Contemporary Authors

• Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era - 2018 Vintage, New York, NY
• A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto - 2010 Vintage, New York, NY
• The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Are Transforming Politics in America - 2005 Harper Perennial, New York, NY
• Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History - 2005 Harper Collins, New York, NY
• The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future - 2002 Harper Collins, New York, NY
• No Borders: A Journalist's Search for Home - 2002 Rayo, New York, NY

• Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR - https://www.npr.org/2018/02/25/588643033/jorge-ramos-on-being-a-stranger

  Jorge Ramos On Being A 'Stranger'

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  February 25, 20188:14 AM ET
  Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday

  Jorge Ramos, the longtime Univision anchor, is also a Mexican immigrant. He talks with NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro about the decision to leave Mexico and his book Stranger.

  LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
  Jorge Ramos is one of the most famous journalists in this country. He's an Emmy-winning longtime anchor at Univision. He's also a Mexican immigrant. He came to this country in 1983 to escape the censorship that would have suffocated his reporting. His decision to leave Mexico was, like it is for every person leaving their country of origin, a painful one.
  JORGE RAMOS: I didn't want to be an immigrant. I wanted to grow up with my parents and with my brothers and with my neighbors and with the people I went to in college but I couldn't.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Ramos has a new memoir. It's called "Stranger" because after 35 years in the United States, he still feels like a stranger here.
  RAMOS: It is very difficult for me to define exactly, who am I? I have two passports. The border is really not that important to me. And then on the other hand, I'll never be - I have to admit that - I will never be American enough for Americans. And maybe I'll never be Mexican enough again to my fellow Mexicans, so I'm something in between. And when you have someone like Donald Trump when he was a candidate telling you, go back to Univision. Basically, he was saying go back to Mexico. Well, that changes everything.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: I want to actually talk about that moment. This was a moment that actually became a signature moment for then-candidate Trump and yourself. We'd like to play the press conference where you had a confrontation with the then-candidate. Let's listen.
  (SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE).
  PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Go ahead.
  RAMOS: I have the right to ask a question.
  TRUMP: No, you don't. You haven't been called.
  RAMOS: I have the right to ask a question.
  TRUMP: Go back to Univision.
  RAMOS: I'm a reporter, and I have - I am - don't touch me, sir. Don't touch me, sir.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: You write in the book that you went to this press conference in Iowa to let Trump know that Latinos were being offended by what you call his racist comments. You thought - you wanted to give him a message about what Latinos were feeling.
  RAMOS: He started his campaign with a racist remark. He said that Mexican immigrants were criminals, drug traffickers and rapists. And I knew right from the beginning that he was lying. He was not telling the truth. I decided that I wanted to talk to Donald Trump and confront him to tell him, you know, what you're saying about me and others like me - millions like me - is not true. At the end, of course, we know what happened. His bodyguard pushed me out of the press conference.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: In the run-up to the election, you became a vocal critic of the president, and you predicted his defeat because of Latinos and what you saw as his lack of connection with the Latino community. That ended up not being true. What do you think that says about the Latino vote in this country? What do you think happened?
  RAMOS: We made a mistake. I thought that more Latinos were going to go out and vote, and that didn't happen. Let me give you the numbers, which is really a tragedy. Twenty-seven million Latinos were eligible to vote, but only 13 million went to vote. So 14 million Latinos or 13 million Latinos decided to stay home. And that might have changed the election.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Why didn't they show up?
  RAMOS: I think they were upset with everyone. They were upset with Barack Obama and with Hillary Clinton, with the Democrats, with Donald Trump. And they didn't have a real choice for them, and they decided to stay home. Look. When Barack Obama became president, he promised that he was going to introduce immigration reform during his first year in office. And he didn't deliver. Not only that - Barack Obama deported 2 and a half million undocumented immigrants. Many people call him deporter-in-chief. So many Latinos - for many Latinos, when they had a choice of voting for the Democrats who didn't keep their promise and for the Republicans who were attacking them, they decided not to go to vote. And at the end, 3 million Hispanics voted for Donald Trump. And that also says a lot.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: What does that say?
  RAMOS: Well, what it's saying is that we are not monolithic. But also, I think there's a divide within the Hispanic community, which is saying that some of the Latinos who came here as immigrants or the sons of immigrants have decided to turn their backs on the immigrants coming after them. And that's - for me, that's very, very sad.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: What do you think that means going forward? We've seen Republicans - not only are they not courting Latinos. They're now standing behind the president and his plans to change the fundamental immigration policies of this country. The calculations used to be Latinos don't vote. And when they do, they're unpredictable. So therefore, they don't really matter.
  RAMOS: Up to now. But I think what the Republicans are doing is political suicide because these are the facts. In 2044, every single ethnic group in the United States, everyone - non-Hispanic Whites, Latinos, African-Americans and Asians - everyone is going to be a minority. In other words, that demographic trend is not going to change. This will be a minority majority country. And then you have the Republican Party, who's attacking Latinos and who's attacking immigrants and who's now surrounding President Trump and seeming to defend almost everything that he says about immigrants and Latinos.
  And in the future, what are you going to do when - we are about 60 million Latinos right now. But when in three decades, we are a hundred million Latinos. Many of them would've been born in the United States. Therefore, they have the right to vote. And when - at that moment, you really couldn't get elected without our vote. I think, again, it would be political suicide not to pay attention to what is happening right now with the Latino community.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: I have to ask you - in this book, at the end of the book, you talk about stopping being neutral. And this, of course, is a great debate within the journalism community at this particular point in time. Some have called you an advocacy journalist. Do you see yourself that way?
  RAMOS: I'm just a journalist who asks questions. That's all. But I think we have two responsibilities. The first one is to report reality as it is, not as we wish it would be. So if something is red, I have to say red. And then we have a huge social responsibility, and that is to question those who are in power and to give voice to the voiceless. And at some point, when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public lies, dictatorships or violation of human rights, when that happens, when you're confronted with that, I think that we as journalists have to take a stand and stop being neutral. Am I supposed to just sit down and be silent when the president of the United States makes racist remarks? Isn't it our role, precisely, to question him and to say, hey, Mr. President, that is not true. What you're saying is a lie. So yes, I think it is our responsibility as journalists when confronted with that not to remain neutral.
  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Jorge Ramos - his new book is, "Stranger: The Challenge Of A Latino Immigrant In The Trump Era." Thank you so very much.
  RAMOS: Gracias.

