Latinx Files: Muchas gracias, Jorge Ramos

In fall 2013, I took a job as a digital editor with Fusion, an upstart cable news network launched by Univision and ABC News aimed at reaching a diverse millennial audience. Though the venture ended up being a failure (Who knew that starting a network whose profitability was dependent on getting picked up by cable providers just as the industry and audiences were pivoting to streaming would be a losing proposition?), my time there proved to be invaluable for my professional growth and ended up being an important stepping stone for me, one that would eventually lead me here.

I still remember the phone call I made to my parents informing them that I was uprooting my life in Austin, Texas, and moving to Miami (Univision’s headquarters are located in the suburb of Doral). My mother was not enthused, suggesting instead that I apply to law school and fulfill a promise made by countless children of immigrants to become a lawyer.

“Jorge Ramos es mi colega,” I countered, invoking the name of one of the most respected and consequential figures in American broadcast journalism history.

Ramos, who had anchored the nightly news program “Noticiero Univision” since 1987, was also the face of Fusion’s flagship show, “America With Jorge Ramos.” That her son would be working alongside someone who had spent decades informing the Spanish-speaking population of the United States was enough to assuage my mother’s fear that I was throwing my life away.

It’s been more than a decade since that phone conversation, and I genuinely cannot recall another instance in which she has questioned my career choices.

In September, TelevisaUnivision, the company that formed after Mexican broadcaster Televisa merged with Univision in 2021, announced that the network and Ramos had “mutually agreed” to part ways at the end of this year. On Dec. 13, Ramos co-anchored “Noticierio Univision” for the last time. Though he wasn’t retiring from journalism, he was leaving his longtime home.

“I have spent more than 38 years in this place. I started when I was 28, without any gray hair, and now, at 66, here I am,” Ramos said. “Over the years, I have had the privilege of presenting about 8,000 newscasts. [Author Gabriel] García Márquez was right: Journalism is the best profession in the world. I can’t imagine any other career that would have given me such an intense life filled with satisfaction and adventure.”

Audiences trusted Jorge Ramos because, like them, he too was an immigrant trying to decode the United States. He made this new country of theirs a little bit less foreign while also reporting on the homeland they had left behind.

“I think my responsibility is not only to report and deliver the news but also to give voice to other immigrants who don’t have the privilege that I have as a reporter,” Ramos told the New Yorker this past summer. “That’s what makes us different from other media. It’s not only to report the news but, in a sense, it’s also to provide guidance on how to live in the United States. Because we also report on how to vote, how to legalize your status, how to get health care, how to find a job. I honestly consider what we do public service.”

Ramos was not afraid to ask people in power, whether they be dictators or presidents, the tough and necessary questions. I’ll never forget watching President Obama bristle during a 2014 interview after Ramos referred to the Democratic president as “Deporter-in-Chief” for overseeing mass deportations, and for failing to deliver on his campaign promise of passing meaningful immigration reform when his party controlled the Senate and the House. Less than a year later, Ramos would be ejected from a Donald Trump event in Dubuque, Iowa, after calling him out for his anti-immigrant rhetoric (he was eventually allowed to return).

It’s not hyperbole to say that there will never be another Jorge Ramos again, largely because the conditions that gave us Jorge Ramos in the first place no longer exist. When he began his career, the Latino population in the U.S. was roughly 14 million people, many of whom were immigrants and Spanish speakers. Four decades later, we are now approximately 65 million strong, and the majority of us are U.S.-born and English-dominant. The manner in which we consume news has also changed. According to a Pew Research Center report published earlier this year that looked at the news consumption habits of U.S. Latinos, 54% of respondents said that they get their news mostly in English, while (65%) said they largely consumed news through their digital devices. Ramos’s departure truly marks the end of an era.

Gracias, Jorge, for all that you’ve done.

Save the monarch butterfly!

(Photo Illustration by Diana Ramirez/De Los)

The majestic monarch butterfly is in trouble.

