PLAZA DE ARMAS
Glitter Political
Duran on Duran
By JADE ESTEBAN ESTRADA
December 21, 2012
It’s a few days before Thanksgiving and I’m sitting on the ground floor of downtown's Finesilver Building. Nina Duran, editor in chief of the bilingual newspaper La Prensa de San Antonio, sits across from me in her father's chair. The office, filled with Tino Duran’s photographs and memorabilia, could easily pass for an art curator's loft in Lower Manhattan.
La Prensa is distinguished not only by its bilingualism, but by a unique and perhaps culturally induced golden rule that’s kept its readers whistling a happy ranchera since 1989: it prints only “positive news.” But Duran says she hopes her twice-weekly paper is also "an unbiased source.”
"I'd like my readers to know they're not being spoon-fed an idea. All we're doing is trying to showcase what's out there," she says.
I gently challenge her: But isn't a publication biased if it spoon-feeds positivity?
“Yes, that's true. But there are plenty of other places to get negative news,” she says, describing a media system saturated with unsettling headlines. “I'm referring to crime.”
La Prensa is an Alamo City independent-business success story. Nina’s father Tino, now 78, is the paper’s publisher, and older brother Tino, Jr. is director of operations. Nina, the youngest of five siblings, has three brothers and one sister. Stylish and attractive, she appears younger than her 31 years.
"I think we do a great job of showing what a family can do in the city of San Antonio...what togetherness can do,” she says.
But don't expect to read about a lavish holiday spread for this media dynasty.
"Even though there are five of us – and I'll say this on the record – we are not the closest of families...at all,” she says. “We don't get together for Thanksgiving. I think most people would assume that we're a really close family, but we’ve never been. I'll probably watch Grey's Anatomy reruns and make a pizza."
So genuine is my surprise, I almost forget to slowly nod.
“My employees in the back? They're my family.”
Her frankness reminds me of a similar philosophy Latin entertainer Charo shared with me once regarding her fans – perhaps a feeling common to public people.
“I feel like the whole city of San Antonio is my family,” Duran continues. “They make me smile.”
Before Duran took over the editor’s desk at La Prensa in July 2011, she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s in mass communications and arts, and freelanced "all over." She joined her father's paper as a reporter and was eventually promoted to co-editor. A decade later, she became the – politically neutral – editor-in-chief.
She's made a point over the years of going with her father to meetings and introducing herself, aware that she was sending out a message.
“This isn't going to end when he ends,” she says. “It will continue. It's the idea of continuity...that things do last...that things can be multi-generational. He created partnerships and made relationships to build his business. People need to recognize me as they do my father.”
Duran's bold words are backed up by bold actions. On her Facebook page, she posted a photograph of herself lying on a log in a bikini that shows off a large swath of scars. She says she felt inspired to share her own "journey to acceptance" with women she's encountered who envy her body and think her life is perfect.
Is there anything that scares you? I ask.
“The fear of not being able to live up to my father’s legacy,” she replies with hardly a pause.
And when the “death of newspapers” finally arrives (five years from now, she estimates), she's concerned how her readers who live outside the world of technology will find her. “Some readers don’t have cable, they don't have internet...they don't pay for the Express-News.”
Nolan Hicks may have just accidentally swallowed a gumdrop. If you thump his back a few times he'll be fine.
Duran describes La Prensa's Spanish-language news content as “informative and newsy.” She recalls a story they published on how to open a bank account. She expected, of course, the critical emails – which did come – but she stands behind those stories.
"You have no idea how many Hispanics are terrified of opening a bank account...how many of them are mattress babies and how many handwritten letters I get thanking us for the simplest of articles because they didn't know how.”
Duran says that the family’s La Prensa Foundation is a “perfect example” of the family’s identity and values.
“We've given $2.3 million in scholarships to the city of San Antonio, all to students who have gotten below a 3.0 GPA," she says. "Our focus for our foundation are students in high school who were maybe living in a broken home, or maybe they had to get jobs as young as the age of 15, or they had to care for their siblings.
“I don’t have to tell you that for us [Hispanics], family is a priority over education. It always has been and it always will be. You won’t see that amongst the Anglo community, but you see that in our community. It’s family first, family first.”
When she says “family,” she punches her right fist into her left palm, each time on the first syllable.
“It really sucks when you see these statistics of all these dropouts and they don’t tell you the whole story. I guarantee if you heard those stories you would say, 'Oh...OK, well, that makes sense.