• Amazon -

  JORGE RAMOS

  Jorge Ramos has been called "Star newscaster of Hispanic TV" and "Hispanic TV's No. 1 correspondent and key to a huge voting bloc" by The Wall Street Journal. Time magazine put him on one of the covers for its “100 most influential people in the world” (2015 issue) and on the list of “the 25 most influential Hispanics in the United States”.

  A survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Ramos is the second most recognized Latino leader in the country. Latino Leaders magazine chose him as one of “The Ten Most Admired Latinos” and “101 Top Leaders of the Latino Community in the U.S.”
  “Ramos carries near biblical authority, at least in the eyes of his nearly 2 million nightly viewers”, Forbes magazine reported.

  The Miami Herald said, "As household names go, Jorge Ramos is huge…in Miami, Los Angeles and Houston, his newscast consistently beats out all the other networks for the top ratings". More than 2 million people tune in daily to his newscast and almost a million to his Sunday morning political show. (The Nielsen Company). TIME magazine included him in the list of The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2012 (@jorgeramosnews)

  Ramos has been the anchorman for Noticiero Univision since 1986. In addition, Ramos hosts “Al Punto”, Univision’s weekly public affairs program offering in-depth analysis of the week’s top-stories and exclusive interviews with newsmakers. Also, he is the anchor for the program “Show Me Something” for the English-language network Fusion.

  He received the Maria Moors Cabot award from the University of Columbia and has won 10 Emmy awards (including an honorary Emmy and a Lifetime Achievement award). In 2017 he received the Walter Cronkite award for excellence in political journalism for “advancing the conversation about what divides us as a country.”

  He is the author of thirteen books and bestsellers: “Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era”, “Take a Stand; Lessons from Rebels”, “Behind the Mask”, “What I Saw”, “The Other Face of America”, “Hunting the Lion”, his autobiography “No Borders: a Journalist’s Search for Home”, “The Latino Wave”, “Dying to Cross”, “The Gift of Time; Letters from a Father”, “A Country for All; An Immigrant Manifesto”, “Los Presidenciables” (only in Spanish) and the children’s book “I’m Just Like My Dad/I’m Just Like My Mom”.

  Ramos has been instrumental in promoting literacy among Latinos. In 2002 he created the first book club in the history of Hispanic television: Despierta Leyendo (Wake Up Reading).
  He writes a weekly column for more than 40 newspapers in the United States and Latin America distributed by The New York Times Syndicate and collaborates with the largest Spanish-language website in the United States (www.univision.com) and with Fusion.net
  He is frequently tapped to comment on issues related to Hispanic Americans.

  Ramos is one of the most respected journalists among the 55 million Hispanics in the United States and in the 13 Latin American countries where his newscast is seen every night. He has covered five wars (El Salvador, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq) and has been a witness to some of the most important news stories of the last three decades, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, 9/11 and the catastrophe of hurricane Katrina.

  He has interviewed some of the most influential leaders in the world: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Harry Reid, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, John Edwards, Al Gore, George Bush Sr., John Kerry, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Felipe Calderon and dozens of Latin American presidents.

  Jorge Ramos is an immigrant. He came to the United States as a student in 1983. On November 1986, at age 28, he became one of the youngest national news anchors in the history of American television. Since then, he has been called “the voice of the voiceless” for other immigrants like him.

  Ramos holds a Bachelor’s degree in communication from the Ibero-American University in México City and has a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Miami. The University of Richmond gave him an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2007.

