In January, when a wave of poisonous wild mushrooms began hospitalizing people across Northern California, the Alameda County Public Health Department reached out to El Tímpano. They had noticed something troubling: a disproportionate number of the people getting sick were Latino and Indigenous immigrants from Latin America — the communities El Tímpano was built to serve. Within days, we sent a text message to our Spanish-speaking subscribers and produced a video in the Mayan Mam language, spoken by thousands of Oakland residents, many of whom speak little Spanish or English. We did it because we could. We had spent years building the language skills, cultural competence and trusted relationships that made us the right messenger for that moment. And the county called us because they knew it. That’s what local news looks like in our community. El Tímpano doesn’t deliver advertising to affluent consumers, nor is it funded by subscriptions or well-heeled members.…