Reflejos Targets Chicago Hispanics

By: Mark Fitzgerald When Jerry Campagna bought Reflejos back in 1986, he decided the Spanish-language monthly that circulated in the Chicago suburbs had one flaw: There was too much Spanish in it. So he changed the paper into a bilingual publication.

Now the paper is undergoing another big change. Since the summer of 2000, it has been owned by the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Ill., which is using it to make a major push into the suburban Hispanic market. With Campagna continuing as its president, Reflejos is now a free weekly ? and as of Sept. 26, its distribution had nearly doubled from 58,000 to 100,000 throughout the northwest Chicago suburbs.

Reflejos is also going back to its mother tongue. Most articles are now written in Spanish with a summary in English, but reverses this when it's a story aimed at the Latino "who prefers to read in English," said Campagna. To help the reader sort out this polyglot mixture, the Daily Herald brought in Mario Garcia to give Reflejos a fresh new look from top to bottom.