  He is a father of two, plays soccer every Saturday morning and is considered one of the most eloquent, credible and powerful voices of Hispanic America.
  He was born in Mexico City on March 16, 1958.

• Publishers Weekly - https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/profiles/article/76477-jorge-ramos-speaks-up-for-immigrants-in-stranger.html

  Jorge Ramos Speaks Up for Immigrants in 'Stranger'
  The news anchor’s new book examines a range of issues
  Carlos Rodríguez-Martorell | Mar 30, 2018

  Comments

  Anibal Mestre
  In 2015, at a press conference, then–presidential contender Donald Trump told Jorge Ramos, the foremost Spanish-language news anchor in the U.S., to “go back to Univision.” That snide exchange is at the heart of Ramos’s new book, Stranger, which is part memoir, part essay, and part manifesto, offering a scathing critique of Trump that shows that Ramos has not lost his appetite for a fight.
  In fact, the day before PW spoke with him, Ramos had yet another tense on-air exchange, this time with Fox News anchor and conservative firebrand Sean Hannity, in which Ramos argued forcefully that, contrary to what the current administration says, immigrants commit fewer crimes than natural-born citizens.
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  “You know why I do this?” Ramos asks. “Because we need to talk with those who don’t agree with us.” This is also one of the goals of Stranger, published in March by Vintage in Spanish and English, which presents a vivid reminder of how immigrants are an integral part of the U.S.
  Ramos points out, for example, that there were more children of recent immigrants running for president in 2016 than in any other year, including Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump (his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in Scotland and moved to the U.S. when she was 18). It also happens that four of Trump’s five children have immigrant mothers.
  Yet many politicians who come from families of recent immigrants shun other immigrants, and Ramos dubs them “traitors” in the book. “It really surprises and terrifies me that there are immigrants, or children of immigrants, who at one point turn their backs on people like their parents or themselves,” he says. “This is why one of my missions is to fight: so the immigrants who come after me are treated with the same generosity that I was treated.”
  The book is centered on the infamous confrontation with Trump during the 2015 Republican primaries in Iowa. Covering a press conference, Ramos stood up and asked a long question without being called, in a break with press conference etiquette. “I don’t have anything to apologize for, this is my job as a reporter,” he says. “Besides, if I had waited for Trump to give me the floor I would still be waiting.”
  Some fellow journalists and critics complained at the time that the Mexican-born reporter staged the row, and Ramos acknowledged that a confrontation was exactly what he had in mind. “Television doesn’t just happen,” he says. “You have to create it.”
  Ramos wasn’t counting on being escorted out of the conference by a bodyguard, however, and he was also surprised when a Trump supporter yelled, “Get out of my country,” at him. At that moment, he says, “I realized that I’m a stranger in the country where I have lived for 35 years and where my children were born, and that I will never be American enough for Americans.”
  That dramatic moment was the culmination of a months-long series of grievances for Ramos. After Univision ended its business relationship with Trump’s Miss Universe organization in June 2015, following insulting remarks made by the candidate about Mexican immigrants, Trump divulged Ramos’s personal phone number on Instagram, prompting Trump supporters to call and verbally abuse the anchor.
  The press conference fracas was mended by press secretary Hope Hicks, who invited Ramos back to the press conference to ask a couple of questions, but Ramos left the scene conflicted and bewildered. He reflected on his growing sense of distance with his native Mexico. “I began to realize that I am often a stranger,” he says, “but at other times I’m an amphibian—like author Sandra Cisneros refers to herself—who lives in different worlds.”
  In Stranger, Ramos also addresses a number of other matters, including his career and the future of Spanish-language media in the U.S. In the most heartwarming part of the book, he reminisces about his childhood in Mexico City and the life lessons he’s learned along the way.
  One chapter is about his mother, Lourdes, whom he describes as “the first rebel and the first feminist” in his life. “My mother grew up in a world in which she was not allowed to go to high school because she was being prepared to marry,” he says, noting that she had five children before turning 30. But when her children went to college, she joined them and studied humanities. “One of the most beautiful memories that I have is that I would run into her in the hallways on campus,” Ramos says.
  The book includes Ramos’s poignant mea culpa for his inability to predict that Trump would win the election while losing the Latino vote. Still, Ramos has hope for the future, thanks to the Dreamers’ movement, to which the book is dedicated. He is also an admirer of the student activists from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., as members of a generation bravely embracing a new kind of leadership.
  “It’s a leadership that is not quiet; it demands change and confronts those who disagree,” Ramos says. “They barge into congressmen’s offices and don’t take no for an answer. It’s a leadership that is rebellious and very focused, and I think it’s a good thing for the country. If the future of the U.S. depends on the Dreamers and the young Florida survivors, we are going to be in good hands.”
  Carlos Rodríguez-Martorell is a New York journalist and book reviewer.

