Over the summer, as I prepared for my role as fall ‘22 managing editor of The Daily Texan, I went down a rabbit hole of reading college newspapers. One day, as I perused the University of Maryland’s Diamondback, I came across their “DBK en Español” section.

I immediately texted every management member of the Texan to ask, “Why don’t we do that?”

So, thank you to the staff at the Diamondback and the Austin American-Statesman, two newsrooms who inspired us to fill this gap in our coverage.

As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end, I am grateful and excited to announce “The Daily Texan en Español,” a new section on our website where we translate important breaking news, political coverage and relevant topics we want to make accessible to a wider audience. 

A heartfelt thank you to Alexa Leon, Lucero Ponce and Alyssa Ramos, the three amazing staff members translating stories for the Texan, and to Franz Bokel, the Texas Language Center translator who aided us in grammar and spelling checks. I cannot thank them enough. They serve as the backbone of this project, and it would not exist without their commitment and effort. They blaze a path for many to follow.

It’s important to note: I am not Hispanic. While I am an immigrant, as a South Asian, I will never know the lived experiences of Hispanic or Latine people. This is all thanks to the Latine staffers who supported this initiative and worked hard to make the project come to life.

New University data taken from the 12th class day of the fall semester shows over a quarter of UT identifies as Hispanic. As of 2021, exactly one-third of the city of Austin identifies as Hispanic. We recognize speaking Spanish and identifying as Hispanic are not synonymous, but Spanish is the second-most spoken language in the Austin community. 

The Daily Texan has been around since 1900, and like many organizations around for a long period of time, we have had our missteps. We failed to accurately and adequately represent many racial and ethnic communities in the past. We hope this initiative will help us better serve our readers.

This is the last week of Hispanic Heritage Month, but the Texan promises to listen, to uplift and celebrate Latine voices all year round. This translation project will serve as one way we can contribute, but we know we still have a long way to go.