12 People You Need to Know in 2014: Memo Latapi

A Monclova, Mexico, native, Memo Latapi utilizes his skills as a linguist to help a growing population of Hispanics in the Ozarks feel right at home.

Latapi publishes Hispanic community newspaper El Mensajero, a free newspaper distributed monthly to businesses highly populated by Hispanics, including restaurants, beauty salons and churches. The paper, which translated into English means The Messenger, carries a circulation ranging from 1,000 to 4,000, as the paper pushes across state lines to northwest Arkansas and covers special events.

“It’s for the people who want to get their local news in Spanish, not because they don’t speak English, but because they’d rather read the news in their primary language,” Latapi says.

It’s a service that’s needed, given the 6,000 Latino people living in Springfield and the roughly 32,000 who resided in southwest Missouri as of the 2010 census.

“It’s been growing every year,” Latapi says of the minority population, which represented about 4 percent of Springfield’s total count in 2010.

Latapi, along with six contributors, build El Mensajero with original content and translated writings from other news sources, including shared content with the Springfield News-Leader, KSMU and Springfield Business Journal, to cover a wide spectrum from government to entertainment. Founded in 2007, Latapi says the paper sought to fill a void in the market.

“At the time, there was only one tabloid. Basically, what they did is they just printed all the stories from the Associated Press and they’d translate it into Spanish, so they were not doing a good job covering the news in this area,” Latapi says. “What I wanted to do is to have that local, community paper, that could have national and regional news, but the essence needed to be the local news, things that were going on here in the city of Springfield.”

Latapi first came to Missouri through an exchange program that landed him in Lebanon, and he returned to attend college and play soccer at Missouri State University. His understanding of both Mexican and American cultures positions him in a unique community role.

Latapi maintains a relationship with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, in which he visits some 20 Mexican restaurants in the city monthly to make sure they are keeping up to code. El Mensajero also works with Springfield Public Schools to help Spanish-speaking parents and children become more engaged.[[In-content Ad]]