Cynthia Carrasco (Mayor of Alice)

By: Frankie Leal

Cynthia Carrasco, the newly elected mayor of Alice, sees the value of local newspapers like the Alice-Echo News Journal. As a leader in the community, Carrasco believes the Echo plays an important part in the city of Alice, especially in the current political climate.

“I think a strong group of people still pick-up the newspaper and rely on it for their information,” said Carrasco. “There’s not as many people in that group as there used to be, but they’re there.”

Carrasco moved to Alice from San Antonio in the early 1990’s, and she’s been a resident of Jim Wells County ever since. A former realtor and city councilwoman, Carrasco was sworn in as the new mayor of Alice in May of 2021.

 “The resilience of the people is my favorite thing,” said Carrasco. “They face so many downturns because of the oil industry, but they always find ways to come together and survive. Whatever it takes, they figure out a way, and that’s something I really admire about our people.”

The Echo has been in Alice since the 1890’s. They’ve been with the town through the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and they’ve witnessed the community grow into a booming oilfield town throughout the 20th century before it crashed, then boomed again, then crashed again, and so on.

“They’ve been here for so long,” said Carrasco. “I know things are different now, but it’s still hard to think about this community without the Echo being there.”

While Carrasco believes the paper still provides value in 2022, she knows the traditional newspaper industry has been dying for some time.

“In the past I learned about local news through word of mouth, and if I picked up the paper then that’s how I would get informed,” said Carrasco. “But today with the internet access, Facebook and different avenues, it’s just changed.”

Local newspapers like the Alice-Echo often cover things like elementary school science fairs, high school sports teams, local shops, and local holiday parades. It isn’t always breaking news, but the stories are still important to the people that live there.

 “They know the people and they understand the community,” said Carrasco about the Echo. We would lose that personal touch, and we would have to rely on other news sources that don’t have those same roots.”