The man who, with his wife Millie, founded and served as publisher of San Antonio's first bilingual newspaper, Tino Duran, died today.
Duran was described as having a discipline problem early on after being expelled from six area elementary schools, according to an article published in newspaperhalloffame.org. What administrators described as a discipline problem however was the fact that Duran spoke only Spanish. But hard work and dedication wasn't going to stop Duran from learning English and going on to serve in the U.S. Air Force as well as earn two degrees from St Mary's University.
Duran's newspaper career began when he was a student at Sidney Lanier High School in San Antonio where he served as editor. After serving his duty in the military, he attended San Antonio College and worked for The Ranger. In the 1980s he became general manager of El Sol de Tejas in Dallas, then president and CEO of El Informador Hispano in Fort Worth. But it wasn't until 1989 that Duran and his wife re-established La Prensa of San Antonio which was dedicated to reporting only positive news.
After serving as publisher of La Prensa for 27-years, and being diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years prior, Duran announced his retirement last year and named his daughter Nina as new publisher, according to an article in the Rivard Report. In the article, Nina described her new publisher role as bittersweet under the circumstances.
“I have a ton of questions in regard to what I’m doing and it’s hard because I wish I had my father to guide me through this and I don’t,” she said. “So it’s very heartbreaking in one sense because while he’s still my champion in every sense of the word, at the same time I feel if this were to happen five years ago I would have been able to utilize him and learn about everything he did and knew," she said in the article.
Duran was not only a prominent figure in the community, but also made it a point to give back. In 1995, Duran and his wife established La Prensa Foundation providing financial assistance for high school students wanting to go to college. In 2014, Duran was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame. This morning, Nina publicly announced the news of his passing via Facebook.
"I write this with a fragile heart. Our sweet, beautiful and loving daddy went to be with the Lord today. He passed peacefully in his sleep with my mama by his side."Photo 1: Florentino "Tino" Duran, proberty of La Prensa
Photo 2: (L-R) Samantha Najera (Heartfire Media owner), Tino Duran, Nina Duran; property of Heartfire Media
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