LA FERIA — Rogelio Penaloza knows the power of the printed word.
He made his career in the printing industry and found it was a calling he was destined to enter early in life.
In his home office at Penaloza Graphics he has on display more than 10 vintage printing machines and multiple types of printing tools that revolutionized literacy and the newspaper industry.
They are the same tools of freedom that impacted society and literacy more than 500 years ago.
The machines are so large that perhaps only special collectors or printers could enjoy them.
“I started printing when I was 9 years old, and I have been printing all my life,” Penaloza, 82, said standing next to a replica Washington Printing Press, similar to the original press that produced the Gutenberg Bible in the 1400s.
“The spirit of the people who used to work with theses machines are with me day and night,” Penaloza said. “I have traveled all over the United States and sold printing machines all over the world.”
Penaloza knows everything there is about the printing industry.
Buying old printers became a passion he enjoyed, so much so that he collected printers from the past and now enjoys showing them and talking about their history in the printing world.
He said from the 1700s to the 1800s all of the printing machines in the world were made of wood and the same designs were remanufactured into steel in the 1900s.
He speaks of the first mass produced book, the Gutenberg Bible, and has a vintage copy of his own as any collector or printer enthusiast would enjoy having.
The machines are relics in today’s standards, but they work just as they did hundreds of years ago.
His dream is his printing tools will someday find a home at a local newspaper or media museum for show.
The machines are still capable of producing the printed word if needed.
“These are the same machines that changed the world,” Penaloza said.
