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With a Master’s degree in education and early career experience in both teaching and in the health & wellness sector , it was no great surprise that in 2009 Andrea Sulsona became a social worker.<\/p>\n
But a magazine publisher? No one saw that coming. But it turns out Sulsona’s Palacio de Long Beach<\/em>, a Spanish-English magazine focusing on community, education, health & wellness, art, elegantly dovetails with her day job.<\/p>\n “They complement each other very nicely,” Sulsona says of her two projects<\/p>\n That’s because since 2009 \u2014 and particularly over the last 18 months, since Sulsona took over complete control of the magazine content \u2014 Palacio de Long Beach<\/em> has brought to Long Beach’s Latino\/Hispanic community information and ideas that are too infrequently targeted at that demographic.<\/p>\n “Concepts of health and wellness, yoga, and the ‘green,’ environmental stuff reach Latino community a bit more slowly,” she says, offering as an example how one of her consistent advertisers, Earth-Friendly Products, has been successful in getting their “green” products carried at Trader Joe’s but not by Superior, whose shoppers are overwhelmingly Hispanic. “There’s still a need to educate [the Hispanic community] about all of the toxic harshness that’s in your Dawns and your Palmolives. [\u2026] Generally you can’t get organic eggs or whole-grain bread in [stores targeting Hispanic shoppers]. It’s frustrating. [\u2026] My mission is just to be a resource for information, education, health and wellness, environmental issues, parenting, living a healthier life, [etc.].”<\/p>\n Palacio de Long Beach<\/em> was founded in 2009 when Sulsona hooked up with a Utah-based would-be publishing magnate who had the idea for “a nationwide but community-based bilingual free magazine,” to be called Palacio de [fill in the city]<\/em> and to be filled with general human-interest stories that only rarely sported a local focus, since the idea was to produce articles that could run in any or all of the other Palacios<\/em> (e.g., “The Benefits of Yoga,” why eating less sugar could be helpful).<\/p>\n But 18 months later Palacio de Long Beach<\/em> was the only iteration of Palacio<\/em> that had come to fruition, and the publisher handed over the reins to Sulsona \u2014 who was running the whole shebang, anyway. And from that point forward Palacio de Long Beach<\/em> took on more of a local focus.<\/p>\n “I think over the last year-and-a-half, since I’ve taken over control of content, the feedback has been great,” Sulsona reports. “I definitely feel a strong commitment to improving things about Long Beach. [\u2026] It’s been nice to be able to speak about community issues and have people say, ‘Thanks for talking about that’ or ‘Thanks for sharing that.’ It’s like a community service, it feels like. Because I’m not making money on it. [\u2026] It’s sad when you see that there’s great events with a low turnout. I want more people to be involved with the members of the community, so I do a lot of promoting of community events.”<\/p>\n Considering her upbringing \u2014 raised in Wilmington primarily by a grandmother who spoke no English and whose five children <\/strong>and 18 grandchildren were constant presences at her home \u2014 it is not surprising is that Sulsona uses Palacio de Long Beach<\/em> to build bridges, both between divergent sectors of the city or across the language divide.<\/p>\n “There was all sorts of dysfunction, like there is in any family,” Sulsona says, “and I enjoyed kind of helping people to communicate effectively. [\u2026] I would be the translator between my grandmother and [various civil\/governmental service organizations]. Being in the middle of these two cultures made it very natural for me to want to do something in both languages.”<\/p>\n That experience has proven valuable for Long Beach’s Latino community, as Palacio de Long Beach<\/em> is not only the city’s sole bilingual Spanish-English publication, but it is the sole Spanish-language publication originating from Long Beach, despite the fact that Latinos comprise an estimated 41%<\/a> of the city’s population.<\/p>\n “People like going back to their roots, or being able to share content with a Spanish-speaking relative, or brushing up on their Spanish,” Sulsona says. “So it’s a tool for a lot of people.”<\/p>\n While Sulsona doesn’t shy away from politics, she it more interested in raising the issues than weighing in on them. “I like to talk about issues and empower people by presenting them,” she says. “I think it’s important to create conversation pieces. That’s more important than my taking a specific position.”<\/p>\n Sulsona hopes to continue to grow Palacio de Long Beach<\/em>, but being a social worker, a single mother raising two children, and serving on the Boards of Directors for the Long Beach Community Action Partnership and the YMCA Early Childhood Education Programs \u2014 not to mention as president-elect for the Kawanis of Long Beach \u2014 would make for tough sledding even if the state of magazine-publishing industry weren’t, er, interesting. And she knows that growth will depend largely on her forging partnerships.<\/p>\n “I’m always looking for partners,” she says. “I’m always looking for people who are like-minded and who want to support the mission of the magazine and would like that whole cross-promotional thing. [\u2026] You can’t run a publication without the money it costs to print the paper.”<\/p>\n As long as Andrea Sulsona has her say, the Spanish-speaking community in Long Beach will have a voice in its native language.<\/p>\n
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