La Jornada: The flagship newspaper of the Latin American left turns 40 years old 

In the picture, the director of the newspaper La Jornada, Carmen Lira Saab and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez in the founding days of the Mexican newspaper Photo: Taken from Cubaperiodistas 

In the first issue of the newspaper La Jornada, on September 19, 1984, the editorial highlighted: "This newspaper was not born to satisfy the professional needs of a group of journalists. It arose, yes, from a project promoted by them, but made their own and made concrete by millions of Mexicans who, at this hour of national destiny, have made a profession of faith, not in the conveners, but in the plural democracy of which this newspaper aspires to be a part and a driving force."In fact, La Jornada has a sui generis history. They founded a journalistic company that did not have capitalist partners, but rather artist partners and as allies and friends, outstanding exponents of culture. They began to tell stories of a country that did not exist for the rest of the media, reporting on everything from an earthquake and an eclipse, to facets of the economic disaster brought to Mexico by savage neoliberalism, with its burden of exclusion, discrimination and poverty for the great majorities.In these 40 years it has overflowed the Mexican geography to become the daily newspaper of the Spanish-speaking countries, particularly Latin Americans, and has honored the capital with which it emerged: its credibility.Along the way, it has miraculously managed to sustain itself and maintain the values of the profession while building bridges with citizens eager to know more and better about what was happening in their nation and on their planet. It has invariably acted on the side, in the name and on behalf of that great part of the countries of the South that do not resign themselves to manipulation and banality and has consistently and courageously respected the principle that "a Revolution under harassment, under siege, will never be attacked by the newspaper", an idea of Carlos Payán, founding director of La Jornada, which honors the publication and which has been maintained against all odds in all these years.La Jornada is also honored by its solidarity with Cuban journalists. Our country's professionals will never forget that, at the worst moment of the COVID epidemic and when the U.S. government refused to provide oxygen to Cuba, the newspaper sent medicines that saved the lives of many colleagues.On the 40th anniversary of its founding, receive La Jornada, the newspaper of all of us who celebrate committed journalism, the congratulations and gratitude of Cuban journalists.PRESIDENCY OF THE UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF CUBA