Tar Macias and his wife Erika have reached the pinnacle of their profession.
The proud Mexican-American couple – who founded the bilingual newspaper Hola America News 25 years ago in the Quad Cities, recently won top awards for their new magazine at a national convention, among many honors.
Hola America Media Group publications won 12 José Martí Awards, including three gold honors for JEFAS Magazine, at the National Association of Hispanic Publications’ (NAHP) most prestigious recognition program.
The celebration took place Nov. 12-14 at NAHP’s annual convention in San Diego, where hundreds of Latino media professionals gathered to honor excellence in journalism, photography, design, and community impact. And what a night it was for Hola America, Hola Iowa, and JEFAS Latinas in Business Magazine.
Jose Marti (1853 – 1895) was a Cuban poet, philosopher, essayist, translator, professor and publisher who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in the liberation of his country from Spain.
JEFAS Latinas in Business Magazine (“jefa” is the Spanish word for female leader or boss) excelled at the awards ceremony with three first-place awards:
- Outstanding Hispanic Magazine – Glossy
- Outstanding Design – Magazine
- Outstanding Event for the 2024 Latina Business Excellence Summit
This triple-gold performance is especially meaningful given that José Martí Award submissions increased by 18% this year, Tar Macias said recently.
In a Nov. 24 Hola story on the awards, the media group wrote that they “validate what we’ve always known: when you combine excellent journalism with deep community roots, you create something powerful. These aren’t just plaques on a wall. They represent every person who shared their story with our writers, each colorful photo our photographers captured, the late nights our designers spent perfecting a layout, hours of translating, and community members who trusted us to tell their stories.
“We’re incredibly proud of this year’s showing, and none of it would be possible without our amazing team and the unwavering support of our readers and followers across Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and beyond,” said Erika Macias, president and publisher of Hola America Media Group.
The Latina Business Excellence Summit recognition was “particularly close to our hearts,” she noted. “This wasn’t just an event—it’s become a movement where Latina business leaders connect, learn, and build meaningful partnerships. To see it honored at the national level validates everything our team has worked to create.”
At the national convention, Hola Iowa brought home seven awards, proving that local journalism rooted in community makes a difference. The editor-in-chief Christina Fernández-Morrow earned silver for outstanding health article for “Woodbury County Disconnect between Latinos and Healthcare Providers”—a story that exposed critical gaps in lead poisoning testing access and sparked important conversations about health equity.
The publication also captured silver for its outstanding cultural photo essay, which beautifully documented the vibrancy, tradition and resilience of Iowa’s Latino communities.
Fernández-Morrow earned her second silver award for local business article for her profile of Des Moines jewelry designer Paola Elena Acuña, published in partnership with JEFAS, demonstrating the power of collaboration across their publications.
Amelia Orozco brought home bronze for outstanding cultural article, while their photography team earned bronze for outstanding community photo.
NAHP reported 71% membership growth since 2022, and the message from every panel, keynote, and conversation was clear: Latino media isn’t just growing—it’s essential to the future of American journalism, according to Hola.
Latino media growth is reflecting the U.S. explosion of this influential demographic.
The Hispanic population in this country grew from 35.3 million in 2000 to 68 million in 2024, and 79% of all Latinos are U.S. citizens, according to Pew Research Center. Hispanics made up 20% of people in the U.S. in 2024, up from 13% in 2000 and just 5% in 1970.
The estimated Hispanic population in the Quad Cities is about 33,000 (in Rock Island and Scott counties combined).
A quarter-century of growth
Tar and Erika Macias started Hola America in 2000, in the QC, expanding to the whole state of Iowa in 2014, with a separate paper. It began its coverage of Nebraska (online only) two years ago.
“So our brand is pretty strong in those three markets, even though we only been in Nebraska for a couple years,” Tar Macias said Monday, Dec. 1.
They average about 20 local stories each month (with just one full-time staffer beyond the couple, plus 8-10 “collaborators” or freelancers), and has other media partners that it can use stories from, totaling over 100 stories each month.
The Hola Iowa print paper comes out the first Thursday each month, and the print Hola America the third Thursday, a total of 10,000 copies each. Hola Nebraska is digital only, at holanebraska.org. Like River Cities Reader, Hola distributes its print papers for free at select locations.
Prejudice and bigotry stem from ignorance, so Hola (since it started) works hard to raise public awareness of the Latino community’s accomplishments, heritage, and positive impact.
“The reason is whenever somebody from our community did something bad, it will make the 10 o' clock news, it will make the front page of the newspaper. But for every one of those stories on one of us that does something bad, there are literally thousands of good stories from the Latino community doing something good for our community,” Tar Macias said.
“I wanted to focus on those stories. I wanted to balance, counteract the negativity with the positive things that we're doing in our community. And I mean, that's basically been my purpose for the last 25 years,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like I take one step forward, two steps back, especially with all the rhetoric going on cable TV. And the problem is people believe in it. And all I have to say is, if you don't know your neighbor, then you got to believe the lies, you know? So get to know your neighbor. Get to know somebody from the community.”
“We have more things in common than the thing that makes us different,” Macias added.
“Sometimes I felt like I was only preaching to the choir, but really, I see a lot of people from the white community that read my stories and they tell me, they follow us and they love what we're doing. So in a way, even though this was done to elevate Latino stories, it has become a part of the whole community.”
Hola has seen major web growth in the past year alone, as Macias said total visits to HolaAmericaNews.com increased 77% in the period Dec. 1, 2024 to Nov. 30, 2025, compared to the year before.
