Univision, ABC News On A Quest To Reach English-Speaking Latinos

Washington Post:

DORAL, FL — On Jan. 18, Univision’s star anchor, Jorge Ramos, arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court for a high-profile interview with special appeal to his massive audience. Ramos, by far the most recognized and respected face of Spanish-language news in the United States, greeted Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the self-styled “Wise Latina” who’d made history as the first Hispanic on the court.

Before the cameras rolled, though, Sotomayor — who was born into a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx — requested a small favor. “She asked me, ‘If I have a problem with my Spanish, please help me with my translation,’ ” Ramos recalls one recent afternoon in his spare corner office at the Univision studios in the Miami suburb of Doral.

“Sotomayor, she’s fantastic, but she struggles with Spanish,” Ramos says. “She spoke Spanish very slow.”

Read the whole story at Washington Post

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• Benicio Del Toro

  Oscar-winning actor ("Traffic," "21 Grams")

• Michelle Rodriguez

  Actress: "Avatar," "Girlfight"

• Rosie Perez

  Actress: "It Could Happen To You," "Fearless"

• Rita Moreno

  Oscar-winning actress ("West Side Story")

• Melonie Diaz

  Actress: "Be Kind, Rewind"

• Jennifer Lopez

  She does it all!

• Chita Rivera

  Broadway legend.

• Esai Morales

  Actor: "Gun Hill Road," "NYPD Blue"

• Rachel Ticotin

  Actress: "Total Recall"

• Susie Castillo

  TV host: "TRL," "School Pride"

• Raquel Castro

  Reality Star: "The Voice," and actress ("Jersey Girl").

• Kimberly Guilfoyle

  TV Host ("The Five")

• Hector Elizondo

  Actor: "Pretty Woman," "Last Man Standing"

• Denise Quinones

  Former Miss Universe.

• Liz Torres

  Actress: "Gilmore Girls"

• Alanna Ubach

  Actress: "Legally Blonde," "Bad Teacher"

• Lisa Vidal

  Actress: "The Event"

• Freddy Rodriguez

  Actor: "Six Feet Under," "Poseidon"

• Ian Gomez

  Actor: "Cougar Town," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

• Eva LaRue

  Actress: "CSI: Miami"

• Frankie Muniz

  Actor: "Malcolm in the Middle"

• Reagan Gomez-Preston

  Actress: "The Parent 'Hood"

• Rick Gonzalez

  Actor: "Old School"

• Meagan Good

  Actress: "Deliver Us From Eva"

• Shar Jackson

  Actress: "Moesha"

• Lana Parrilla

  Actress: "Once Upon A Time"

• Lauren Velez

  Actress: "Dexter," "New York Undercover," "Oz," Ugly Betty"

• Ramon Rodriguez

  Actor: "Charlie's Angels"

• Jimmy Smits

  Actor: "Dexter," "The West Wing"

• Kirk Acevedo

  Actor: "Oz," "Fringe," "Band Of Brothers"

• Ricky Martin

  Music superstar and Broadway star ("Evita").

• Shalim Ortiz

  Actor: "Heroes"

• Amaury Nolasco

  Actor: "Prison Break"

• Luis Guzman

  Actor: "How To Make It In America"

• Freddie Prinze Jr.

  Actor: "She's All That," "Friends," "Scooby Doo"

• Erik Estrada

  Actor: "CHIPs"

• Roselyn Sanchez

  Actress: "Without A Trace," "Rush Hour 2"

• David Zayas

  Actor: "Dexter"

• Marc Indelicato

  Actor: "Ugly Betty"

• April Lee Hernandez

  Actress: "Freedom Writers"

• Ana Ortiz

  Actress: 'Ugly Betty," "Devious Maids"

• Victoria Justice

  Actress: "Victorious"

• Naya Rivera

  Actress: "Glee"

• Scotty McCreery

  "American Idol" winner.

• Lynda Lopez

  TV host.

• Howie Dorough

  Singer, songwriter and member of the "Backstreet Boys"

• Giselle Blondet

  TV host: "Nuestra Belleza Latina"

• Chayanne

  Singer.

• La La Anthony

  Former MTV VJ and reality star ("La La's Full Court Life")

• John Ortiz

  Actor: 'Luck"

• Wilson Cruz

  Actor: "My So-Called Life"

Comments

[Tresmilanos]

07:21 PM on 02/20/2013

I might as well be giving you cash . . .cause this advice is good as gold, and it will give you access to an untapped treasure:

Give us other English speaking Hispanics, and not of the wannabe White variety. People that we can identify with, or those we would actually like our children to model after. For example, Raul Reyes would be the type of personality that I would welcome as a daily commentator or anchor. He is confident, knowledgeable, and has that intangible "it" factor. In terms of female personalities, I can't think of any specific Hispanic woman off hand, but if you have a brown and proud Rachel Maddow back there, she'll do.

