Type Daily newspaper Owner(s) Luis Munoz Rivera Editor Luis Muñoz Marin | Format Tabloid Founder(s) Luis Muñoz Rivera Founded 1 July 1890 | |
La Democracia, founded on 1 July 1890, was a news daily published by Luis Muñoz Rivera in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It crusaded for Puerto Rican self-government. At a publication length of 58 years, it was the longest continuously-running Puerto Rican Spanish newspaper of its time, and one of the longest continuously running Puerto Rican newspapers of all time.
Contents
History
La Democracia was for many years the official organ of the Liberal Party. It began in Ponce in 1890, and ten years later, in 1900, it moved to Caguas. In 1904, it moved again, to San Juan. Originally not a daily, it became a daily when Muñoz Rivera imported a Marinori press from the United States. The Marinori press could produce 25,000 copies of a newspaper in one hour.
Coverage
The publication was mostly directed towards politics, but it also included poetry and stories published by Puerto Rican artists. The newspaper brought immediate controversy, which eventually led to Muñoz Rivera's arrest. Protests were organized throughout Puerto Rico and he was released after his father paid 15,000 pesetas as bond. Muñoz Rivera sold his half of the store, in order to raise funds for the publication's establishment.
Among the better known writers and contributors in La Democracia were Gumersindo Rivas, Mariano Abril, Luis Rodríguez Cabrero, and José A. Negrón Sanjurjo, Rafael Matos Bernier, Antonio R. Barceló, José Coll y Vidal, Alfredo Vargas, José Dávila Ricci, Luis Muñoz Marín, Sebastián Dalmau Canet, Samuel R. Quiñones.
Legacy
La Democracia "laid the groundwork for Ponce's journalistic tradition." The structure where La Democracia was edited and printed still stands on Calle Cristina across from Hotel Melia.