Pueblo co-founder and managing editor Richie Requena writes about his time at DePaul and in conversation with the people who helped him start community groups.

Pueblo at 14 East turned three years old this quarter, and La DePaulia and NAHJ also turned three years old this year too. So what exactly happened three years ago? And why do I care enough to write about it just weeks before I graduate from the university where I spent half a decade chasing my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism?

The short answer is that badass revolutionary students with a shared identity connected with each other to create something that would long outlast their time at the university. The long answer… is long. 

My story is simple enough. I came in from the suburbs at 21 and wanted to study something that I would grow to be passionate about. I worked my way up with classes and 14 East. I moved fast, desperately wanting to make something of myself before graduation in a town where starting out as a reporter is, for many, a mid-level career move.

And it worked well enough. By the start of the school year in 2019 I talked a reporter into giving me a shot at the Chicago Tribune as an intern, I was in the university’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, a regular contributor to 14 East, and had enough people at school’s newspaper know who I was and what I was about. After three years in community college and one at DePaul, I was starting to become a journalist overnight. 

And maybe things could have stayed that way for the rest of undergrad, I didn’t think there was anything past that at the time. But then things changed. 

My friend and mentor Jesus J. Montero was close to graduation and was debating grad school. He had all the ambition to begin something that had been tried before, but to date hadn’t been accomplished— a space for Latine journalists to come together and organize to build something that would stand the test of time.

I am proud to say I was a part of that dream turned reality that inaugurated a movement within Latine journalists reporters that let them know their voice was important. We learned a lot from each other, about leadership, and what it takes to build something that is stronger than a pandemic. I learned a lot from these people, and I’d like to think they also learned a bit from me. 

Header Illustration by Bridget Killian