By: (AP) Carlos Castaneda, the publisher emeritus of
El Nuevo Herald in Miami who worked in the Spanish-language press for more than five decades, died Thursday in Portugal. He was 70 and had leukemia.
Castaneda, who spent 28 years of his career as editor and publisher of
El Nuevo Dia in Puerto Rico, was hospitalized Tuesday while on vacation in Lisbon.
During three years as editor and publisher of
El Nuevo Herald, Castaneda redesigned one of the nation's largest Spanish-language dailies, changed its editorial content, and boosted circulation and advertising.
"He transformed the newspaper," said Alberto Ibarguen, chairman and publisher of The Miami Herald Publishing Co., the parent company of
El Nuevo Herald. "The idea was that
El Nuevo should become a Latin American newspaper that happens to be edited in this North American country."
Castaneda, who was born in Havana in 1932, was the host of his own radio sports show by the time he was 16. He graduated from journalism school at Havana University and was one of the first journalists to interview Cuban President Fidel Castro after Fulgencio Batista was ousted from power in 1959.
He fled to New York with his family in 1960 to escape the Castro regime. Five years later, he joined the Spanish-language version of
Life in 1965, working as correspondent, editor, and publisher until 1969.
The next year, he joined the Puerto Rican newspaper
El Nuevo Dia. During his long tenure as the daily's editor and publisher, Castaneda saw circulation grow nearly thirteen-fold.
"In many places, they called him the newspaper doctor, because there wasn't a newspaper which had problems that didn't call asking him to lend a hand and get them out of the crisis," said Carlos Franqui, a friend of Castaneda's.
"Castaneda was a friend and a teacher -- an inspiration and instigator," said Luis A. Ferre Rangel,
El Nuevo Dia's editor.
Castaneda retired from
El Nuevo Dia in 1998, but went back to work by the end of that year, when he became publisher and editor of
El Nuevo Herald.
Claude Erbsen, Associated Press vice president for world services, met Castaneda in the 1960s. "Carlos had a brilliant mind with 360-degree vision," Erbsen said. "He had an extraordinary sense of how to present news and images in a compelling manner."
Humberto Castello, who succeeded Castaneda last year as editor of
El Nuevo Herald, said, "His best legacy will be for us to learn from his passion for life and have the conviction that our principles are fair because they are inflexible."
Even when his health was declining, colleagues said, Castaneda remained focused on his work. On Sunday, Castello got a call from the hospital in Portugal where Castaneda was undergoing tests.
"He wanted to know about the elections in Brazil," Ibarguen said. "He wanted to know how we were going to play it."
A longtime member of the Inter-American Press Association, Castaneda served on the Committee on Freedom of the Press, which monitors and protests censorship throughout the region.
Despite his wide-ranging influence, Castaneda never fulfilled the one dream he carried with him from his homeland. "When I approached him to come to
El Nuevo, he said, 'I've done everything in my life I've wanted -- except to edit a newspaper in a free Cuba,'" Ibarguen said.
Ibarguen told Castaneda that if he helped shape
El Nuevo Herald, "when the time is right, we'll bring that newspaper to Cuba. That's when we shook hands."
Castaneda is survived by his wife, Lillian, and four children.
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