Hoy is a Spanish-language daily newspaper whose staff, former general manager Julian Posada tells me, conducts its meetings in English. That might strike you as ironic, but all it means is that Hoy is created for a market—Chicago’s unacculturated Latinos—its creators don’t happen to be part of.
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There’s an argot particular to new publications courting advertisers, and Café publicity indulges in it. The magazine announces it “will deliver culturally relevant content, generated for Latinos living in the Chicago area. It reflects the richness and duality of Chicago’s contemporary Hispanic community.” Its readers will be inspired “to live the richest life possible, both at home and in the workplace; to relish the infinite cultural offerings of our great city and suburbs; and to continually learn about topics that matter to them and their extended families.”
The interesting word in all that is duality. During a conversation in their northwest-side home, Posada and Santana described three sets of Latinos, and two will not be Café‘s market. The largest is the Hoy audience, the smallest the Latino “elite,” and each, they acknowledge, is a group with concerns about fitting in. Café is targeting the “middle band”—acculturated but not assimilated Latinos, comfortable in their American skin but determined to remember where they’re from. “We’re fiercely proud of our cultural heritage,” Posada explains.
“My mom told me, ‘You should read it in Spanish.’ I said, ‘Yeah, mom. I know.’” But Posada has tried to read it as Márquez wrote it, and it was a slog.
Its success may hinge on the strength of Posada and Santana’s assumptions. One of them is that language disappears more quickly than culture, and that what Santana calls the “slow erosion” of culture is something even Latinos who have lost their Spanish want to resist. Another is that cultural differences that fundamentally divide immigrants—say, Colombians from Puerto Ricans—diminish to bridgeable “nuances” in subsequent generations. A third is that there are cultural fundamentals all Latinos share, such as a commitment to the extended family.
