While growing up in Long Beach, Andrea Sulsona belonged to two different worlds.
At school she spoke English with her friends, teachers, and classmates, but at home she only spoke Spanish. Raised by her grandmother, who didn’t speak English, Sulsona became a professional translator at a young age. Like many young people who are raised by immigrants, she had to do things like translate mail that was in English for her grandmother and be an advocate for trips to the doctor.
“I was very good at navigating between the two languages”, said Sulsona, who is one-woman show at Palacio de Long Beach magazine, the only bilingual Spanish magazine in the city. About 41 percent of the population in Long Beach identifies as Latino, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
While Sulsona works as a full-time social worker and mother, she has also somehow found time to publish Palacio, a free full-scale glossy bi-monthly magazine.
This experience of growing up bilingual is what inspired Sulsona to create the magazine that is published in both English and Spanish.
The magazine, which was first published in June 2009, prints 10,000 copies every two months and is distributed in over 300 locations. It’s target audience is families and focuses mainly on health and wellness, the environment, and the arts.
“I felt it that it would be nice to be able to provide something in both languages so that a story or information or resources can be shared between generations like the way I grew up,” said Sulsona, who grew up in Long Beach.
In the video above, Sulsona shares what fuels her to publish the magazine as a labor of love and what she believes it brings to the Long Beach community.
For more information, or to view the magazine go HERE.