[serdelp]

10:00 AM on 02/21/2013

I'm sorry, but what did you mean with your comment "not a wanna be White variety" . Are you opposed to white Hispanics on the news or do you only want to see Hispanics of mixed racial background on a news program? You do know and understand that the word Hispanic/Latino only refers to a culture and not an actual race, right? An expression that was coined during the Nixon administration to group all Hispanics into one generic group of people devoid of any actual nationality or racial identity for the purpose of identification. This terminology has place millions of Latinos from various countries and races into a generic subculture lacking any actual heritage or racial traits By stating that you would only want to see a "brown" Rachel Maddow, in essence you are you saying that you only want to see Mulattoes or Latinos of mixed race on TV. Remember Latinos are just as white, black or mixed as any other ethnic group. To simply call these Hispanic journalist "wanna be whites" is extremely ignorant and insulting to any Hispanic that doesn't conform to any one's idea of what Hispanics have to look like. No one as the right to demand journalist or for that matter, anyone on TV to have to belong to any particular race, that would be extremely racist and bigoted.

[Tresmilanos]

01:55 PM on 02/21/2013

A bit hysterical . . .but if you want to interpret my comment that way, you are obviously the one with the problem. I do love my brown skin and Native looks and enjoy seeing others that are equally confident and proud--as they should be.

[serdelp]

06:28 PM on 02/20/2013

While it is more advantages to speak as many languages as possible, we have to all remember that we live in an English speaking country and like it or not, English is the preferred language. I have always found it interesting and rather odd that so many Latinos either just speak Spanish or Spanglish in order to communicate. I've gone to various parts of this country and if I didn't know better, I would swear I was in a foreign country.
I also don't understand why so many Hispanics speak Spanish in front of non Spanish speaking Americans. I find this the height of rudeness and only shows what bad manners some people have. I wonder how they would feel if they worked in a place that had people constantly speaking in front of them in a language they didn't understand, I wonder how they would then feel. Yet this is precisely what happens on a daily basis in so many work places. Hispanics speaking Spanish in front of people who don't understand what they are saying. Like I wrote earlier, learn to speak as many languages as possible but for God's sakes, speak English in front of others that may not understand your language, doing so just makes you look rude, ignorant but worse, it shows what bad manners you have.

[Hoodooman]

12:06 AM on 02/20/2013

How about English speaking Afrohispanasians from the Himalayas, who also speak Flemmish?

[Jonathan Munoz]

10:24 PM on 02/19/2013

I LOVE THIS! Finally! Love Univision, but I'd prefer English. Love ABC, but sometimes I think that most mainstream media ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX are all a little too white and not tan enough if you know what I mean LOL

Perfect "Fusion" of the two cultures!

[serdelp]

10:09 AM on 02/21/2013

"Too White"? I guess Hispanics are not allowed to be anything but "Tan" in your world. I guess being white and a Hispanic must either be an an abhorrent oddity or unrealistic. Either way, I wonder what being a "Tan" Hispanic must look like? Is that a person of mixed racial background, like a mulatto, or some other exotic blend?

[Jonathan Munoz]

03:08 PM on 02/22/2013

By too white I mean too Anglo, the Hispanic issues are not really put forward, well recently they've been but that's only because people realize the political power we have. A "Tan" Hispanic looks like just that, a tan person. If we're going to assign a color to a race it's be Caucasian White, African Black, Middle Eastern Brown, Asian Yellow, Native American Red, and Hispanic well you say Tan, I think it's more Beige, but whatever. Same thing.

[lavender menace]

04:24 PM on 02/19/2013

It is about time that Univision realized that the younger generation of Latinos speak English better than Spanish and gave them a network that they and their friends can watch.

[Ruth Rodriguez-Fay]

02:39 PM on 02/20/2013

Indeed it is great that Univision is reaching out to younger generations of Latinos; but I find it sad that our younger generation fails to embrace their native language, and does not strive to maintain both languages. Most wealthy families who send their children to private schools are encouraging their children to learn many languages, we in the Latino community who have the language to begin with often run away from it. One does not have to sacrifice their native language to acquire a second one. And by the way, the many jobs that require a person to be bilingual are usually held by people whose first language is English. There is indeed a large market for bilingual professionals.

[lavender menace]

04:09 PM on 02/20/2013

I agree that being bilingual is beneficial. But most of young Latinos are more fluent in English than they are in Spanish or speak Spanglish.