Is The Tico Times The Oldest Around?

Is The Tico Times the oldest English-language newspaper in Latin America?

Roy Arguedas Arias

Patarrá, Desamparados

No. Argentina’s Buenos Aires Herald was founded in 1876 by William Cathcart, an “aging Scot” and longtime Argentinean resident, according to the history of the paper available at www.buenosairesheald.com. While it began as a weekly and was for a time a “sporadic daily,” according to the site, it has been published daily 360 days a year for approximately eight decades.

However, The Tico Times, founded in 1956 by Elisabeth Dyer, is the oldest English-language paper in Central America still published (even though it ceased publication from mid-1960 to early 1972).

For the full history of The Tico Times, see this week’s 50th Anniversary Special Section.