• Vice - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xw54yd/jorge-ramos-my-confrontation-with-trump-made-me-feel-like-a-stranger-in-my-own-country

  My Confrontation with Trump Made Me Feel Like a Stranger in My Own Country

  At a press conference in 2015, Jorge Ramos was told by a Trump supporter to "get out of my country" after having an argument with the future president.

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  Jorge Ramos
  Feb 21 2018, 6:30pm

  The author just before being removed from a Trump press conference. Photo by Charlie Neibergall via AP
  "Get out of my country.”
  I can still hear that sentence with absolute clarity, as if it occupies a specific place in my mind. It’s a scar. Deep within. It happened some time ago, yet it still rings in my ears as if it were yesterday. I don’t even know the name of the man who said it to me. But I have his face and his hatred etched in my eyes and all over my skin.

  When somebody hates you, you feel it across your entire body. It’s usually just words. But the shrillness of words laden with hatred works its way under your fingernails, into your hair, around your eyelids. Of course, it also enters through your ears. Eventually, everything seems to be welling up somewhere between the throat and the stomach, to the point where you feel as if you’re drowning. If the feeling builds up over a long enough period of time, something could burst.

  The man who said “Get out of my country” was a Trump supporter. I know this because he was wearing a pin identifying the then candidate on one of his lapels. But most of all, I know this because of the way he said it to me. He looked me straight in the eyes, pointed a finger at me, and shouted. Time and again I’ve gone back to watch video of the incident, which took place in August 2015, and I still don’t know how I was able to remain calm. I remember the tone of his voice caught me by surprise. Trump, with the brutal and cowardly help of a bodyguard, had just ejected me from a press conference in Dubuque, Iowa.

  Jorge Ramos's confrontation with Trump in August, 2015
  I had just started thinking about how to respond when suddenly I heard a madman shouting and pointing his finger. I looked up, and—instead of simply ignoring his rudeness, as I would have preferred—I settled myself and simply replied, “I’m also a U.S. citizen.” His response made me laugh. “Whatever,” he said, sounding like a teenager. A police officer who overheard the exchange outside the press conference stepped between us, and that was where it ended. But the hatred stuck. Hatred is contagious. And Trump is infectious.
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  I am convinced that if Trump had treated me differently, his supporter would not have spoken to me as he had. But Trump had just thrown me out of a press conference, and that, somehow, had given this man permission to direct his hatred toward me. In over three decades as a journalist, such a thing has happened to me only once before. It was 1991, during the first Ibero-American Summit, in Guadalajara, Mexico. One of Fidel Castro’s bodyguards shoved me and threw me aside as I was questioning the Cuban dictator about the lack of basic freedoms on the island. Trump also used a bodyguard to prevent me from asking a question. He and Fidel used the same tactics of physical force—via their bodyguards—to handle an uncomfortable encounter with the press.
  My problems with Trump began in New York on June 16, 2015, the day he launched his presidential campaign. It was there that he made the following statement: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best... They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people... It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America...”
  These are racist comments. Period.
  He lumped all Mexican and Latin American immigrants in the same bag. He made a sweeping generalization. He lacked the intellectual honesty to say that only some immigrants commit crimes, not the majority of them. Later, several of Trump’s supporters swore that he was referring only to a specific type of undocumented immigrant—the most violent ones—not all who come across the southern border. Perhaps. We will never know for sure. But regardless, that is not what he said. What I do know is that when Trump launched his campaign, he accused all Mexican immigrants of being criminals, drug traffickers, and rapists.
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  He and Fidel used the same tactics of physical force—via their bodyguards—to handle an uncomfortable encounter with the press.
  What he said is absolutely false. All the studies I have read—especially the one conducted by the American Immigration Council—have come to the same conclusion: namely, that “immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than the native-born, and high rates of immigration are associated with lower rates of violent crime and property crime.” Trump started his path to the White House with a massive lie.
  His first statements as a candidate took me by surprise. They bothered me deeply. For days and even weeks later, I felt very unsettled. I wasn’t sure how to respond. As a reporter, as a Latino, and as an immigrant, I had to do something. I just didn’t know exactly what. It would have to be a well-calibrated answer, not the diplomatic and aseptic response of a politician. Nor could it be an insulting jab.
  Univision, the company I’ve been working for since January 1984, had made the courageous decision to break off its business relationship with Trump and not broadcast the Miss USA beauty pageant—which was owned in part by the businessman—on Spanish-language television for “insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants.” This would mark the beginning of a lengthy legal battle. Despite all that, I felt Trump had to be confronted on a journalistic level as well. This was not simply a business matter. So on the same day that Univision announced the end of its working relationship with Trump, I sent him a handwritten letter requesting an interview. That letter, dated June 25, 2015, read as follows:
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  Mr. Trump:
  I want to write you personally to request an interview.
  But so far your team has declined.
  I am sure you have a lot of things to say... and I have a lot of things to ask. I’ll go to New York or wherever you would like.
  If you would like to talk first over the phone, my personal cell is 305-794-1212.
  I know this is an important issue for you as it is for me.
  All the best, Jorge Ramos
  I sealed it inside a FedEx Express envelope and sent it to his New York offices. The next day, out of nowhere, I began receiving hundreds of calls and text messages, some more insulting than others. I didn’t understand what was happening until a coworker of mine came into my office and said, “Trump just posted your cell phone number online.”
  These were some of the hundreds of texts I received:
  Jorge Ramos- Donald Trump placed your personal letter online and has your number written on it. I’m sorry about what he did.
  Go F yourself George Porgie!
  Please take the anti-U.S. Univision back to the corrupt 3rd world country Mexico and you can go with it. Thx and have a great trip back.

