Tatiana Bedoya celebrated her 33rd birthday last week by officially launching Vixta, a new Spanish-language magazine for greater Sacramento's Latino community.
"We wanted to do an up-scale, quality publication … for professional, bilingual individuals who want to go back to their roots," editor and chief Bedoya told The Bee.
"We wanted a very serious, well-written lifestyle magazine in Spanish – something that Sacramento has never seen before," said the former news reporter and anchor for Channel 19 (KUVS), a local Spanish-language TV station.
With an initial 76 pages and a circulation of 10,500, Vixta – a play on the word "vista," which means "view" or "outlook" in both Spanish and English – has a cover price of $4.50 per issue.
Vixta, to be published six times a year, will be sold in stores and available by subscription.
With a 9-by-11 3/4-inch format, Vixta resembles a family photo album with photos and articles.
The magazine's arrival signals the fulfillment of a dream for the Colombian-born Bedoya, who invested her life savings and money from her parents to get the publication off the ground.
After resigning from Channel 19 in early 2007, she yearned to get back into journalism.
"The idea for the magazine came to me about eight months ago," Bedoya said.
She found two other journalists who shared her enthusiasm for such a publication, but one of the trio eventually moved on to other pursuits.
The other two – Bedoya and former Channel 19 reporter Xochitl Arellano – stayed.
Arellano, now a spokeswoman for the Latino Caucus in the state Legislature, will be in charge of a regular Vixta feature dealing with global warming, energy and ecology.
Arellano, who attended the recent Democratic Convention in Denver, could not be reached for comment.
Largely dependent on freelance writers and photographers, the magazine has only two full-time staffers – Bedoya and Ernesto Delgado, its creative director.
Bedoya said she has little doubt that Vixta is here to stay, despite its unveiling amid a tough economic climate.
"I come from a country where we have a recession – economic problems – every single year," she said. "So I know the challenges we're going through in the United States are temporary. Will our magazine succeed? Absolutely."
For now, Vixta will be in Spanish.
But if readers or other factors demand it, Vixta will become bilingual, Bedoya said.
Call The Bee's Edgar Sanchez, (916) 321-1088.
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