“Every single student that we gave scholarships to I’m sure any other foundation would be like, 'You got a 1.8 GPA?....What am I... Why [should they be receiving a scholarship?]'
“But they have this drive, this motivation and this desire to succeed. People come in and are like, 'My mom got divorced and I had to stay at home and watch my baby brother,' and, 'I couldn’t go to school a lot because my mom was working during the day and we couldn’t afford a sitter.”
Duran’s focus these days is on editing, a task that’s informed by her experience as a reporter.
"I know what it’s like to submit and write for a newspaper and see your words changed...to give my work to a really good editor and be like, 'Oh, my God! Thank you so much! I didn’t even realize that I misspelled that and your title is so much better than what I originally had!'”
Edit unto others as you would have them edit unto you? I offer.
"Exactly! It all has to be your baby. In order to be that way you have to be passionate about what you do. Words have always completed me.
"I’ve definitely failed there too,” she adds reluctantly. “I don’t know if you remember or not, about four months ago...it was a front-page story.”
She struggles for a moment to remember the headline.
”'Tom Frost sits in on banking committee... ' - something like that ...Well, I forgot the 'n' in banking so it was 'baking'... ”
Frost was goodnatured about the flub when Duran called to apologize, joking that he would much rather testify before a baking committee. A local chef contacted Duran and offered to send Frost some cookies.
Tino Duran, Sr. – whom I’d been told was out sick – unexpectedly rockets into the room. A brief exchange follows:
“Hi, Daddy! I’m being interviewed!”
“OK, I’ll leave you alone.”
“We are talking about you.”
“You don't have to talk about me, talk about yourself.”
“I love you! Thank you, Daddy.”
Under the weather or not, the elder Duran always seems to be in the middle of extremely pressing matters. Filling those shoes would be a tall order.
“I’ll be honest with you, behind closed doors, I’ve gone back and forth battling on whether I want it or not,” she says.
Her plate is rather full even without the paper. For the past five years, Duran has taught communications and journalism classes at Northwest Vista College while appearing biweekly on WOAI's San Antonio Living with Shelly Miles. She recently became the spokesperson for Cavender Auto Group.
Duran is single and has two sons – Elijah, 10, and Noah, 4.
“When I was getting my bachelor’s degree at Incarnate Word... it was my last semester when I found out I was pregnant with Elijah. My parents hadn't even met the guy and I literally fell into this category of being the stereotypical San Antonio Latina – not educated, pregnant and not married. It was the biggest disappointment. My father didn't talk to me for a really long time,” she says.
“But if Elijah had never been born I would not be here, right here, today. I would not have my education. We all have to find our motivation and motivation comes and goes, but if we have something that we can look back at...something that can ground you, it makes all the difference.”
Fresh from November's election, Duran seems newly mindful of the need for neutrality in La Prensa’s pages.
“Because we are a mom-and-pop business we have to remain gray. We can't be black and we can't be white,” Duran says.
I recall a photograph of Governor Rick Perry with his family – prominently displayed in the newspaper's lobby several years ago.
“There was a time when my father used to run it that way,” she says. “If you were to sit down with my dad and talk about politics he would be straight-up Republican...all the bad crap about the left...He can't separate.
“He got his master’s in political science – which makes sense for anyone who knows him. He wanted to run for office. He wanted to run for mayor. My mom was the one that was like... 'It’s not gonna happen.'
“We have to be Republicans and Democrats at the same time. I've noticed that it's a lot easier for a younger generation – who have access to blogs and information – to not take sides,” she says. “It's a generation thing...it's an age thing...it's an access thing.”
Since Duran's ascension, La Prensa’s staff has gotten a little younger: No one in the newsroom is over the age of 36.
“When I have some freelancers over the age of 60... ” she sighs deeply, "...I will have issues.”
Duran expects to still be at La Prensa a decade from now, even though her father isn't open to all of her ideas. She is proud of the look of the newspaper's new online site – her idea.
“No, he fights me. But this is still his paper and I have to respect that,” she says.
“If there's one thing I've learned it’s that if an editor says they can do it all themselves, they're lying. Another pair of eyes is a good thing. I've learned that you need help from others. Also, a great editor let's every writer have their own voice. You can't step on that.”
She takes a deep breath then exhales slowly.
“But I don't have any time to write,” she says. “I'm always editing.”