  #Trump2016. Build those walls to stop illegals from crossing our borders.
  You’re a racist dirtbag. Nobody wants your illegal cousins in this country.
  Trump was right... Latinos need to stay off the ‘I’m offended’ bandwaggon. It’s embarrassing... You don’t speak for all Latinos!
  Trump 2016! Come to this country legally or leave! Illegal is illegal!!!!
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  Fuck you
  In fact, Trump had answered me via Instagram. He wrote, “@Univision said they don’t like Trump yet Jorge Ramos and their other anchors are begging me for interviews.” Along with that brief message, he included a photograph of the letter I had written to him, without having redacted my phone number.

  In addition to these messages loaded with hatred and rage, I received a lot of support. There were others, too, looking to take advantage of the situation and ask me for a job, offer me advice... even people looking for help publishing books or recording songs. It was clear Trump did not want to grant me an interview. However, there were other ways to confront him. Trump had just launched his presidential campaign, and one of its benefits was that he would constantly be talking to the press. That was our opportunity.
  We spent nearly two months thinking about what to do. Then, one fine day, Dax Tejera—executive producer of America with Jorge Ramos, the program I hosted for the Fusion television network—had a great idea. “You’re not going to like what I’m about to say, but we have to go to Iowa,” he said as he walked into my office and plopped down on the only sofa I have. There were many important matters to discuss, but he just sat there, waiting for my reaction. “Iowa?” I asked. “Why do we have to go to Iowa?”

  As always, Dax had done his homework. He had studied all the press conferences Trump had scheduled for the coming weeks, and the one in Iowa represented the best opportunity to meet him face-to-face. Appearances in places such as New York City would be packed with reporters, but not many news organizations would be sending their teams to cover an event in Dubuque, Iowa. Once again, Dax was right.
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  We contacted Trump’s campaign, presented our credentials to attend the press conference in Dubuque on August 26, 2015, and though we feared the worst, nobody prohibited us from attending. Around that same time we received a call from William Finnegan, a correspondent for The New Yorker, who wanted to do an article about my exchange with Trump. I invited him to join us in Iowa, and he immediately agreed. I didn’t know what was going to happen there, but my intent was not to leave without confronting Trump one way or another.
  I was well equipped with questions.

  Trump’s immigration policy would result in one of the largest mass deportations in modern history. How was he planning on deporting eleven million undocumented immigrants? If he could amend the Constitution to strip citizenship from the children of undocumented parents, where would he be sending infants and children who had neither a country nor a passport? Why build the largest wall on earth between two countries—1,954 miles long—if more than 40 percent of undocumented people either come by plane or overstay their visas? Wouldn’t this be a monumental waste of time, money, and effort?
  The first thing I decided was that I would ask my questions while standing, not seated. Body language would be vital here. I didn’t want Trump to have any advantages over me.
  With these questions in hand, I left for Iowa. We arrived on-site about two hours before the press conference was scheduled to begin. We registered and set up two cameras; I sat at one end of the front row so that nothing would obstruct our view of one another, and I was wired with a microphone so that the exchange would be clearly recorded. Technically speaking, we were ready. Television doesn’t just happen. You have to create it. But it was also important to have a plan for Trump. The first thing I decided was that I would ask my questions while standing, not seated. Body language would be vital here. I didn’t want Trump to have any advantages over me. It had to be an equal exchange between the two of us. If I stood up to ask my questions, it would be that much harder for him to ignore me.
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  We also knew of Trump’s tendency to interrupt reporters before they finish asking their questions. So I decided that I would just keep talking, refusing to be cut off, until I was through. At least with the first one. I was ready. I had my microphone in hand and a plan to face Trump. All of a sudden, a door opened in the back of the conference room and the security team entered, followed by Trump himself. The place fell into an unusual state of silence. The candidate greeted everyone rather unenthusiastically, barely audible, even, and then scanned the room with his eyes, as if he were taking an X-ray.
  I know that kind of person. Street-smart, as you say in English. After years of interacting with people at public events, they have developed a special intuition they can use to detect both threats and opportunities. In a matter of seconds, Trump was able to identify the cameras and the reporters who were there to cover him. He walked slowly, took his place behind the podium, gave a terse, formulaic speech, and pointed at a Fox News reporter to ask the first question. There was a single person in charge of this situation, and that person was Donald Trump.

