Published October 15, 2024
A Friend of the Home
“Figueroa Printers, Inc. Established in 1923.” The bold text stands out on a simple wooden sign that marked the haven Francisco and Benjamin Figueroa put to paper.
The sign is one of many objects that the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites has acquired for our collection from the Figueroa family.
Among these testaments to the Figueroa family name is a feature in our second-floor gallery on El Amigo del Hogar, a newspaper that helped Hispanic Hoosiers uphold and connect with their community throughout the 1920s and 30s.
During that time, Indiana’s growing Latiné population was bringing vibrant cultural change and many Mexican-owned and operated businesses to the Indiana Harbor area.
It was in this ever-changing coastal city that brothers Francisco and Benjamin Figueroa opened Figueroa Printers, Inc. and created El Amigo del Hogar, Indiana’s first Spanish-language newspaper.
El Amigo del Hogar, which translates to A Friend of the Home, covered a variety of topics, including state and national stories, politics, happenings within the local Hispanic community and updates from Mexico, where many still had loved ones.
“In that time period, there was a lot of discrimination against Mexicans, and they needed to find a place that was safe,” said Irene Figueroa Osorio, Francisco’s daughter. “So, they made their own social environment, their own community and continued to educate people with their own culture, as well as trying to help them integrate into this society.”
The Figueroa brothers, along with several others, worked long days and late nights researching, writing and publishing to ensure their community was in the loop every week.
“It was a lot of work, because these men also had full-time jobs, primarily at Inland Steel,” said Osorio.
Consuelo Figueroa, Francisco’s wife, stepped in as the paper’s resident editor.
And soon, the Figueroas’ influence grew beyond the newspaper page.
As readership grew, El Amigo del Hogar took advertising from local special-interest groups, often led by other area immigrants advocating for particular policies or representatives working to protect their common interests.
El Amigo del Hogar gave Spanish-speaking Hoosiers a platform to advocate for the working class and the causes that would support them, like mutual aid, become more informed voters and connect with their neighbors.
“They went forward trying to help the community pull together, to help new immigrants understand where they were living and this American culture,” said Osorio.
El Amigo del Hogar ran through the 1930s. Francisco’s sons carried on the family business, circulating their own newspaper, The Latin Times, from the 1950s-80s.
And in April 2024, Francisco Figueroa was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in recognition of his efforts to make the news accessible to the local Hispanic population. More broadly, the Figueroa family’s impact on Spanish speakers around Indiana can still be felt to this day.
Special thanks to Nicole Martinez-LeGrand and the Indiana Historical Society for providing background information for this article.
