La Prensa was a Spanish-language newspaper founded by Ignacio Lozano in 1913 in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper aimed to keep the Mexican-American population in Texas informed of current events in Mexico and provide a connection to their home country’s language and culture. La Prensa quickly became one of the most widely-circulated Spanish-language newspapers of its time, with circulation stretching from northern Texas to Mexico and Mexican émigré communities throughout the United States and Central America.
The periodical boasted a circulation of 14,000 copies within two years of its first issue. The yearly subscription prices held at only $1 per year for the weekly issues and $5 per year for the daily issues through the 1920s, making La Prensa accessible to Mexican Americans who often struggled to find well-paying and dependable work in the United States.
The paper’s editorials remained critical of the Mexican government from its initial issue through the 1930s. For this reason, La Prensa was often censored in Mexico, though illegal copies and reprinted editorials were often distributed through Lozano’s publishing house, Casa Editorial Lozano.