By Allan Wall
10/22/2002
What is the fifth-largest television network in the U.S.A?
What network can broadcast to 97% of Hispanic homes in the U.S.A.?
What network did President Bush choose to be the first to interview him?
If you answered "Univision" to all 3 questions, you were correcto!
The Miami-based Univision network is the largest Spanish-language network in the U.S.A and is also viewed in 13 Latin American countries, including Mexico.
Despite assimilationist happy talk, about half of American Hispanics still prefer their news in Spanish and not English. Univision controls 70-80% of this market. During prime time, Univision is seen by as many Latino viewers as the six biggest English-language networks put together.
And the undisputed star of Univision is anchorman Jorge Ramos. (Email him by clicking here.)
Jorge Ramos is a white, blue-eyed Mexican (see photo here). He immigrated from Mexico in 1983. Since 1986 he has been anchorman of Univision’s Noticieros news program. In Miami (where he resides), Los Angeles and Houston, Ramos beats Rather, Jennings and Brokaw. His daily radio commentary is broadcast to dozens of Spanish radio stations, his weekly column is published in the U.S. and Latin America, he’s written several books and won 7 Emmys.
Despite that fact that Ramos is not even a U.S. citizen, he’s been referred to as "one of the U.S.A.’s most influential Hispanics". The Wall Street Journal even called him "key to a huge voting bloc".
Exclusive to VDARE.COM, we here present, translated into American, a September 30th Spanish-language column by Jorge Ramos, "La Latinización de los EU" (The Latinization of the United States). It gives nothing less than the Univision anchorman’s vision for the U.S.
Ramos proclaims that
"There are entire days in which I do not have to pronounce a single word in English, nor do I eat hamburgers or pizzas, and I certainly don’t watch TV programs in a language besides Spanish. Sometimes all the emails I receive are in Spanish and those who greet me say 'hola' or 'aló' but not 'hello'. This would be normal in Bogota, Santiago or San Salvador. But it is becoming more frequent in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Chicago.
"Why? Well, it’s because the United States is undergoing a true demographic revolution. Some like to call it "la reconquista". The same territories that Mexico lost to the United States in 1848 — Arizona, Texas, California … — and many others that did not form part of the Mexican Republic — such as Florida and Illinois –are experiencing a genuine cultural invasion. … in many of these places Spanish predominates over English and they sell more tortillas and hot sauce than bagels and ketchup …
"Presently there are more than 40 million Latinos living in the United States — to the 35 million that the Census counts you have to add the 8 million undocumented [VDARE.COM note: That’s PC for illegal aliens] that are mostly of Latin American origin … Spanish is heard in every corner of the country, including the White House … The most-listened to radio program in New York is El Vacilón of Miami and not … .Howard Stern’s show."
Ramos even gets to do a little personal gloating:
"When I arrived to the United States almost 20 years ago, a news director predicted that I would never work in television. 'Your accent in English is too strong,' he told me, 'And the Spanish media is on the verge of disappearing.'
"In reality, the opposite occurred. The Spanish media grew in an extraordinary manner. There are presently three television networks and hundreds of radio stations in Spanish. And the news director lost his job while I obtained my first job as a reporter for a local TV station in Los Angeles."
The next paragraph is key:
"The famous and stereotypical idea of the melting pot is a myth. The European immigrants — Italians, Germans and Poles, that preceded the Latinos assimilated rapidly to the American culture. But the Latinos have achieved the feat of integrating economically to the United States without losing their culture. Such a phenomenon has never occurred before."
Funny, that exactly contradicts something Ramos said last year on Nightline IN ENGLISH, to American viewers:
"Hispanics … are following … exactly the same path as other immigrants. That’s what happened with the Irish and what happened with the Italians … .We are assimilating at a very fast pace."
Ramos' Nightline appearance was on March 2001. His column was published a couple of weeks ago, September 2002. Did Ramos
(a) change his mind in the intervening year and a half or
(b) say one thing in English and another thing in Spanish?
Actually, it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is the same: bad news about the future assimilation of Hispanic immigrants.
Elsewhere in the same Nightline interview, Ramos also said that "I don’t know who’s assimilating to what" and "America is going to … . have to accept the fact that it’s truly becoming a diverse country." Maybe (c) he’s confused. But it’s still bad news.
In his current "Latinization" column, Ramos gloated further:
" … .the growth of the Latino community is assured … . If present tendencies maintain, in less than 50 years there will be 100 million Hispanics in the United States and only Mexico will have more Spanish — speakers."
Maybe — but only if current immigration policy continues.
And if networks like Univision help prevent Spanish-speakers from assimilating.
Still, VDARE.COM readers will be distressed to learn that all is not well. Ramos tells us —
" … .my enthusiasm for the Latinization of the United States has confronted a wall of rejection and suspicion after the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001. To be an immigrant is more and more difficult in the United States and to illegally cross the border from Mexico has never been so dangerous. In the last year more than 300 persons have died from dehydration or cold in the deserts and mountains. The signs of discrimination are sometimes subtle and other times not so subtle.
"Unfortunately, the 31 million foreigners who live in the United States — most of them of Latino origin — are many times the scapegoats for the failures of American espionage and for acts committed by 19 Arab terrorists."
But Ramos has a solution!
"The only way to confront the specific problems of the Latino community — school desertion, higher than average poverty, absence of political representation — is with more leaders. But this is lacking. We Hispanics are only 13% of the population, nevertheless we have no senator, no governor, nor a judge on the Supreme Court. This should change as the number of Latinos who become citizens and vote increases."
In other words, Ramos is calling for ethnic identity politics and big government to remedy problems caused by mass immigration — which he supports.
Note that Jorge Ramos, not a U.S. citizen, says "We Hispanics" when referring to the Hispanic population of the United States. Elsewhere, in an interview, he identifies himself as being among the "Mexican journalists working in the U.S" and asserts that " … . we are also part of Mexico."
So Ramos is still a Mexico citizen who identifies himself as Mexican — yet he presumes to speak for American citizens of Hispanic descent.
Ramos' column ends by saying:
" … . the presence of the Latinos in the U.S. is overwhelming. This is neither a white nor a black country, but a mestizo country. And it is precisely in the tolerance where its force is rooted. But, as Octavio Paz has said, the challenge of the United States is that it recognize itself as it is — a multiethnic, multi-racial and multicultural nation.
Will the United States have the courage to look in the mirror?"
That’s exactly what we think at VDARE.COM — "Will the United States have the courage to look in the mirror?"
Will Americans have the courage to see that they are losing control of their country’s destiny?
Jorge Ramos is a citizen of Mexico. Yet he brazenly promotes, on U.S. soil and with the superstar status he is permitted, his vision of America’s future — the colonization of the U.S. by Latin America.
How about American citizens? Do they have any say?
American citizen Allan Wall has lived in Mexico since 1991,and is permitted to live and work there thanks to a legal work permit issued by the Mexican government. VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived here. Readers can contact Allan Wall at
October 22, 2002
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.