  The reporter, having been identified, asked his question. The candidate responded. And there, in that rhythm that seeks to establish itself from the outset, I detected a pause, however brief. Trump’s last words were hanging in the air, and none of the other reporters were willing to jump across that void. Trump could give someone permission to speak, and he could take it away. I suppose it was something of a rite that had been established between the candidate and the elite group that had been covering his campaign for a little over two months now. Nobody wanted to shake up the rules of the game that benefited both candidate and journalists alike.

  But I was new to this group. I wasn’t privy to their rhythms and rituals. Plus, I had participated in hundreds of press conferences throughout my career, and I knew that you don’t always have to wait for someone else to cede the floor to you. It’s important to understand the pauses that inevitably arise in any exchange between people and strike quickly. Of course, my intention coming in was to confront Trump, and it would be too risky to wait until the end of the press conference to ask my questions. We didn’t know how much time Trump would give us, but it was clear that there were thousands of people waiting to see him at a campaign rally. So when I saw my opportunity, I took it.
  I raised my hand, stood up from my seat, and said I had a question about immigration. I was expecting some sort of reaction, but at first nobody said anything. Not even the candidate. It was as if everyone in the room had been caught off guard. The strategy, I thought, was working, and I went ahead with my question. But I didn’t simply want to ask a question. I wanted to let Trump know that many Latinos and other immigrants were offended by his racist comments and that his own immigration proposals were based on falsehoods. After all, that’s why we had gone all the way to Iowa.

  But Trump is an old dog. He noticed two of the first words out of my mouth were “empty promises,” and not much good was going to come after that. So without recognizing me or even looking in my direction, he scanned the hundreds of journalists in front of him, looking for someone to call on. To Trump, I didn’t even exist. In Spanish, we have a word that perfectly describes this attitude of contempt: ningunear. The people in power scorn,
  snub, or completely disregard the others. The intention is to literally turn someone into no one. And that’s what Trump was trying to do with me. He didn’t want to hear me or even see me.
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  He could have let me ask my question and given a quick, terse answer, thus disarming me. But his pride prevented him from doing that. He wouldn’t be satisfied with simply denying me the opportunity to ask a question: he wanted to humiliate me, to make me an example to other reporters going forward. But I was mentally prepared for Trump. I ignored him and continued to ask my lengthy question. I admit, it wasn’t a short, simple one. I wanted to get his lies on the record first and then proceed with the questions.
  Visibly upset, Trump then made a mistake. He simply couldn’t allow a reporter to challenge him instead of following orders. It was then that he decided to resort to the use of force. What follows is my first exchange with Trump:
  “Mr. Trump, I have a question about immigration.”
  “Okay, who is next?.. Yes, please, please.” Trump was avoiding making eye contact with me while he looked for someone else to call on.
  “Your immigration plan is full of empty promises.”
  “Excuse me. Sit down! You weren’t called. Sit down! Sit down!” The strategy of standing up to ask the question seemed to be working. He wanted me to take a seat, but I was not about to do so.
  “No, I’m a reporter.”
  “Sit down!”
  “And as an immigrant and a U.S. citizen I have the right to ask a question. And the question is this.”
  “No, you don’t. You haven’t been called.” At least Trump was listening to me now, I thought, so I continued to press ahead.
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  “No. I have the right to ask a question...”
  “Go back to Univision.”
  “No, this is the question...”
  “Go ahead,” Trump said, addressing the reporter from CBS News instead of me.
  “You cannot deport eleven million people. You cannot build a nineteen-hundred-mile wall. You cannot deny citizenship to children in this country...”
  “Sit down!”
  “And with those ideas...”
  “You weren’t called.”
  “I’m a reporter...” I countered.
  Trump, first with a strange movement of his mouth, followed by one with his arms, called in one of his bodyguards. The man strode across the room, stopped in front of me, and grabbed me by my left forearm before dragging me out of the room. “Don’t touch me, sir,” I said.
  The security officer said I was being “disruptive” and that I should wait my turn to ask a question. But I insisted that as a reporter, I had the right to do so. He asked to see my credentials, and I said that they were with my briefcase next to my seat. I also kept telling him not to touch me, but he didn’t care. He kept on shoving me and didn’t release my forearm until we were out of the room.
  “Get out of my country. Get out! This is not about you.”
  Just then, one of Trump’s supporters—campaign button and all—followed me out of the conference room and confronted me. “You are very rude. It’s not about you,” he said, jabbing his finger at me. “It’s not about you, either,” I said. My mind was still on the incident with Trump and his security guard. There were many things I could have said, but there, in the moment, I decided not to focus my indignation at this supporter. He, however, was insistent: “Get out of my country. Get out! This is not about you.”
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  “I’m also a U.S. citizen.”
  “Well, whatever. No. Univision, no. It’s not about you.”
  “It’s not about you. It’s about the United States.”
  A police officer who overheard our conversation stepped in between us. And that was the end of our exchange of words.

