Roland Manteiga was born to Victoriano and Ofelia at the family residence in Tampa Heights in 1920. He was raised in the Seminole Heights area where he graduated from Hillsborough High School and attended the University of Tampa. He began his career at La Gaceta delivering newspapers at age 10, and at 17 he became the circulation manager.
The decade between 1943-1953 proved to be a watershed for the paper. The coming of World War II brought dramatic changes to the State of Florida. The increase in defense activities brought thousands of servicemen to army and navy, and MacDill airfield in Tampa was no exception.
Shipbuilding and agriculture bolstered the economy and Tampa and Ybor City were infected with the patriotic spirit of the war. Circulation of the paper increased and the number of its pages doubled.
Roland, like many of his peers, went into military service. He served overseas in the infantry in Japan and the Philippines. Upon his return to Tampa, he went back to work at La Gaceta, taking a more active part in the business. It was during this decade that the paper became bilingual and later trilingual. In 1950 the Linguaphone Institute named La Gaceta the best Spanish newspaper published in the nation. To this day La Gaceta remains the nations only trilingual newspaper.
Florida emerged from the war with renewed optimism. The 1950 census added two new seats in the national House of Representatives. Population was steadily rising and mass media was coming into its own.
Nonetheless, the increasing popularity of radio and television news was drawing customers away from the printed page and La Gaceta was no exception. “You have a small paper and you have to think of ways you can exist and you can survive. It’s really a very tough business.” Reminisced Roland. “I remember back in the early 50s when we switched from a daily to a weekly. I can’t tell you how many years I was paid $5, $6, $7 a week. It was a real sacrifice. Read more
