La Gaceta is a weekly newspaper in Tampa, Florida

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....

, founded in 1922. Published in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, and Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, it is the only trilingual newspaper in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

The paper was founded by Victoriano Manteiga, a former lector in the cigar

Cigar

A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...

 factories of West Tampa

West Tampa, Florida

West Tampa is one of the oldest districts within the city limits of Tampa, USA, and a former incorporated city located west of the Hillsborough River and downtown Tampa. As of the 2000 census, the district had a population of 22,008...

 and Ybor City, to serve the needs of the immigrant population of Tampa.

Later, his son Roland Manteiga took over as editor and publisher. Roland was very well connected, and his column "As We Heard It", became the local mid-20th century version of today's political blog

Political blog

A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...

s, often breaking stories and predicting events before the area's "major" newspapers.

Today, La Gaceta is still published weekly under the direction of Roland's son (and Victoriano's grandson) Patrick Manteiga, who has assumed authorship of the "As We Heard It" column. Additional editors are Manuela Ball (Spanish Section) and Giuseppe Maniscalco (Italian Section). Other columnists include Arturo Rivera, Joe O'Neill, Richard Muga, Emily Carney, Paul Guzzo, Leonardo Venta, Harvey Grajales, Gene Siudut, Kyle Dion and Travis Puterbaugh.

External links

• La Gaceta site
• La Gaceta online archive, July 1, 1933 - December 30, 1933 at the University of South Florida Tampa Library
• La Gaceta freely available with full text and full page images in the Florida Digital Newspaper Library
  Florida Digital Newspaper Library
  The Florida Digital Newspaper Library provides access to the news and history of Florida through local Florida newspapers. The Florida Digital Newspaper Library is supported by the University of Florida's George A...