  My producer, Dax Tejera, and I had to decide what to do next. Trump would have to walk out the same door I exited, and one of my cameramen was ready in case I wanted to approach the candidate a second time. I decided not to leave. I had gone to Iowa to talk to Trump, and I would try again outside the conference room.
  After I was forcibly expelled, two other reporters—Kasie Hunt of MSNBC and Tom Llamas of ABC News—came to my defense and challenged Trump hard. Why did he have me kicked out of the press conference? “I don’t know really much about him,” he told them. “I don’t believe I’ve ever met him, except he started screaming. I didn’t escort him out. You have to talk to security; whoever security is has escorted him out. But certainly he was not chosen. I chose you, I chose other people. He just stands up and starts screaming. So, you know, maybe he’s at fault also. I don’t even know where he is. I don’t mind if he comes back, frankly.”
  It was quite telling that Trump told the members of the press that he didn’t know who I was. After all, he had published my letter online just two months earlier. Besides, during our exchange in the conference room, he had specifically told me to “go back to Univision.” If he truly didn’t know who I was, how did he know who I worked for? The answer is that Trump was lying.
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  All of a sudden, his press secretary came out of the room. “Hi, I’m Hope Hicks,” she said, waving to me. She asked if I would like to go back into the conference, and I said yes. But I cautioned her that my one condition was that I be allowed to ask my questions. She agreed and asked me to wait until Trump gave me the floor. I went back into the conference room. I never found out whether it was her decision to let me back in or if she made the move only when she heard what the candidate said after I was escorted out.
  I returned to my seat, which was still empty. My briefcase with my press credentials was still there as well. I raised my hand to ask a question, and—as if by following some sort of magical choreography—Trump pointed to me and said, “Yes, good, absolutely. Good to have you back.”

  The exchange we then had went unnoticed by most news networks. The headlines around the world would be about how I was forcibly expelled from a press conference by one of his bodyguards, not about our conversation after the fact. Finally, I had my chance to confront Trump. What follows is the central tenet of our conversation, edited so that the exchange can be better understood:
  “So here’s the problem with your immigration plan. It’s full of empty promises. You cannot deport eleven million undocumented immigrants. You cannot deny citizenship to the children [of undocumented parents] of this country.”
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  “Why do you say that?”
  “You have to change the Constitution, Mr. Trump.”
  “Well, a lot of people think that an act of Congress can do it. Now it’s possibly going to have to be tested in courts... [If] a woman is getting ready to have a baby, she crosses the border for one day and has the baby, all of a sudden for the next 80 years we have to take care of the people.”
  “The Constitution [says that].”
  “No, no, no. I don’t think so. I know some of the television scholars agree with you. But some of the great legal scholars agree that’s not true.”
  “You are not answering, Mr. Trump.”
  “I am answering... It’s going to be tested, OK?”
  “Anyway, the question is, how are you going to build a nineteen-hundred-mile wall?”
  “Very easy. I’m a builder. That’s easy. I build buildings that are ninety-four stories. Can I tell you what’s more complicated? What’s more complicated is building a building that’s ninety-five stories tall, OK?”
  “But it’s an unnecessary waste of time and money.”
  “You think so? Really? I don’t think so...”
  “Almost forty percent of the [undocumented] immigrants come by plane, they simply overstay their visas.”
  “I don’t believe that. I don’t believe it...”
  “Well, they are coming by plane.”
  “Well, they are coming by many different ways. But the primary way they’re coming is right through, right past our border patrols.”
  “How are you going to deport eleven million undocumented immigrants? By bus? Are you going to bring the army?”
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  “Let me tell you. We’re going to do it in a very humane fashion. Believe me. I’ve got a bigger heart than you do... The one thing we are going to start with immediately are the gangs and the real bad ones... We have tremendous crime, we have tremendous problems... Those people are out. They’re going to be out so fast your head will spin. Remember you used the word ‘illegal’ immigrant?”
  “No, I did not use that word.”
  “Well, you should use the word because that’s what the definition is.”
  “No human being is illegal.”
  “OK, well, when they cross the border, from the legal standpoint, they are illegal immigrants when they don’t have their papers.”
  “How do you deport eleven million?”
  “You know what it’s called? Management. See, you’re not used to good management because you are always talking about government.”
  “Just imagine—”
  “Let me just tell you. Wait, wait, wait. Government is incompetent.”
  “You are not giving specifics.”
  “I’ve given you specifics. I’ve given you specifics. Great management."

