Columns

As we continue our current series devoted to the history of Las Vegas newspapers, we hope it is apparent to the reader that it is through the prism of La Voz del Pueblo, that we recount a momentous epoch in the tale of two cities.

Through the eyes of La Voz founder Felix Martinez and his associates Ezequiel C de Baca and Antonio Lucero, we continue to impart the social and political upheaval which occurred here as the 20th century dawned.

Really, President’s Day is a second-tier holiday — most of us don’t even get to take off work for this national holiday.

Still, I’ve decided to use the day as fodder for today’s column, beginning with a single question: Who was the greatest U.S. president of all time?

The guy is either contemplating his navel (isn’t that the expression people used decades ago, for doing something pointless?) or he’s texting while driving. His head bobs to check the color of the traffic light, and sometimes he relies on a honk from the car behind him to decide when to proceed.

That’s become a common occurrence. Some state organizations have even created a public service ad that urges people to sign a pledge in which they promise to W8-2text.

When Felix Martinez acquired La Voz del Pueblo and moved it from Santa Fe to Las Vegas in 1890, he also brought with him its Santa Fe editor and former owner, Enrique H. Salazar, who helped Martinez get the newspaper off the ground in Las Vegas.

Salazar also penned many of the fiery editorials which first appeared here in La Voz, but he and Martinez soon parted ways, and Salazar would establish another Las Vegas newspaper, El Independiente, which later fell into the hands of political boss Secundino Romero, as will be related in a subsequent column.