As the main tool for citizen communication during Rosarito’s municipalization movement, Ecos de Rosarito played a crucial role in informing and uniting the public—according to several key figures who participated in the city’s path to autonomy.

Together with its predecessor, El Guardián, this publication helped mobilize a small but determined community to achieve two major victories that shaped Rosarito’s future.

The first was the successful fight against a federal expropriation decree. On November 3, 1981, President José López Portillo issued a decree that aimed to expropriate a large portion of Rosarito’s land. In response, residents formed a Defense Committee, and the weekly publication El Guardián emerged as a key communication tool for the grassroots movement. It was directed by Pedro Arias Guzmán, father of the city’s current official chronicler, Juvenal Arias Pérez.

Thanks to widespread civic participation and the information campaign supported by El Guardián, the decree was ultimately overturned in 1982.

Following that success, the Defense Committee evolved into the Comité Pro Municipio on March 3, 1983, with the stated goals of “preventing further government corruption, ensuring better tax administration, and most importantly, fighting for municipal status.”

With that transformation came a new publication. In 1991, Ecos de Rosarito was founded by journalist Ernesto Calvillo Ureña, who remains at the helm today. The paper adopted the same mission as its predecessor: to support the movement for municipalization.

The Comité Pro Municipio began with 12 founding members—11 men and one woman: María Elena “Elenita” Salazar (RIP). Its first president was Hugo Eduardo Torres Chabert. Other founding members included Manuel Appel Valenzuela, Sergio Brown Higuera, Alejandro Crosthwaite Escudero, Eduardo Castillo, Rafael Castillo Castro, José Luis Ibarra (secretary), Jesús Perdomo, Bernardo Pérez García (treasurer), engineer Bernardo Rémpening, Francisco Torres González, and of course, Elenita.

Veteran members of the municipalization movement—such as Miguel Jiménez García, Ramón López Arce, and Concepción Acosta—agree that Ecos de Rosarito played a pivotal role in keeping the community informed and engaged throughout the process.

At the time, Rosarito had an estimated population of around 35,000. Ecos de Rosarito became the primary source of news and updates for residents, chronicling every step of the campaign for self-governance.

In its late-June and early-July 1995 editions, Ecos de Rosarito shared the long-awaited announcement: the official creation of Baja California’s fifth municipality—Playas de Rosarito—bringing joy and pride to the community it had served from the start.