to this business. If I have to mention something negative about this venture, it might be probably the experience during the pandemic era in 2020, where we had to be very resourceful to save our business, to the point that we almost did not print the August and September editions of that year. But – like many others, we survived, and we were able to go through that nightmare called… COVID.

We – CNY Latino can also list out several new features that I could be very well considered positive in our business, where we’re able to implement other Hispanic Media Outlets (besides our monthly bilingual newspaper and our weekly Spanish radio shows). For instance, during the pandemic we were kind of force to create a Podcast Show, as another mean to reach the Hispanic population and the Latino Market, which even though started as some kind of hobby, it was until last year, it started to be a very profitable division in our business, providing not only more information to the people of our culture (especially the ‘young’ people), but also another source of income for our company. Additionally, our division of Professional Translation Services has improved with a larger network of consultants that are working for us, and also by being certified in New York State and Federally.

In any event – and hoping not to sound egocentric or self-centered, 20 years for the publication like ours is a very high accomplishment and a huge success, not only because we are a very small business (only 4 employees), not only because we are minority company, not only because we are Latino ethnic group, but also because the newspaper industry in general, has been struggling and failing, for the last 12 or 15 years.

Finally, I could spend a decent amount of space in this publication to thank the many that have directly or indirectly help us to maintain and continue publishing this periodical. Therefore, I’m going to be generic and short (no, I don’t mean a height – je, je, je), by thanking very much the few friends, that have pushed us to do better things in this publication and also in our business, with the ideas, suggestions, and advices to create all the things that will help our community in central New York State. I should also thank – of course, our readers (and now also our audience and viewers from our radio and podcast shows), and everybody else that have contributed and responded to the products and the services we provide. I need to make sure I give a strong thanks to our relatives, not only from Marisol’s part, but also from mine with my two daughters and their new spouses, that have given us both Marisol and I, two new grandsons. And finally – but definitely NOT LAST, I have to personally myself Hugo Acosta, to thank the partner of my business and life partner, Marisol Hernandez, for the many things that she has helped me with, not only with the publication and all the other new Hispanic Media Outlets that we have created, but also with the many issues that I went through in the Business, with my personal life, my health, and many other things, that… only a couple with love can face, repair, resolve, and enjoy… for a long period of time, if not… forever..!