OUR STORY · MEMPHIS NOTICIAS

An informed community is a community with power.

Since 2017, Memphis Noticias has been the Spanish-language newsroom Memphis turns to first — for breaking immigration enforcement, the city’s daily news, and the information families need to make decisions on the worst day of their lives, and on every ordinary day in between.

IN THIS STORY

WHY WE EXIST

Memphis has the largest Spanish-speaking community in Tennessee — and almost no journalism written for it.

When local English-language outlets cover the Hispanic community in Memphis, they cover it as a subject. We cover it as our readers.

We exist because information is power, and because for an immigrant family in Memphis in 2026, that power is the difference between understanding a school district’s enrollment deadline and missing it, knowing your rights during an encounter with ICE or signing something you should not, learning that a clinic in Berclair is offering free vaccinations on Saturday or going without.

We do not translate other people’s reporting. We send our own reporters to the courtroom, the press conference, the church basement meeting, and the press conference outside the federal building. Then we write what we found in the language our readers already think in.

Manuel Durán, founder and editor-in-chief. Photo: Andrea Morales for Memphis Noticias.

Manuel Durán founded Memphis Noticias the year he stopped asking permission.

Manuel Durán came to Memphis from El Salvador in 2006, escaping the gang violence that had killed members of his family. He was 25. He spoke no English. He had been a working journalist back home, and now he was driving a delivery truck and writing on the side for whichever Spanish-language outlet would publish him.

In 2017, after more than a decade of reporting other people’s stories under other people’s mastheads, he founded Memphis Noticias. The mandate from day one was simple: cover what English-language Memphis newsrooms were missing, cover it in Spanish, and cover it from inside the community it described.

“I knew there was a Memphis my neighbors lived in that nobody was writing about. I started writing about it.”

On April 3, 2018, less than a year after launching the outlet and while covering a protest outside the federal courthouse in Memphis, Manuel was arrested by city police, transferred to ICE custody that night, and held for 465 days across three detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama. Melisa Valdez and her mother Patricia Frías kept Memphis Noticias publishing from Memphis while he was inside. He filed dispatches himself on a contraband phone. CNN, NPR, The New York Times, and the Committee to Protect Journalists covered the case.

In July 2019, he was released on bond. On March 24, 2022, an immigration judge granted him asylum. Later that year, the National Press Club awarded him the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. In every one of those years, Memphis Noticias continued publishing.

Today Manuel still writes the lead column most weeks. The byline is his — but the work is no longer a one-person operation. The newsroom has grown. The community it reports to has tripled. The premise has not changed.

Nine years on the ground.

2017 — TODAY

2017

Memphis Noticias founded

Manuel Durán launches the outlet from his apartment in Memphis. First print runs are 500 copies, hand-distributed to Latino-owned businesses across the city.

April 2018

Founder detained by ICE

Manuel is arrested April 3 while covering an immigration protest and held in federal custody for 465 days. CNN, The New York Times, NPR, and CPJ cover the case.

2018–19

Newsroom keeps publishing

Melisa Valdez and her mother Patricia Frías sustain Memphis Noticias from Memphis through the 15 months Manuel spends in detention. Not one week is missed.

July 2019

Release on bond

After 465 days across three detention facilities in Louisiana and Alabama, Manuel is released. He resumes editing Memphis Noticias the same week.

2020

Latinx Community Leader Award

Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group recognizes Manuel and the newsroom for community impact during the pandemic and the previous year’s detention case.

2020

Daily pandemic coverage

Memphis Noticias runs daily Spanish-language COVID briefings for the Mid-South — translating Shelby County Health Department guidance for the audience it never reaches.

March 2022

Asylum granted

An immigration judge grants Manuel asylum on March 24, ending a four-year legal fight that becomes a teaching example for First Amendment retaliation claims.

2022

Hefner First Amendment Award

The National Press Club awards Manuel the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award, recognizing journalism produced under conditions of federal pressure.

2026

115K readers and counting

The newsroom now serves more than 115,000 followers across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Threads, X, and LinkedIn, with a daily Spanish-language newsletter launching this year.

What we believe — and what we will not do.

Six commitments that decide the calls we make every week, especially the hard ones. They are not aspirational. They are the working rules.

In language, not in translation

We do not translate stories written for an English-language audience and call that service journalism. Our reporters write in Spanish, for Spanish-dominant readers, with the cultural references and reading rhythms that audience already speaks.

Independent, editor-led, fact-checked

We are not part of a national chain. We do not run AI-generated filler. Every story carries a byline, every byline answers to an editor, and corrections are published openly when we get something wrong.

Service before sensation

We cover what readers can do something with: an enforcement event that affects their block, an enrollment deadline they cannot miss, a clinic that opened on their bus route, a court case that will set precedent for their cousin.

Verified before fast

On crisis stories we use a “What we know / What we cannot confirm yet” pattern. We would rather publish a thin verified story today than a thick speculative one this morning.

Source protection over scoops

We protect the identities of vulnerable sources, accept encrypted communication, and have never given up a source to a federal agency. Our founder spent 15 months in detention for the work — that protection is non-negotiable.

Community-first, not community-coded

Hispanic readers in Memphis are not a marketing segment. We do not chase engagement metrics that conflict with their interests, and we say no to advertisers who do.

The people writing it.

A small newsroom with deep beats. We hire bilingual journalists with community ties, not freelancers we will never see again.

Manuel Durán Ortega

Founder, Owner & Editor-in-Chief

Salvadoran journalist with more than 30 years in media. Began as a radio announcer in 1993, rising to station manager and news director of Channel 67 (now Channel 77) in Usulután. Fled death threats tied to his investigative reporting on corruption in 2006, relocating to Memphis. Founded Memphis Noticias in 2017. Detained by ICE for 465 days in 2018 while covering an immigration protest; granted asylum in 2022. Recipient of the 2022 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award from the National Press Club.

Melisa Valdez

Managing Partner & Contributing Editor

Argentine-born, Memphis-based. B.S. in Business Administration from Victory University. Previously with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and New Urban Media. Kept Memphis Noticias publishing during Manuel Durán’s 15-month ICE detention from 2018–2019. Produces original journalism alongside Manuel and leads every English-language operation — advertising, sales, partnerships, PR. Also serves as Legal Services Coordinator at Mid-South Immigration Advocates.

Patricia Frias

Contributor

Mother of Melisa Valdez. Helped sustain Memphis Noticias’ operations during Manuel Durán’s 15-month ICE detention from 2018 to 2019. Credited in the newsroom’s history as essential to the outlet’s survival through its hardest year.

Recognition.

The work has been recognized by national press organizations, civil rights groups, and the U.S. and international newsrooms that have covered our story.

2022

National Press Club

Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award

Awarded to Manuel Durán for journalism produced under conditions of federal pressure, including coverage continued during and after his 465-day detention.

2020

Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group

Latinx Community Leader Award

Recognition for community impact, pandemic-era Spanish-language information work, and continued publication through the detention case.

2018–22

CNN · NYT · NPR · CPJ · BBC

National & international press coverage

Manuel’s detention case and Memphis Noticias’ continued publication during it were covered by every major U.S. national newsroom and the Committee to Protect Journalists.