By Melissa Laue
El Independiente
In 1976, the United States celebrated 200 years of independence from Great Britain. That same year, South Tucson celebrated its own form of independence with the first issue of the cityÕs only newspaper, El Independiente.
El Independiente was first published in the University of ArizonaÕs 1976 spring semester as a trial issue. The newspaper began a monthly cycle in the fall semester of fall 1976.
This is the 25th year El Independiente has been in production.
Jacqueline E. Sharkey, professor and head of the department of journalism at the University of Arizona, created El Independiente.
According to the El Independiente Web site, Sharkey created the newspaper class for two reasons: to provide South Tucson with its own news medium and to provide UA students with the ability to learn in-depth, investigative reporting and exposure to a bilingual, bicultural society.
El Independiente began as a four-page newspaper.
The first and second pages covered news; the third featured editorials; and the last page focused on sports coverage.
Today, the newspaper is eight pages long and covers all topics, from hard news to restaurant reviews.
El IndependienteÕs original office was in South Tucson; it is now located in the UA journalism department.
A highlight of El Independiente occurred in the third year of publication: 1978. Staff members including current Superior Court Judge Paul E. Tang, Lisa L. Wrenn, features editor for the Contra Costa Times, and Avelardo V. Moulinet, a Tempe resident, received calls from residents of South Tucson. Housing and Urban Development funds given to a South Tucson contractor were being misused, according to the residents.
The result was bad workmanship.
The phone calls motivated Sharkey to obtain a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, based in Washington, D.C. With this grant, one student reporter was sent to Los Angeles, Calif., to obtain information from the HUD files while other students investigated the allegations made by the South Tucson residents.
"The city government was made up of corrupt little people who knew we were investigating them so they were very uncooperative," said Moulinet, then a translator and photographer for El Independiente, who remembers the difficulty the paper had when it tried to obtain public records and interviews from South Tucson.
"YouÕre never sure about the results and the responses but you know youÕve done the right thing by letting public officials know that they are being watched, " said Wrenn, who was managing editor for El Independiente a year before she began investigating into the allegations.
Wrenn, who graduated from the UA in 1979 with a bachelorÕs degree in journalism, went on to use the investigative experience that she gained working on El Independiente, at the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the Tucson Citizen and now at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif.
"Even though I ended up as a features editor, solid reporting comes from that solid foundation in investigative journalism that I got 25 years ago," Wrenn said. "Even the creative side of journalism needs people with that solid foundation in journalism."
Working at El Independiente allowed her to realize that she was a real journalist.
For their efforts, these three alumni of El Independiente received a national award and national recognition.
El Independiente strives to serve the community of South Tucson and continues to help students gain real-world reporting skills needed for jobs after graduation.
El Independiente is owned and operated by the UA journalism department and its students. Each semester, a new class of UA journalism students collaborates to create El Independiente with their various experiences and talents.
More information on El Independiente is available on the web at http://journalism.arizona.edu/indy