Explore the Chicano Movement history and Pueblo, Colorado news with La Cucaracha News – a digital evolution of a legendary Colorado newspaper.
La Cucaracha News is a website that evolved from La Cucaracha newspaper that began publishing in May 1976. It was started by a group of journalists who first met at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1971. While at CU, the group also founded and published El Diario de la Gente during the summer of 1972. The founders of both publications include Juan and Deborah Espinosa, David Martinez, and Pablo Mora. All four continue to be contributors to La Cucaracha News.
The staff of La Cucaracha was associated with the Chicano Press Association and exchanged photographs and stories with dozens of other associate publications over the years. La Cucaracha was founded on the belief that Chicanos were not accurately represented in the major media and we chose to represent our community by creating our own independent newspaper. Between 1972 and 1983, we developed an extensive archive of photographs, stories from the perspective of El Movimiento Chicano – the Chicano Civil Rights movement.
During that time, we covered many of the most important stories of the times including: the strikes and boycotts organized by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers Union, including the union’s constitutional convention in 1973; Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and the Crusade for Justice including the Denver Police attack on the Crusade in 1973; the American Indian Movement‘s occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973; La Raza Unida Political Party‘s national convention in El Paso, Texas in 1972; the Land Right Council’s efforts to regain the historical rights to the Sangre de Cristo Mexican Land Grant in San Luis, CO; the Puertorican Independence Movement; and numerous other significant events.
After La Cucaracha ceased publication in December 1983, many of the founders continued their journalism careers at other newspapers including The Pueblo Chieftain, and The Denver Post. From those newsrooms, we continued to follow many of the same stories for the next two decades.
In 2014, a special edition of La Cucaracha was published for the 40-year anniversary of the deaths of “Los Seis” – six activists who died in two car bombings in May 1974. It was the first of several special editions until 2022 when we relaunched La Cucaracha as a quarterly published by El Movimiento Sigué – The Movement Continues – a Pueblo nonprofit started by the late Rita J. Martinez.
The relaunch of La Cucaracha abruptly ended in August 2023 when The Pueblo Chieftain press closed its printing operation leaving 70 or more small newspapers without a printer. Rather than look for a new printer in another city, we opted to continue our work online as La Cucaracha News.