Jorge Gilberto Ramos Ávalos (; born March 16, 1958) is a Mexican journalist and author.

Based in Miami, Florida, he anchored the Univision news television program Noticiero Univision, the Univision Sunday-morning political news program Al Punto, and the Fusion TV English-language program America with Jorge Ramos. He is one of the best-known Spanish-language news anchors in the United States. During his 39-year tenure with Univision, he has covered five wars, and events ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the War in Afghanistan.

Early life

Jorge Gilberto Ramos Ávalos was born on March 16, 1958, in Mexico City, Mexico, to a Roman Catholic family, and he was raised in the Bosques de Echegaray neighborhood of Naucalpan, a suburb of Mexico City. His father was an architect. He attended Catholic schools where he states he was abused by the priests. which was rebranded as the Univision network a year later after coming under new ownership; Univision has a broad entertainment and news-sharing agreement with Televisa.

Since 1987, Ramos has been the anchorman for Noticiero Univision, a nightly Spanish language newscast, alongside colleague María Elena Salinas. He also hosts Al Punto, a Spanish-language Sunday public affairs program aired weekly on Univision, and America with Jorge Ramos, an English language news magazine on Fusion TV.

In 1989, as he watched the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ramos has said he remembered thinking, "This is why I am what I am!" During the United States's War in Afghanistan, Ramos traveled there on his own while on vacation because his network refused to send him.

Ramos also writes a bilingual newspaper column that is published internationally, and appears regularly as a pundit on English-language cable networks, like CNN and MSNBC. Polls among American Latinos rank him as the most trusted and influential Hispanic in America, surpassing all other political leaders, and his Q Score among Latino audiences places him between soccer star Lionel Messi and pop singer Shakira.

On February 21, 2008, he represented Univision in a Democratic debate between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on The University of Texas at Austin campus in Austin, Texas.

In 2012, Ramos, critical of the lack of Latino moderators in any of the U.S. presidential debates, complained that the debate commission was "stuck in the 1950s". When Univision held its own forums with candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, Ramos challenged both of them on their immigration policies, specifically Romney's "self-deportation" policy, which Ramos considered an insult to Latinos, and Obama's deportation of more than 1.4 million people, and his reneging on his promise to address immigration during his first term. Washington Monthly named Ramos the broadcaster who would most determine the 2012 presidential election. Ramos' increased notability, however, led to criticism of his advocacy approach. To this Ramos has stated, "Our position is clearly pro-Latino or pro-immigrant ... We are simply being the voice of those who don't have a voice." Trump later deleted the post. Ramos insisted on his rights as a reporter and United States citizen to ask a question, prompting Trump's Head of Security Keith Schiller to push him backwards out of the conference room. and projected that Trump would only get 16% of the Latino vote. Election exit polls showed Trump getting 29% of the Hispanic vote, a 13% increase over Ramos's projection. Most Latinos did not vote though. Latino turnout was actually under 50%, even lower than the historically low election turnout overall. It was higher in the prior election since Obama was running.

The press conference incident inspired Ramos to create his documentary Hate Rising focused on increasing incidents of racial bigotry and violence across the country, which aired October 23, 2016, on Univision and Fusion. In preparation for the documentary, Ramos met with members of various hate groups across the country including Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis, along with Latino and Muslim victims. His journey lasted nine months, often placing him in danger as both an immigrant and a Mexican-American man. In order to gain face time with members of white supremacist groups, Ramos partnered with director Catherine Tambini, an American who the groups were under the impression they would be speaking to, and only right before the interview started did Ramos sit down to ask questions.

In 2016, Ramos began leveraging Facebook Live to stream raw footage taken on his phone to social media audiences, gaining 2.6 million views on his Iowa caucus videos and over four million on his reports during the New Hampshire primaries.

On February 25, 2019, he was held with his journalistic group in the Miraflores Palace after an interview with Nicolás Maduro. After seizing the equipment and interview recordings, he was released hours later and deported from the country. During the interview, Maduro denied there was a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, which led Ramos to show Maduro images of Venezuelans eating garbage to point out that there was indeed a crisis. After being released, Ramos stated that he and his group were held because this action bothered Maduro. The Information Minister of Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez, described the incident as a "cheap show."

On April 12, 2019, his intervention in the morning conference of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador was controversial over the confrontation he held with López Obrador, around homicide figures in Mexico in the period of the administration. The episode opened a debate on the use of figures of malicious homicides in Mexico and its different sources. He interviewed Fidel Castro, confronted Obama on deportations, confronted Trump and is reportedly an admirer of Oriana Fallaci.

On September 9, 2024, Ramos announced that he would depart from Univision following the 2024 presidential election, after a 39-year tenure with the network. His last newscast was December 13, 2024.

Personal life

Ramos earned a master's degree in international studies at the University of Miami in Florida. They divorced in 1990 and Paola was raised by her mother in Spain. In 1992, he married Lisa Bolivar in a Roman Catholic ceremony at the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They had one son, Nicolas, and they divorced in 2005. He dated Mexican actress Ana de la Reguera, who has two daughters from previous relationships.

Although raised Roman Catholic, Ramos does not believe in God, calling himself an agnostic. He has criticized Pope Francis for presiding over the canonization of Pope John Paul II, who he believes willingly covered up abuses committed by Catholic priests.

Ramos is registered as an independent voter.

Awards and accolades

Jorge Ramos "has won 10 Emmy awards (including an honorary Emmy and a Lifetime Achievement award)" and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for excellence in journalism.

In 2015, Ramos was one of the people selected for the five different covers of Times issue listing "The World's 100 Most Influential People". That same year he was awarded the International Career in Journalism accolade by Ondas Awards.

References

  • Lamb, Brian (July 6, 2010). Q&A with "Jorge Ramos". C-SPAN.
  • Sawhney, Hirsh (July 1, 2004). "A View from Latin America: Jorge Ramos with Hirsh Sawhney". The Brooklyn Rail.
  • Finnegan, William (October 5, 2015) "The Man Who Wouldn't Sit Down". The New Yorker.
  • Taladrid, Stephania (August 17, 2024) "Jorge Ramos, the Voice of Latin America". The New Yorker.