LOS ANGLES (By Eryn Brown, NYTimes) April 11, 2005 - On a recent morning, Jaime Gamboa and Gabriel Grimalt walked into the concrete shell that would soon become the offices of their new magazine, Tu Ciudad. The sun was shining, and a row of windows facing north offered sweeping views from the Hollywood sign to downtown Los Angeles.

"If we do our job right, we'll have the whole view," Mr. Gamboa said, imagining a day when Tu Ciudad's offices would expand across an entire floor.

Mr. Gamboa, 31, and Mr. Grimalt, 38, believe that Tu Ciudad, the first glossy English-language magazine in Los Angeles aimed at young, upscale Latinos, will be more than just a publication: they think it will prove that they, and wealthy Hispanics like them, have finally arrived.

In particular, the Tu Ciudad team is zeroing in on Hispanics who identify strongly with mainstream American culture while also cleaving to their Latin roots.

"We think this is going to shake up the way people see the Spanish market," Mr. Grimalt said.

For years, the conventional wisdom regarding the growing Latino market in the United States has been that it was, by definition, Spanish-speaking. But over the last decade or so, a growing chorus of marketers has sought out more assimilated Latino consumers - people whose primary language is English.

The battle has been political at times. At times, Spanish-language advocates were of the opinion that speakers of English dismissed Spanish ethnic identity. At the same time, many among the English-language crowd consider the Spanish-language advocates (especially the television behemoth Univision) to be dinosaurs, more interested in protecting their own advertising sales turf than exploring what was really going on in their communities.

"Unfortunately, the way corporate America has approached this consumer is shaped by the loudest kid in town - Spanish-language TV," said Manny González, a senior brand manager at Diageo North America, who oversees Hispanic advertising for Johnnie Walker Scotch.

"This kind of publication should have arrived a long time ago in Los Angeles," said Mr. González about Tu Ciudad. "We have very few vehicles to reach the acculturated customer. But now you're seeing print space address that thirst for media options."

Angelo Figueroa, Tu Ciudad's 48-year-old editorial director, said that the magazine would speak in a voice that was equal parts Latino and American. "We're saying, 'We know what's in the mainstream.' What that means is, in book reviews, not every book will be about Latinos."

"Or the Killers," Mr. Grimalt said, referring to a rock band currently popular with the Anglo hipster crowd.

Manuel Machado, president of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, said that publications like Tu Ciudad were "the payoff for the people who've made it." It is unclear, for now, how exactly Tu Ciudad will strike the correct balance. Backed by Emmis Communications, which owns Los Angeles and Texas Monthly magazines, the bimonthly Tu Ciudad (Your City, in Spanish) will feature a familiar mix of glossy regional publication content - celebrity profiles, reportage, listings, restaurant reviews, and design and fashion features - "with a Latino twist," its founders said.

That inaugural issue, scheduled for May 20, will go out to 110,000 readers in the greater Los Angeles area through controlled circulation. Within three years, its founders said, Tu Ciudad will shift to a subscription model. Eventually, the magazine hopes to expand to other major cities.

Tu Ciudad will join other magazines aiming at Hispanics, including popular titles such as People en Español, Latina and Hispanic Business, which took in $182 million in advertising revenue in 2004, an increase of 16.8 percent from the year before, and higher than the 11.1 percent increase for the general magazine market, says Carlos Pelay, president of Media Economics Group, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company that tracks Hispanic magazines.

Its three principals are well known in the business: Mr. Gamboa began by selling ads for Men's Health and Wired and for the Hispanic market heavyweight, People en Español; Mr. Grimalt was in Spanish radio; and Mr. Figueroa was the founding editor of People en Español.

But as more marketers acknowledge the buying power of Latinos, some observers of the English-language magazines wonder if advertisers already able to reach hip, wealthy Latinos through magazines like GQ and Vanity Fair will not consider the Tu Ciudad superfluous.

"The one area where it might be difficult for these guys is running into clients who think, 'Why would I do an English-language message when I'm already reaching these guys with my general-market buys?"' said Lucia Fernandez-Palacios, media director at Dieste, Harmel & Partners, a Hispanic advertising agency in San Francisco.

But publishing regionally rather than nationally may give Tu Ciudad help in connecting with its audience. Mr. Figueroa said that Tu Ciudad will concern itself with the tastes of Latinos in Los Angeles, who mostly hail from Mexico.