’s Jorge Ramos Takes a Stand

by eugene carolyn The prominent anchor of the top-rated Spanish-language newscast—and Photographs by Art Streiber host of a show on the English-language, millennial-targeted Fusion network—has mastered the art of polite confrontation with some of the world’s most powerful people. P. 66 in one hour, Jorge Ramos will get behind the desk at Noticiero Univision, the nightly news show he’s been hosting since 1986, to talk about what happened in the world today. This morning, for instance, Donald Trump released financial details about how the will pay for the wall he wants to build between the United States and Mexico. Ramos’ audience, which is larger, younger and way more bilingual than most U.S. news audiences, will no doubt be extremely interested in these devel- opments—and in the particular way that Ramos will give it to them. But right now, the anchor doesn’t want to talk about today: He wants to talk about November. ¶ “You have 55 million Latinos in America,” he says. “We’re talking 18 percent of the population. Out of those, 23 million are eligible “I think the most important to vote.” Out of those 23 million, he social responsibility thinks about 13 million of them will we have as journalists is to confront those who cast a ballot. “Here’s the thing,” he are in power. “ says. “In the last election, Obama won by less than 5 million votes. So we can decide who is going to be the next POTUS.” He pauses. “When I say we, I mean Latinos.” ¶ Trump more like a Latino Anderson Cooper than a Latino Cronkite. famously ejected Ramos from An hour away from the 6:30 p.m. a news conference in Iowa last start time of Noticiero Univi- summer, telling Ramos (known sion, he’s not wearing his tie by many as the Walter Cronkite yet. He looks relaxed when he says, “After Trump told me [to of Latin America) to “go back to go back to Univision], one of his Univision.” So here we sit, in the followers immediately said, ‘Get heart of that mysterious province: out of my country.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m also a U.S. citizen.’” Univision, which, as the millions of Hispanics living in the United States already know, is one of the biggest Spanish-speaking com- fter starting out as a munities in the world—even if it’s reporter in Mexico a City and emigrating not actually a sovereign nation. to Los Angeles in 1983, The massive Spanish-language Ramos landed the lead anchor network is headquartered in Man- position at Univision in 1986 and has since covered nearly hattan but is based, for all intents every major global event and and purposes, in . The vast interviewed nearly every major majority of its production, busi- Latin American leader and every sitting American president since ness and employees are located in George H. W. Bush. His audience Doral, , a suburb about a reaches even beyond his 2 million 35-minute drive from South Beach. nightly U.S. viewers: Noticiero

clockwise from top left: Univision is also broadcast to 13 Hispanic nations outside of the yn executives immediately gave him the hosting gig on its flagship ¶ We’re sitting in Ramos’ small of- l Jorge Ramos interviewing Mexican

United States. “We can report about a corruption case in Mexico, aro news magazine, America with Jorge Ramos. esy of C President Enrique Peña Nieto; t

fice with a glass wall separating us or in Guatemala or in Colombia,” Ramos says, “and they’ll pay t o/ Ramos and Noticiero Univision Since 1989, Ramos’ co-anchor on Noticiero has been Maria our attention, simply because it’s coming from the United States and ho co-host Maria Elena Salinas; Elena Salinas. “He realizes now that unless you say it in English, from a ruthlessly air-conditioned er: C t

: AP P A 2012 town hall with President we have no censorship here.” t Obama moderated by Ramos and it doesn’t count,” Salinas says. “That’s an exaggeration, but he 15,000-square-foot newsroom igh In 2013, Univision, in a joint venture with ABC News, founded Salinas; Ramos walking through knows we don’t want to preach to the choir. We already know lined with flat-screen TVs. With his Fusion, an English-language network aimed at a young and di- t and cen the Univision newsroom. what our problems are. But we want to make sure that main- nivision; R silver hair and wiry build, he looks verse America. Ramos is so trusted and popular that Fusion LefTop, U stream America understands the issues that affect Latinos.”

