About our Founder

Hi! I’m Sarina Guerra. I am the founder, publisher, and lead editor for People’s Press. We are not intended to operate exactly like a conventional newspaper. Instead, People’s Press allows space for:

personal essays
first-person reporting
commentary
community submissions
student work
videos
photographs
art
interviews
traditional reporting
local-interest stories

People’s Press exists because people shouldn’t need institutional permission to have a story worth telling. It isn’t trying to abolish journalism standards. It is trying to separate journalistic standards from journalistic gate-keeping.

People’s Press was officially born and raised on the fold-out kitchen table of my humble studio apartment in October 2024, but was conceived nearly two years prior while working as a local journalist for Brawley’s own Desert Review. I didn’t exactly set out to be a writer, but a friend from high school forwarded me a job opening and I figured “Why not?” I had taken plenty of AP writing classes in my days at Brawley Union High School, have since completed two college degrees at Arizona State University, and I’ve seen Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy more than once—so I thought I knew what to expect. The editors, Betty and Lloyd Miller, gave me a shot and I accepted my first freelance assignment to report on a lecture and book signing given by agricultural engineer and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Temple Grandin at Palmer Auditorium. You can read that very first story here: ASIC and Ag families present Dr. Temple Grandin to speak on neurodivergent potential