LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate communities who come from a Spanish speaking background.
Leaders of the Louisville Cuban community say about 60,000 Cubans now call Derby City home and the number continues to increase weekly. The Cuban population is expected to increase to 100,000 residents within the next five years.
There's a demand for Spanish media and the founder of the magazine El Kentubano said keeping his community connected is a moment that matters to him.
Every once in a while, you’ll see Luis David Fuentes catching up with several people at Sweet Havana on Fern Valley Road. It’s one of the 150 locations where you can find a magazine stand and pick up a free copy of El Kentubano.
Fuentes is the heart of the publication.
He’s been making waves across the Spanish speaking community in Louisville after starting the magazine 15 years ago.
The owners of Sweet Havana’s daughter Nichely Martinez said Fuentes has been an advocate for Cubans like themselves. She praises El Kentubano for the networking opportunities it provides.
“It’s a resource, it's a guide, it creates opportunity for small business to get in front of their client base,” Martinez said. “Their niche market.”
Fuentes said they print about nine to ten thousand copies of El Kentubano a month.
“The publication I would say is part of every Hispanic and Cuban house in the city because we have different sections,” Fuentes said. “We have real estate, health, education and local news.”
After moving to Louisville, Fuentes noticed the lack of Spanish media outlets in the city.
“It’s not like Miami or Los Angeles where you have TV, radio station or media,” Fuentes said. “At the time it was almost nothing. Everything was in English.”
As the face of El Kentubano, Fuentes actively shares his culture and stories of why Cubans are moving to Kentucky.
In a February Louisville Metro panel, he told a room full of business representatives why Cubans are leaving their home country.
Fuentes said Cubans are escaping from socialism and are seeking freedom.
“There is a dictatorship ruling the country for several years,” Fuentes said. “There is only one political party. If you don't agree with them, you have to go to jail or leave the country.”
During a 2021 free Cuba movement rally at Big Four Lawn, he stood with other Cubans protesting their home country's actions.
“Right now, in Cuba we more than 1,000 Cubans are in jail serving 15, 17 or 13 years just because they went peacefully to the streets in July 11, 2021 asking for freedom,” Fuentes said. “I wish I could have a publication in my country providing jobs, paying taxes but again, my country, there is no freedom."
He also uses his magazine as a platform to highlight Cuban stories and talent like Luandor Osorio, an artist raising his family in Louisville after leaving home for better opportunities.
Osorio's painting was on the cover of July’s issue of El Kentubano where it expresses a Cuban’s journey to America. It has small details of boats enduring rough ocean waters, a scale to represent justice, and even a hidden abstract form of the late Fidel Castro’s face.
“It’s exactly how Cubans are feeling,” Fuentes said. “This kind of painting represents the freedom that Cubans are hungry for. The freedom we found here.”
Martinez said it’s an honor to have an advocate like Fuentes to help other Cubans get settled into their new life in America.
“El Kentubano is an advocate for the community,” Martinez said. “It's a supporter for small businesses, it's a platform for who we are, so we're honored to have the newspaper here on site.”
Fuentes said his and other Cubans dream for freedom would never come true without the support Louisville offers.
“Having the opportunity to work close with my community, having the opportunity to vote, to have a business showing different opinions is a blessing,” Fuentes said. “So God bless Louisville and God bless the United States of America.”
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