68 delta sk y / june 2016 “I love being a journalist. It’s the only profession in the world whose description includes being both rebellious and irreverent.”

Says Ramos: “Latin America does not exist for most Americans.” But it does for Univision and Fusion; both news operations are now housed in a sparkling new facility. In many ways, it’s the house that Jorge Ramos built. The new space allows him to shoot Noticiero Univision at night and work on America in every spare minute. “When we were programming the new channel, our research showed that our potential audience thought that the media game was rigged,” says America’s executive producer, 31-year-old Dax Tejera. “They thought the powerful and the journalists on television were too closely aligned.” But Ramos consistently tested differ- ently, even with non-Spanish speak- ers who didn’t have any prior experi- ence with him. “They perceived that he would go in and ask the tough questions. He was fearless. He didn’t look like everybody else.” In Ramos’ office, there are pho- tos of his family, his Venezuelan girlfriend and his two kids. In the corner, there’s a bookcase filled with books by other Latin journalists, as well as volumes of art criticism and an imposing edition of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. (“We all had to read it in college,” he says.) There is a copy of Ramos’ newest and 12th book, Take a Stand, a behind-the-scenes digest of the major interviews of his career, a roll call of his influences and a sort of manifesto for his own brand of heel- digging combativeness. And although he writes about his deep admiration for Barbara Walters, you get the sense that many of Ramos’ role models are from the print world. In Take a Stand, he name checks two print heroes most English-speaking readers have never heard of: the swashbuckling Oriana Fallaci and the fearless Elena Poniatowska. Continued on page 149

