Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.
Gage Forster
San Diego, CA
How the demise of The Union-Tribune’s Spanish-language edition impacts San Diego Latinos
Latino journalists and news industry observers say Alden Global Capital’s quiet cancellation of The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Spanish-language weekly is a blow to the region’s second largest population at a critical time.
They argue the end of The Union-Tribune en Español comes in an era when more Spanish-language media is needed, not less, as the nation gears up for local, state and federal elections this year.
“It’s especially important during an election year for a publication to have information in both languages,” said Hiram Soto, former staffer and columnist of the U-T en Español when it was called Enlace. “(The closure) generates a gap in information that leads to less informed voters and leads to less engaged voters. It’s just really a slap in the face of the community.”
The Union-Tribune published its final edition of the U-T en Español on Dec. 30, marking the end of a nearly 25-year run in which the newspaper published a Spanish-language edition. Two reporters and an editor were let go as a result, according to sources within the organization.
Neither the Union-Tribune nor Alden, the private equity firm that bought the newspaper last year, issued a statement on the decision. Both ignored requests for comment from KPBS.
No numbers are available on the circulation of the U-T en Español, but it served a county where 35% of 3 million residents are Latino and 150,000 cross the border with Mexico each day. The Spanish-language edition began in 2000 and was widely read by Latinos from all walks of life, Soto said. He added that it was viewed as a public service and an attempt at inclusivity.
“Before this publication, the Union Tribune’s coverage of immigrant communities, of Latino communities, of border communities, were very centered on crime and drug trafficking,” Soto said. “When this publication opened, it broadened it to cover the arts, community leaders. It uplifted people that were doing real change in the community. It focused a lot on social issues impacting the community every day.”
News industry watchers say they are not surprised at the decision by Alden, which has a track record of making deep cuts to newspapers after purchasing them.
“They seem to have very relatively little interest in having anything more than sort of the bare minimum of a newspaper that will appeal to loyal forever readers,” said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for the Poynter Institute.
Tim Franklin, director of the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, says the move to end the Spanish-language weekly was likely driven by the bottom line.
“Alden is going to jettison what it views as its most costly or least profitable pieces of its operation,” Franklin said. “They have a history of doing that across the country.”
Franklin added that the U-T en Español’s demise is consistent with a nationwide trend that has only accelerated in the pandemic era.
“In 2020, there were about 900 ethnic media outlets in the United States,” Franklin said, citing a Medill database on local news organizations that he maintains. “We’ve lost 173 of those in the last three years since the pandemic. And of the 173 that closed, 106 were Latino publications, most of those Spanish-language publications.”
He explained that many ethnic media outlets never recovered from the loss of advertising revenue during the pandemic when people stopped shopping, as well as the closures of small mom-and-pop retailers.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is so concerned with the Spanish-language media decline that it has formed a rapid response team on the issue. Arelis Hernandez, vice president for print with NAHJ, said the group strives to meet with news organizations to understand “the reasoning behind” the decisions to shutter the outlets.
She said the U-T en Español closure, the disbanding of the Dallas Morning Herald’s Spanish-language newspaper last year and the discontinuation of The Washington Post’s Spanish-language podcast in 2022 don’t make sense.
“Latinos have grown to more than 19% of the population (nationwide), and we’re continuing to grow,” Hernandez said. “There is a migrant population that is increasingly needing resources in their language to navigate this new world of the United States. It’s just like we’re not understanding the economics of this either, $3.4 trillion is the purchasing power of Latinos.”
Art Castañares, publisher of the Spanish-language weekly La Prensa San Diego, says what’s also not well understood is that even many bilingual people like to read their news in Spanish.
“It’s not just the language,” Castañares said. “It’s understanding the culture, the impact and being sensitive to that.”
Soto, who is now in public relations, says it’s also about another intangible. Trust. He said the U-T’s Spanish-language newspaper painstakingly built trust with local Latinos over the years through reporters’ presence at pivotal events and how they wrote about the community.
He brings up a case in point. As wildfires ripped through eastern San Diego County in October 2003, it was Soto — assigned to cover the farm workers — who told them through smoke-filled air they had to evacuate.
“You couldn’t really breathe,” Soto said. “And they were still picking tomatoes and strawberries. They didn’t even know that there were evacuation orders.”
The publication also covered in-depth the migrants who were burned to death atop Tecate Peak during the 2007 fires.
“I remember being embedded with the rescuers,” Soto said. “We found the bodies of people who were burnt. We told the stories of people who were lost crossing the border and the stories behind it and how people in the community rallied and provided the resources for rescuers to go and find their loved ones.”
Soto said those pieces told the region’s Latinos that the paper cared about them. He worries ending the U-T En Español means that’s no longer true.
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San Diego, CA
Solans, Luna, Guilavogui help RSL beat slumping San Diego, extend unbeaten streak to 6 games :: WRALSportsFan.com
SANDY, Utah — SANDY, Utah (AP) — Sergi Solans had two goals and an assist, Diego Luna added a goal and two assists, and Real Salt Lake beat San Diego FC 4-2 on Saturday night to extend its unbeaten streak to six games.
