Fernando Soto
Founder, Nuestro Estado
Helping Latinos find their voice
Fernando Soto moved from Mexico to the U.S. at 7 years old. Being a journalist in his home country was (and continues to be) a dangerous choice for a career — his parents initially did not want him to become a reporter.
Soto studied the craft anyway, and in 2019 founded a Spanish-language website originally called Recursos Estatales to connect Latino immigrants in South Carolina to community resources and local news. He rebranded the hub a year later as Nuestro Estado (Spanish for “Our State”), where he provided community-focused journalism to a growing audience.
In 2023, Nuestro Estado merged with Pasa La Voz Savannah, a nonprofit newsroom based in Savannah, Georgia. Soto joined as what he calls their “first editor-in-chief en español.”
By Tiffany Chang
Our parents understand English, but they still speak Spanish. The news can be messy and complex, and we need to make sure that it’s digestible so they can understand it.
The Latino population in South Carolina has grown tremendously over the last 20 years, but there still hasn’t been a bridge in language. Existing local publications were mostly community newsletters that were Google-translating press releases or news content from English-language websites and television stations.
I originally knocked on the doors of those publications, but then I felt like we could do more. When that didn’t happen, I said, “Okay, well, if what’s already here is not what I think the community needs, I’m just going to start my own.”
Refocusing on the Community
It turned out that people found our content helpful. They wanted to know about education and about health. We have to meet our audience where they are and provide information they actually need, in the language that they’re most comfortable with.
That’s why I started going to press conferences and pressing the mayor of Charleston on language access within county and city-level governments. At first, government officials were a little bit apprehensive. But then when they began working on emergency rental-assistance programs, they reached out and said, “Hey, we would love your help putting this out in the community so that people can apply.”
I also really wanted to uplift stories of success from the community. In corporate media, the stories that are reflective of my community are mugshots alongside articles about crime and poverty. Like, damn, okay, I grew up poor but I’m not a criminal!
We have to meet our audience where they are and provide information they actually need, in the language that they’re most comfortable with.
Is there crime? Sure, but report after report has shown that there’s a disparity when it comes to how crime is perceived in the media. Black and Latino folks are over-represented in crime stories. My mom comes across stories, and she thinks that crime is booming. I know it’s just the perception, but I think our communities would be much better if journalism took responsibility there.
I want to make sure that people know that we’re out here kicking ass. I can name several Latino businesses that opened during the pandemic and that have thrived, including my own.
To me, it’s important to own the narrative of who our communities are. We are more than immigration, and we’re more than poverty. We contribute a lot to society, and we’re part of the fabric that keeps this country running.
Creating Journalism Beyond Advocacy
As journalists, we often get disconnected from the reality of our own communities. We just cover things that we think are important. Instead of imposing our own thoughts into what might be considered important, let’s go out and ask.
At the beginning, I was doing the things that I had learned in college and on my first job, which is to just go and get the news: “If it bleeds, it leads.”
But I quickly realized that I was getting a better reaction to the stories that put more effort into understanding what helps people, and not just general things that the media might traditionally go after on a daily basis.
I find that as a publisher of color who serves communities of color, our work is often met with the word “advocacy” or “activism,” rather than just “journalism.” We have to work hard to prove our value and get people to understand that lived experiences are a thing and that they matter.
It’s not advocacy to be human, to take a second to understand that when you’re speaking to a family who’s undocumented, if you put them in a certain spotlight or frame the story a certain way, you could jeopardize their whole family’s security. That’s one of the biggest challenges that we face: getting people to support our work for the value that it has.
When we think about “Latino media” we think about Telemundo or Univision, which are focused on the big markets. The little and midsize markets get access, but it’s through the lens of those big cities.
We have a whole culture of Latino audiences that mix with Southern culture that nobody’s talking about. We’ve become our own kind of Latino culture that looks very different than how it looks in Miami or L.A. I guess my big-picture goal is just hoping that someone gives a damn.
Connect with Fernando Soto
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