Hitting it home
 Alberto Vasallo Jr. is passing the business he built from scratch, El Mundo, to his son, Alberto Vasallo III. |
Alberto Vasallo III was 12 years old when he got his first paycheck. It was for $4, and he earned it emptying wastebaskets, organizing papers, and dumping darkroom chemicals at the offices of his father's newspaper, El Mundo. He was 13 when he wrote his first newspaper column - about sports - and today, 26 years later, at age 39, he is editor and vice president of the Spanish-language newspaper.
El Mundo reaches a milestone 35 years this year as founder and president Alberto Jr. steps down and hands the day-to-day operations to his son, Alberto III. It's a proud legacy for Alberto Jr., who fled Cuba on a boat during the revolution, arriving to a bright land of "freedom and opportunity."
The first El Mundo was 16 pages, and Alberto Jr. delivered it himself in a station wagon, peddling it to Spanish grocery stores. The paper quickly grew in size and stature and became the flagship of the Cuban community, especially for homesick baseball players like Red Sox legend Luis Tiant, a childhood friend of Alberto Jr.
El Mundo reaches a milestone 35 years this year as founder and president Alberto Jr. steps down and hands the day-to-day operations to his son, Alberto III. It's a proud legacy for Alberto Jr., who fled Cuba on a boat during the revolution. |
A commitment to disadvantaged Latino youth and a love for baseball led to Latino Youth Recognition Days at Fenway Park, sponsored by El Mundo, and put the Vasallos on a first-name basis with superstars like Alex Rodriguez and Pedro Martinez. Alberto III's daughter, Alex, eight, regularly sits in the Red Sox dugout and is a guest at Martinez's birthday parties.
For avid baseball fan Alberto III, his press privileges, which give him almost unlimited access to the field and players, is a dream come true, validating what his father has been saying his whole life: "America is a land of opportunity."
For his father, who will finally get to relax in retirement after "working 24/7," the biggest perk is that "finally, I have the time to sit down and read the whole paper all at once."