Morgan Guilavogui scored his first goal in MLS and had an assist for Real Salt Lake (5-1-1). The 28-year-old designated player has five goal contributions in his first six career games.
RSL hasn’t lost since a 1-0 defeat at Vancouver in the season opener.
San Diego (3-3-2) has lost three in a row and is winless in five straight.
Luna opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he re-directed a misplayed pass by Duran Ferree, San Diego’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, into the net.
Moments later, Solans headed home a perfectly-placed cross played by Luna from outside the right corner of the 18-yard box to the back post to make it 2-0. Solans, a 23-year-old forward, flicked a header from the center of the area inside the right post and past the outstretched arm of Ferree to make it 3-1 in the 37th minute.
Guilavogui slammed home a first-touch shot to give RSL a three-goal lead in the 45th.
Marcus Ingvartsen scored a goal in the 14th minute and Anders Dreyer converted from the penalty spot in the 66th for San Diego.
Ingvartsen has five goals and an assist this season and has 10 goal contributions (seven goals, three assists) in 16 career MLS appearances.
Rafael Cabral had three saves for RSL.
Ferree finished with five saves.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
When John Resnick opened Campfire on a quaint little street in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2016, some locals weren’t sure what to think. The coastal enclave wasn’t exactly awash in innovative, chef-driven establishments, so it was a shock to see the dining room consistently full. Early on, one woman wondered aloud to Resnick, “Where did all these people come from?”
It’s a moment he remembers vividly. “I was struck by her statement, because I think she was surprised that so many other people in Carlsbad were there,” Resnick says.
The rest of the culinary world would take some time to catch up to what was happening. In 2019, when Michelin expanded to rate restaurants throughout all of California—not just the San Francisco area—Addison was the only one in San Diego to earn a star. But since emerging from the pandemic, the region’s food scene has grown dramatically. Driven by outstanding farms, ingredients, a bumper crop of talented chefs, and a G.D.P. approximately the size of New Zealand or Greece, San Diego County has become one of America’s most underrated dining destinations.
Perhaps no single restaurant is a better emblem for this shift than chef William Bradley’s Addison, which opened in 2006. After landing his first star, Bradley knew he wanted more. To get them, he transformed his French-leaning fare to serve what he calls California Gastronomy, which combines the cultures of SoCal with impeccable ingredients and wildly impressive techniques, prizing flavor over flair. Michelin responded, awarding Addison a second star in 2022, and making it the first Southern California three-star restaurant just a year later. The accolade has created a halo effect, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.
Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.
Eric Wolfinger
“Earning three stars forces the global dining community to pay attention to a place that may not have been on their radar before,” says chef Eric Bost, a partner in Resnick’s four Carlsbad establishments.
Resnick recruited Bost, who spent time at award-winning outposts of Restaurant Guy Savoy, to run Jeune et Jolie, which he led to a star in 2021. They’ve since taken over an old boogie-board factory down the street and converted it to an all-day restaurant and bakery, Wildland. The space also hosts an exquisite tasting-counter experience called Lilo, which was given a Michelin star mere months after opening in April 2025. And as Resnick and Bost grew their successful Carlsbad operation, chef Roberto Alcocer earned a Michelin star for his Mexican fine-dining spot Valle in nearby Oceanside.
The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.
Kimberly Motos
About 25 miles to the south, another affluent coastal community is going through its own culinary glow up. In La Jolla, chef Tara Monsod and the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective opened the stylish French steakhouse Le Coq. Chef Erik Anderson, formerly of Michelin two-star Coi, is preparing to launch Roseacre. And last year, Per Se alums Elijah Arizmendi and Brian Hung left New York to open the elegant tasting-menu restaurant Lucien, lured by the ingredients they’d get to serve. “A major reason we chose San Diego is the quality and diversity of the produce,” Arizmendi explains. “San Diego County has more small farms than anywhere else in the U.S., and its many microclimates allow farmers to grow an incredible range of ingredients year-round.”
Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.
Gage Forster
Chef Travis Swikard has also been a tireless advocate for the region’s ingredients since he returned to San Diego, his hometown, and opened Mediterranean-influenced Callie in 2021. There’s no sophomore slump with his latest effort, the French Riviera–inspired Fleurette in La Jolla, where he’s serving his take on classics like leeks vinaigrette and his San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with local red sheepshead fish and spiny lobster. Its food is bright, produce-driven, and attentive in execution, while the dining room maintains a relaxed and unpretentious style of service. And Swikard sees that approach cohering into a regional style with a strong network of professionals behind it.
“It’s really nice that we are developing our own identity, not trying to be like L.A. or any other market, just highlighting what’s great about the San Diego lifestyle and ingredients,” he says. “Similar to New York, a chef community is starting to develop where chefs are supporting each other. There is a true sense of pride to be cooking here.”
Top: In La Jolla, Lucien serves ocean whitefish with tomatoes turned into concasse, sabayon, and other expressions.
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