PAPA's Humble Beginnings
This is the very first newsletter ever published by the Political Asylum Project of Austin in September of 1989 found in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. The layout and design of the page is deceptively simple; at the very top the title and organization’s name are written in bold. The sections are centered around four separate categories: “Welcome,” “Volunteer Update,” “Looking for Something to do?” and “Volunteer Training.” The very bottom of the page includes an invitation to an open house hosted by PAPA. What is most surprising about this publication is the choice to print this on teal or light-green paper. The following two or three issues, identified by their months of publication, are also brightly colored.
These choices reflect the beginning focus of PAPA: the audience— implied to be the immigrant community of Austin, possibly Spanish-speaking immigrants in particular— is directly addressed in every aspect of this newsletter. The “Welcome” section itself is written by someone who identifies themselves as “Nidia,” and opens up with the phrase “¡Hola amigos!” which is then followed by a short introduction of who they are and how to contact them. Each section is devoted to informing and requesting community engagement. Nidia’s attempt to reach out directly to the community is a well-established technique by non-profit organizations that offer legal resources to immigrants. Miriam Sobre and Emily Ehmer remark that legal service non-profits to immigrant communities “have evolved to serve migrant populations alongside municipal initiatives to create culturally welcoming environments.” (“The Double-Edged Sword of Empathy: Two Migrant-Serving Organizations in South Texas”) This is crucial in generating community awareness and engagement in order to emphasize a “welcoming” space in order to feel at “home,” and it is clear that despite PAPA’s unorthodox choice of printing color, they were well aware of this goal from the very beginning.
This next publication from PAPA is identified as the ninth issue. The color is simply black and white, the title is written at the top in connected circles, the editors and sections of the newsletter are identified, and there are even data tables full of case information. When taking a glance at the September 1989 issue to issue No. 9— published in the range of January-March of 1991— these works look like they were made by completely different organizations. In fact, it seems like PAPA Noticiero No.9 is exactly what you’d expect from a newspaper, perhaps pulled directly out of The Austin Chronicle or The Daily Texan.
These drastic changes in just two years can be understood as an attempt to build credibility. This is strengthened by the fact that the article on the front page, written by Cyrus Reed, is hyperfocused on delivering case statistics. It is titled “Results In: PAPA Assists Salvadorans” and the front page itself contains three different data tables breaking down PAPA’s cases related to Temporary Protected Status (TPS). However, the audience is still the focus of this publication— gone are the days of brightly colored pamphlets. PAPA is presenting a unified, official, no-nonsense front with a clear message of how they assist the immigrant community. Unfortunately, this attempt presents a less “welcoming” atmosphere by bombarding the audience with statistics, data tables, and numbers and figures. Yet later issues do not focus so dramatically on statistics as the ninth issue does; they synthesize the earlier warm tone with this formal informative delivery in an effort to empower their audience both socially and politically.