For years, they dreamed of a magazine featuring Latina business owners, and with the help and shared vision of Hola America’s editor-in-chief, Christina Fernández-Morrow, they made it a reality.
“We spent hours discussing how to show the talent and accomplishments of the growing number of female entrepreneurs in our community, and a magazine seemed like a great way to merge local talent to tell those stories,” said Fernandez-Morrow, editor-in-chief of JEFAS Latinas in Business Magazine.
JEFAS Magazine is a collaboration of writers, photographers, social media managers, editors, translators, and designers from across the Midwest – all of whom are Latinx. It is the first magazine in Iowa created by the Latinx community, for the Latinx community that focuses on how they are boosting the economy, giving back, and filling the gap between what is needed and what is available in the state.
“It always inspires me the level of expertise and inventiveness among our people,” Erika Macias said. “I wanted to display it in one place where we can all celebrate it.”
The first magazine (in May 2024) not only featured over 50 entrepreneurs in a variety of industries, it also contained valuable information about resources and opportunities any entrepreneur can use to enhance their business.
According to the Stanford 2022 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report, at the national level, from 2007 to 2019, the number of Latinx-owned businesses grew by 34%, while the number of White-owned businesses dropped by 7%. LOBs outpaced WOBs in revenue growth during the same period and their annual payroll grew over twice as fast. During the pandemic (2019-2022), the median growth rate in revenue for LOBs was 25% and 9% for WOBs.
Since 2020, Latina-owned businesses have grown to represent over 14% of all small businesses in the US. This number may not seem like a lot, but considering Latinas opened more businesses than shut them down during the pandemic, this number is significant. Their businesses contribute over $175 billion to the US economy. The potential for Latina-owned businesses is huge, especially if resources like JEFAS can help overcome the disparities that limit their growth.
The magazine’s mission is to empower Latina business owners by increasing their access to opportunities, representation, and resources so they can realize their full potential and inspire other Latinas to do the same.
After the first issue in May 2024, the second was in February 2025.
“The demand is so high over there for the magazine, that the Chamber of Commerce, the Latina businesswomen of Nebraska, wanted us to do a version for Nebraska,” Tar Macias said, noting the new JEFAS Nebraska edition is launching in February.
The magazine (which aims to have two issues out per year per region) serves Latina business owners, since Macias said they are the number-one demographic opening new businesses in America.
“We wanted to highlight stories of women opening up their business or running their business successfully for many years and also put the resources in there needed in order to be successful to survive,” he said. They launched it with a conference for Latina business owners, and the first in Des Moines last year attracted 250 women.
JEFAS plans to have a similar conference in the QC by early March 2026.
“What's unique with this one that's different from our newspapers is that the stories are all in English. We only have one or two in Spanish, but there's a QR code in the magazine where you can go to our website and read the stories in Spanish if that's what you prefer,” Macias said. “The reason we did that is because we know most of the Latina business owners speak English because they have to in order to really adapt.”
Celebrating with Latina Miss Universe
JEFAS got even more into its celebratory mood recently with the triumphant win Nov. 21 of Fatima Bosch, the new 2025 Miss Universe – just the fourth Miss Mexico to win the global crown in 74 years.
The magazine noted that “even amid a night of uncertainty and tension, a Mexican woman took center stage — not as a victim, but as a protagonist.”
Bosch, 25, prevailed over Miss Thailand, Praveenar Singh, and Miss Venezuela, Stephany Abasali, both strong contenders. She also distinguished herself among the contestants (130+ total) from the Philippines and Ivory Coast, who rounded out the Top 5.
“For Mexico, her victory comes at an especially symbolic moment. President Claudia Sheinbaum publicly praised Bosch for her courage: ‘Women look more beautiful when we raise our voices,’” the magazine noted.
“And at Jefas Magazine, we couldn’t agree more.”
2024 was the first year Hola America had submitted for NAHP awards (which represents 700 member publications), and won 16.
“I was very intimidated because there's a lot of big newspapers that are part of that,” Macias said of bilingual papers in Chicago and New York. “So I was pretty intimidated by that, and when we won 16 awards at different levels, that really gave me the confidence to say, hey, we competed with the big guys and we're actually doing well.
“That's why we really put more effort into last year and we got 12 awards,” he said of 2025. “We put less nominations in there, because I only nominated the things that I thought were quality, the best, the best of the best that we did. And still we came out with 12 awards and three of them were gold awards in the magazine.”
“For JEFAS to win that one, that was pretty special for us. It proved that it was worth all the extra effort that we put into that magazine,” Macias said.
“I was expecting it to do well, but that was beyond my expectations,” he said, adding all the JEFAS content is generated by Latino staff (unlike Hola papers).
“So in a way, it was for me to show them, look, there's a lot of talent here from our Latino community, and they're just not being used or not being considered for some of those positions,” Macias said. “We did that magazine for us, by us.”
Hola hopes the recognition will help them grow more, though they’re not planning to cover beyond the three-state region.
“It’s going to help us better reach more people. So we're reaching more people, we're reaching the right kind of people,” Macias said. “So we're hoping that advertisers see that. But one thing that we're very, I don't want to say picky, but we're very conscious of -- we don't just want anybody to advertise with us. We want the people that really get that audience, that want to reach our audience in a very authentic and organic way.”
“Ultimately, we're hoping to get more advertisers to get the right people that want to be part of the Hola America ecosystem to support us. That way we can keep doing this for 25 more years. I might not be around, but maybe somebody else could take over and keep leading this into the next generation.”
To read Hola America publications, click HERE. To check out JEFAS magazine, click HERE.
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