As my colleague Lila Seidman reported last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed granting the black, white and orange insect protection under the Endangered Species Act. The ubiquitous monarch is found across North America and is known for its impressive annual migration. The Western monarch overwinters along the California coast line, whereas the Eastern monarch embarks on a multigenerational journey to central Mexico— the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a 138,000-acre national park that attracts millions of monarchs each winter and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has long been on my bucket list (If you need a moment of zen, I recommend watching this short YouTube video from the PBS series “Nature”).

Given its migratory nature, the insect has become a symbol of the pro-immigrant rights movement in the United States, and in the Mexican state of Michoacán, it is believed that the monarchs are the spirits of loved ones who have died.

According to an assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Western monarch population has plummeted by more than 95% since the 1980s, and has a 99% chance of extinction by 2080. Meanwhile, the Eastern monarch population has declined by about 80% and has a 56% to 74% chance of extinction by 2080.

Read Lila’s story to learn more about what’s causing the monarch’s rapid decline and what protection status under the Endangered Species Act could mean for it.

Stories we read this week that we think you should read

Library of Congress adds 5 Latino movies to the National Film Registry

Every year, the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry adds 25 films to its archive, works deemed worthy of preservation. This year, five Latino films— “Up in Smoke” (1978), “Spy Kids” (2001), “American Me” (1992), “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982) and “Mi Familia” (1995) —were among those that made the cut. De Los reporter Andrea Flores spoke to filmmakers and talent from those movies about the induction.

“They are films that should be understood and given the respect and understanding in the film industry and the art form,” said Edward James Olmos, who directed, produced and starred in “American Me,” and formed part of the ensemble cast of “Mi Familia.”

How do you adapt ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ into a TV show? By taking creative risks.

Last week saw the release of part one of Netflix’s ambitious television adaptation of “100 Years of Solitude,” the Gabriel Gárcia Márquez novel. But how do you adapt what’s considered to be among the best books ever written? By being willing to not be so faithful to the original text.

“I did say that I thought a lot of the adaptations that have been done with my dad’s work suffered from too much respect for the book,” Rodrigo Gárcia, who worked as an executive producer on the series, told De Los contributor Manuel Betancourt. “And too much awe for the writer. I told them they should feel free to truly adapt it.”

With ‘Sujo,’ Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez set out to make a different kind of narco film

De Los contributor Carlos Aguilar spoke with Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, co-directors of Sundance darling “Sujo.” The Mexican film, which centers on a young man trying to avoid meeting the same fate as his criminal father, eschews showing and glorifying narco-related violence.

“Mexicans have been living with the graphic horror of violence for decades because part of the machinery of criminal organizations is precisely the exploitation of images of terror so that the population lives with fear day in and day out,” Rondero said of their decision. “Showing them or not now is more of an ethical than an aesthetic question for filmmakers.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics lift heavy story line in Disney’s ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’

A good friend of mine, a parent, recently revealed in the group chat that he was looking forward to watching “Mufasa: The Lion King,” the computer-animated prequel to 2019’s “The Lion King” (itself an adaptation of the 1994 animated film of the same name), because as a self-identified hater, he was looking forward to watching Scar’s transformation into one of the biggest haters in the Disney universe. Honestly? Same.

Ahead of the film’s release, De Los reporter Andrea Flores spoke to Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was tasked with composing music for it.

Column: In 2024, books by and about Southern California Latinas shined

If you’re looking for a last minute stocking stuffer, or if you just want to support more Latinx authors, columnist Gustavo Arellano has compiled this list of books written by and about Southern California Latinas.

Disney agrees to $233-million settlement in wage theft case

Walt Disney Co. agreed recently to settle a wage theft class-action lawsuit with former and current Disneyland employees for $233 million.

“The company has been stiffing [thousands of] workers for several years,” Peter Dreier, a professor of public policy at Occidental College, told my colleague Gabriel San Román of the lawsuit. “They’ve denied them the back pay they’re owed while paying CEO Bob Iger over $31 million a year. It’s only fair that workers get what’s coming to them. And if the world were fair, Iger would take some of it out of his paycheck.”

Caesar’s greetings! The best Christmas gift I ever received was this salad recipe from my dad

Los Angeles food writer and cookbook author Carolynn Carreño shares this wonderful personal essay — and recipe! — about her dad’s recipe for Caesar salad, the centenarian king of salads.