Veronica Salcedo has known she wanted to be a journalist since she was an 8-year-old in Zacatecas, Mexico. She got her first opportunity at a radio station when she was 14, and stuck with the career as an adult.
“At first I studied law, because there wasn’t a journalism school in the city,” she tells the Scene in Spanish. But Salcedo soon began studying in Chihuahua. She later landed a job in Aguascalientes, and then in Mexico City, acquiring experience in television and radio. In 2015, her husband received a job offer in Nashville, and the couple relocated.
“My passion is journalism, so I started Nashville Noticias,” she says, referencing the online publication she launched in late 2015. There were some Spanish-language newspapers and radio programs when she arrived, she says, “but nothing visual … nothing on video.” She saw a gap and it motivated her, not just as a Spanish-speaking reporter, but as a news consumer as well.
“I needed information too,” Salcedo says. “And I got involved with the community, and they told me that there was a real lack of information.”
Since launching the online outlet, Salcedo, who serves as the news director, has been all over town covering topics from fires to small businesses to protests, not to mention interviews with local advocates and community leaders — all to bring information to Nashville’s Latinx population. The endeavor attracted a sizable following, with more than 274,000 followers on Facebook. While the outlet’s website is regularly populated with articles, it’s the numerous videos on social media featuring Salcedo that really set Nashville Noticias apart.
Salcedo says the decision to produce live videos helped the outlet get more information out at a faster clip. “We’re generating more and more information every day,” she says.
There’s also a community-newsletter vibe to the site — there are calls for volunteers, filmed ads from sponsors, and notices about people who are sick or facing tough times. Salcedo enjoys the altruistic side of Nashville Noticias’ work, raising awareness for people in need.
“Sometimes it’s support for families that need money for funerals, people who are sick and don’t have access to funds,” she says. “We try to help those people and get the community get involved.”
Like other journalists around town, Salcedo has been busy covering the pandemic, which has hit Latinx communities in Nashville and across the country especially hard. In addition to reporting, she’s also done some direct assistance, helping distribute food and masks to folks in need.
In 2020, Nashville Noticias formed a partnership with WPLN, Nashville’s NPR affiliate, wherein a reporter from the station offers information and analysis on local and national politics. “We’re really happy with the partnership because we want to do even bigger things,” says Salcedo. Nashville Noticias also works with the local Univision outlet, Channel 42.
Salcedo takes the job seriously, and she says that sometimes means 14-hour days for her and her nine co-workers. But the community has responded positively to the hard work.
“People like that we are committed to our work,” she says. “That this isn’t just a hobby [for us]. ... It is a beautiful profession, and I’m in love with the work I do.”
There have been personal challenges along the way as well. Salcedo lost her mother and father in 2019. She says they were always supportive of her, and taught her the value of hard work.
“It was very difficult to lose them both in a year,” she says, noting that it was hard to get back to work after their deaths, but she knew it was what they wanted for her. “My mother told me, ‘I don’t want you to stop for anything. I want you to continue on.’ ”
Salcedo has also seen people struggling in the communities she covers — “I wish I had a magic wand and could help anyone who needed it.” But she’s seen a lot of strength in Nashville’s Hispanic community, especially the immigrants building new lives in a new country.
“A lot of us arrive here without families … and here in this country we find friends who become our family, and that creates a spirit of belonging. We find places to work, places where we can feel useful, from women working in hotels to men working in construction. … When we find that spirit, that place of belonging, I think that’s when we truly decide to stay here in this country, continue forward and strive for our children and our futures.”
Photographed by Eric England at Plaza Mariachi.
