Obituary | Manuel Vacca, 81, from professional soccer with Chivas to the publishing world
Manuel Vacca – whose love of journalism began in his native Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, while playing for the revered Chivas de Guadalajara youth team – died June 27 at the age of 81.
The veteran journalist, who published El Sol Oaxaqueño before changing his name to El Sol Azteca, suffered from cancer.
Vacca, who was well known for his fedoras, said his collection of them ran up to 40.
At a 2022 tribute in Chinatown, Vacca was praised for his strong support of the Fresno Police Department and the local community. He was one of the main supporters of the Fresno Latino Rotary, which provides toys and food to families in need during Christmas.
He was the oldest of nine children born to a small print shop owner, José Vacca, and his wife, Ester.
His first love was soccer. He joined the Chivas youth team, second division in 1955 when he was 14 years old.
“I wanted to be a soccer player,” Vacca said in an interview with Vida en el Valle last year. “I saw that the reporters had a lot of contact with the players, so I joined the ranks of Chivas de Guadalajara.”
Vacca played professionally for several years, including eight games with Chivas. He scored six goals against rival Atlas in the oldest Mexican clásico in 1957 at the Jalisco Stadium.
The problem was that his father, José Vacca, was a fan of Atlas.
“So my dad wouldn’t let me go to training. I had to sneak out,” he said.
After his successful game against Atlas, Vacca came home to a surprise: “I found my little bag of clothes at the door.”
Vacca went to play with Tampico in the second division, and then with the team from Tepic, Nayarit to avoid problems with his father. Back then, players received 800 pesos a month if they were members of the soccer federation, and 100 pesos a month if they were not.
His journalistic career began in 1962 after befriending a priest who frequented his father’s small printing shop. The priest was organizing a prayer book. Vacca began reporting for a monthly publication.
In 1973, he was overtaken by the “American Dream” and moved to California, where he teamed up with another journalist to write Spanish-language content for an English-language newspaper in San Fernando.
“They gave us half a page,” recalled Vacca, who took photos and wrote. “They realized that there were a lot of people interested in the stories, and over time we became a 24-page newspaper.”
Vacca remembers covering celebrities like Vicente Fernández, Antonio Aguilar and boxer Óscar De La Hoya.
After 14 years, he went to work for a financial company co-owned by singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel. However, a disagreement by ownership resulted in the dissolution of the company after three years.
Vacca then went to work for an Italian publisher with offices in Guadalajara and Monterrey. He published several magazines, some focused on sports and others on entertainment. Vacca wrote for them.
He came to Fresno in 2000 and launched Sabor y Ritmo, a magazine dedicated to entertainment. Within two years, he changed the name of the publication to Ritmo y Sabor due to a dispute with a business partner.
He was still working for the Italian publisher when the business expanded into Mexican movie productions on DVD and CD. Vacca would travel to Fresno and other areas to conduct business.
However, the movie industry collapsed.
“Before 2000 there was a lot of work, a lot of money was made,” he said.
After that year, “they didn’t pay me in cash anymore, they paid me with movies.”
He sold them at auction and sales were great, Vacca said, until piracy killed all that.
In 2010, he started El Sol Oaxaqueño, a monthly newspaper. He changed the name to El Sol Azteca within two years.
Vacca retired in 2018 due to his health.
Survivors include eight children.
Funeral services are pending.
