Latino Rebels Celebrates 10 Years

May 5, 2021
9:57 AM

Illustrations by Alex Charner for Latino Rebels

Ten years ago, at 9:01 am ET on May 5, 2011, the first words ever published at LatinoRebels.com became a reality.

We are here.

Those words marked the start of a journey that nobody ever planned or expected—especially me, who during a career transition was longing to connect with voices that reflected who I was as a bilingual, bicultural Gen X-er. Little did I know that there were more of us than I thought.

Ten years later, Latino Rebels has become a foundational tenet of the Latino digital journalism space.

Love us, hate us, you can’t ignore us.

When Rebels started as an idea that then became a collective to what it is now (an independent digital news and audio site that serves our community daily), 2011 felt exciting and different. As an actual line from the site’s first post said, “We will kill stereotypes with humor, insight, compassion and maybe a loud GRITO DE QUESO.”

We didn’t ask permission to force ourselves onto the scene. We just did it, never worrying about how we were viewed or whose feathers got ruffled. It worked. There was something about Latino Rebels’ voice that inspired, informed, challenged and provoked. Such a vibe might have felt unique and different 10 years ago—now it seems that it’s a standard.

Meanwhile, Latino Rebels has evolved. It is not the same site that it was in 2011, or even in 2015. A big part of that has to do with the incredibly loyal and engaging community that has inspired, informed, challenged and provoked us throughout the years. We also know that we aren’t for everyone and we never were, but if you ask me what is it that keeps LR going, it is the 600+ contributors who has been published on this site since we said “We are here” in 2011.

Over the past few years, Latino Rebels has been a part of Maria Hinojosa’s Futuro Media, her company’s first-ever acquisition. The decision to be part of the Futuro family made absolute sense, not only because LR truly believes in the mission of Futuro to serve its community through nonprofit, independent journalism, but Rebels has also been a place to foster the next corps of young journalists from our community—whether it is here in the United States or in places like Puerto Rico, Mexico or other parts of Latin America.

That matters to Futuro. That matters to Latino Rebels. That matters to me.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be celebrating 10 years of Latino Rebels on social platforms with #LatinoRebels10. Here are some of what we have planned:

  • Ten illustrations by the incredibly talented Alex Charner will feature Latino Rebels’ top 10 stories ever and we will share a little bit about each story, while also linking back to the original story.
  • A special Latino Rebels Radio episode with Maria Hinojosa that will drop on the afternoon of May 5.
  • Tweets and threads from both @latinorebels and @julito77 that will recognize the contributions of some key believers in Latino Rebels over the last 10 years. Without them, Rebels would have not be here today.
  • Live streams on our Instagram and Facebook that will share more of the last 10 years “behind the scenes.” We will also be holding conversations on our Clubhouse.

We would also love to here from you, so share your comments on any of our social networks. Or even add your comments below.

Meanwhile, while there will be MANY people to thank over the next few weeks, I will end this post by sharing the FIRST image of the Latino Rebels crew that first said, “We are here” 10 years ago.

The next chapter of Latino Rebels will be exciting, but right now it is time to celebrate the last 10 years.

It has been one amazing ride that shows no sign of stopping.

Abrazos y paz,

Julito

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Julio Ricardo Varela is founder and publisher of Latino Rebels, part of Futuro Media. He tweets from @julito77.