delta sky / june 2016 71 Univision’s visit the bathroom of the person they’re Jorge Ramos Takes interviewing. I won’t be able to wander into a Stand your bathroom here at Univision, so can I INDOOR KART RACING Continued from page 70 ask, are you a millionaire? Regardless of the medium, there al- “I can only say that I’m doing much bet- MIS E SIO O N ways has been something heroic about ter than my parents did in Mexico. And R S E Latin American journalists—perhaps that’s part of the American dream. And Z because so many of them wind up that’s why we came to this country, not U P H T P tragically killed or exiled by the cor- only to have a better life—this country O 45 M rupt political states they cover. Is this gave me the opportunities that my why Ramos’ brand of sophisticated country of origin couldn’t give me—but contention has made the 58-year-old so also so my kids could have a better life.” popular with such a massive audience? Early in Stand, he brims with affection for his work. “I love being a journalist,” he writes. “It’s the only profession in ike his heroes, Ramos sees . ADULTS & JUNIORS the world whose description includes himself as a crusader for truth. ARRIVE AND DRIVE48” AND UP being both rebellious and irreverent. l During his years covering Latin In other words, being a journalist keeps America, he says he’s articulat- you forever young.” ed three core destabilizing trends: po- litical corruption, failed democracy and BOOK YOUR NEXT the drug trade. “We take democracy for EVENT TODAY! granted here. In very few countries you What do you think you mean to U.S. see democracy working properly,” he audiences, particularly during an election says. “Even where democracy is func- season? tional, you see millions of people living “My vision of America is a diverse Unit- in poverty.” He says you can’t underes- ed States. It’s a place where immigrants timate the damaging effects of the drug are accepted and where tolerance rules. trade, and its black market connection And the reason is very simple: In 2055, to North American demand. “You have the white, non-Hispanic population will 20 million Americans who have used become another minority. That’s where some kind of drug in the last month. we are going. That’s my theory.” There has to be an industry south of the CORPORATE EVENTS border that supports that addiction,” he says. “And that’s what many countries, especially Central America and Mexico, hile Ramos’ book is as geo- are suffering right now.” graphically expansive as the There is undeniable glamour in con- w writings of someone such fronting these powerful forces on cam- as Fallaci, it doesn’t come to era. And Ramos is so good at it: locked the same hard-edged conclusions. There in verbal chess matches with deeply is no doubt, however, that in his 30 years complicated figures, in Spanish and now of reporting in Latin America, he has English, whether Fidel Castro, President developed countless alternatives to the Obama or Ted Cruz. Ramos is tasked A/V EQUIPPED MEETING ROOMS average American’s world view, though in a 30-, 20- or 5-minute interview with Ramos points out that U.S. politicians conveying to the viewer the symbolism differ from their Latin counterparts in of power in a showdown with truth, and one definitive manner. “I’ve confronted while this is so emotionally satisfying, many Latin American presidents with new media dynamics, as evidenced corruption,” he says. “And it’s funny how by Wikileaks or the freshly released many Latin American presidents cannot Panama Papers, can disseminate 450 answer the question, ‘How much money million pages of hard-core information do you have?’” all at once, with the real world potential to topple governments over a weekend. Can you answer that question? How much Ramos is more active online than ever SPACIOUS LOBBIES money do you have, Jorge Ramos? now—he writes essays and Fusion has “I think I could [laughs]. If I were to run been covering big-top events like the NORTH AMERICA LOCATIONS for president, if I were to run for public Iowa caucuses on Facebook Live—but AZ . CA . CO . FL . GA . HI . IL office, I think I should tell the people Ramos’ chosen format remains the ...... how much money I have.” televised interview. IN MA NY TX UT WA MX “My role is to show, in just a few min- In your book, you advise journalists to utes, what’s happening in a country,” (855) 517-7333 | K1SPEED.com he says. “To show, in just a few questions, just a journalist who asks questions. But other Latin American country. You can what it’s like to be a president or a dictator. on certain issues, you have to take a stand. say, 80 journalists have been killed in You have the luxury of doing an interview When it comes to racism, discrimination, Mexico. But if you go to El Salvador, it’ll for an hour.” corruption, public lies, dictatorships and be the same story; Colombia, it’ll be the human rights. On those six areas, as a same story; Venezuela would be the same What is your mission as a broadcast jour- journalist, you have to take a stand.” story. Fortunately, we live in a country in nalist? which you don’t die if you question the “I think the most important social re- I’ve always been enthralled by the bravery of president. I’ve spoken with President sponsibility we have as journalists is to Latin journalists—there seems to be so much Obama on many occasions. We don’t agree confront those who are in power. I mean, more at stake. on the fact that he has deported 2.5 mil- I believe in what we learn in journalism “I have to think of this every single day. lion immigrants. However, I talk to him school. I think objectivity is important—if I do my job. I ask tough questions to any- and nothing, absolutely nothing happens. five people die, you say five; if it’s red, you one. And then go home and take my kids Not only that, I get invited to talk to him say red—but going beyond the basics, I to the park . . . .” again, over and over again.” think the most important social respon- sibility that we have is to challenge those Yeah, you get to go back to Miami! Do you think the tone of the current presi- who are in power. And I’m not seeing that, “And go to the supermarket, with no dential campaign—given some of the candi- for instance, a lot in this presidential bodyguard. Had I done the same thing dates’ divisive statements—is a reaction to campaign.” in Mexico, living in Mexico, and mostly our more politically correct climate? in the provinces outside of Mexico City, “Well, no, but I think words matter. I think Images are so loaded with different words and it would be a different story. Since 1992, words are important. And words have con- meanings that sometimes, I would think, it according to the Committee to Protect sequences. I’ll give you an example. We’ve might be easy to project an agenda. Where Journalists, more than 80 journalists been fighting for many, many years not to do you see the line between journalistic work have been killed in Mexico. I mean, I am use the word illegal when people refer to and advocacy? incredibly grateful for the opportunities undocumented immigrants. And we think “I would argue that you cannot be that this country gave me. If I had stayed it’s important, because no human being is 30 years on the air if you are not credible, in Mexico, just look at those numbers.” illegal. So, I am convinced that if we are if you disseminate propaganda. Now, if able to change that, and use undocument- what you’re asking is if I am a journalist Right. ed immigrant, eventually that will change or an activist, what I would say is that I’m “And I can say the same thing about any our conversation on immigration.”

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