The newspaper will become part of Big Bend Sentinel
It’s been a plan in the works for more than two years, but this will be the last edition of The International—sort of. With much of the content mirroring that of the Sentinel’s, it made sense to the previous publishers and the new publisher of the Sentinel to fold Presidio-specific and Spanish-language content into one paper.
Plans are for more Presidio articles and more articles in Spanish—making the Sentinel one of the few dual-language newspapers in the country and the only one in the Big Bend. This move isn’t taken lightly, since The International has a long, rich history. We’ll be writing a more in-depth article on that history in The Sentinel in the coming weeks.
However, for a taste of that history, consider its founder, Juan Rivera, who worked for various area publications before launching El Internacional in 1947. Rivera did it all—a one-man workhorse for getting the paper published and distributed. He often covered both sides of the border and published Spanish-language publications throughout. In 1961, he shifted to The Voice before suffering from health issues later in life and ending his tenure with the newspaper with his death in 1971.
The newspaper switched hands from Tom Griffith (no relation to the Alpine musician) and Dan Bodine, who also served as justice of the peace.
In the early ‘90s, Robert and Rosario Halpern—Sentinel publishers—eventually bought The International, which was then purchased together with the Sentinel by Max Kabat and Maisie Crow in 2018. The publications became a nonprofit on September 15 under the name Sentinel News Project with Roger Black at the helm as president.
Current subscribers to The International that get the newspaper in the mail will be transferred to receive The Sentinel and all subscribers will continue to have access to online editions. We welcome feedback—particularly what you’d like to see more of—by emailing publisher@bigbendsentinel.com.