  But the exchange did not end there. Other reporters asked their questions, and then I raised my hand again. Trump, apparently, was willing to continue the debate. I stood up and began, once more:
  “You are not going to win the Latino vote.”
  “I think so, because I’m going to bring jobs back.”
  “The truth is—I’ve seen the polls—a Univision poll that says seventy-five percent of Latinos—”
  Here is where he interrupted me. Instead of acknowledging that several polls indicated that he was losing the Latino vote, he brought up the lawsuit he had filed against Univision. “How much am I suing Univision for right now? Do you know the number? Tell me.”
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  “The question is—”
  “Do you know the number? How much am I suing Univision for?”
  “I’m a reporter, Mr. Trump.”
  “Five hundred million.”
  “I’m a reporter and the question is—”
  “And they’re very concerned about it, I have to say.”
  “So allow me to ask the question.”
  “Go ahead.”
  “You’re losing the Latino vote.”
  “I don’t think so.”
  “Seventy-five percent of Latinos have a negative opinion of you. Gallup considers you the most unpopular candidate of all [Republicans]. Just check social media.”
  “Do you know how many Latinos work for me? Do you know how many Hispanics are working for me?”
  “Many Latinos detest you and despise you, Mr. Trump.”
  “They love me.”
  “That is not true. See the polls, Mr. Trump.”
  “Do you know how many Hispanics work for me? Thousands.”
  “Nationwide, seventy-five percent [of Latinos] have a negative opinion of you. You won’t win the White House without the Latino vote.”
  “Here’s what happens. Once I win you’re going to see things happen. You know what they want? They want jobs. That’s what they want.”
  “And they want to be treated fairly.”

  This conversation was going nowhere. I was citing poll numbers that showed his huge unpopularity among Latino voters, and he was insisting that Latinos loved him and that thousands work for him.
  At that time, I was convinced that nobody could win the White House without a significant portion of the Latino vote. Mitt Romney earned only 27 percent of the Latino vote in 2012, paving the way for Barack Obama’s reelection. And years earlier, in the 2008 presidential election, Senator John McCain also lost to Barack Obama, having garnered only 31 percent of the Hispanic vote.
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  In his responses, we can see the foundations of the anti-immigrant proposals that he would look to implement once he set foot in the White House.
  Everything seemed to indicate that the Republican candidate, whoever it might be, would be barely able to reach a third of the Latino vote, which would not be enough to win the presidency. In 2016, there were 27.3 million registered Latino voters, and even though only about half of them were expected to cast ballots, their influence would be definitive. Or so I thought.

  After my exchange with Trump at the press conference, the candidate wanted to continue the debate.
  “You and I will talk. We’re going to be talking a lot, Jorge Ramos.”
  “I hope that we can have that conversation.”
  “We will. We will.”
  “OK.”
  We never spoke again.
  The media, both in the United States and internationally, focused its attention on the fact that I was kicked out of the press conference: a direct attack on freedom of expression and an apparently unprecedented event in a U.S. presidential campaign. Everything I had asked Trump was relegated to the background. However, in his responses, we can see the foundations of the anti-immigrant proposals that he would look to implement once he set foot in the White House.
  One of the most troubling features of Trump’s personality is that he almost never laughs. I haven’t seen this happen once.
  The road proposed by Trump was fraught with danger. I saw it. Many other Latino reporters saw it as well, and together we denounced it. Trump’s words were a real threat to millions of immigrants. And I always took them seriously. To consider him a clown or a madman would be a grave mistake. He’s neither of these things. In fact, one of the most troubling features of Trump’s personality is that he almost never laughs. I haven’t seen this happen once.
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  As reporters, we would have to be a lot tougher with him in the wake of the announcement of his campaign. His attacks on immigrants were brutal. But by the end of summer 2015, Trump had become a true media phenomenon, and the major television networks were willing to give him nearly all the time he wanted in exchange for ratings.

  Related:

  To be frank, Trump was almost always willing to give interviews and make public statements on multiple issues. The other Republican candidates were not nearly as accessible. And by the time they realized their mistake, it was too late.

  But this policy of open access was never extended to the Spanish-language media in general or to Univision in particular. Despite the candidate’s promise that we would speak again, we had, for all intents and purposes, been banned. Despite the fact that Trump had said he would be will- ing to talk with me further and possibly even grant us an interview, his anti-immigrant rhetoric and agenda would no longer allow this to happen. He was operating as the enemy of the undocumented, and his confrontation with me was just one more way of advancing his message.
  And what was that message? If Trump was willing to forcibly eject a legal immigrant with a U.S. passport and a nationally broadcast television show from a press conference, he would have no problem expelling the more vulnerable immigrants from the country. Granting an interview or engaging in a dialogue with a Univision journalist—or any other Spanish-language media outlet—just wasn’t suited to his plan to criminalize a defenseless minority.
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  Trump had defended his position, and so had I. I’ve been accused of being an activist. I’m not. I’m simply a journalist who asks questions. But when there’s a politician such as Donald Trump who consistently lies, who makes racist, sexist, and xenophobic comments, who attacks judges and journalists, and who behaves like a bully during a presidential campaign, you cannot remain neutral. To do so would be to normalize his behavior. And such behavior is not a good example, especially for children. Our primary social duty as journalists is to question those who have and those who seek power.

  That’s why I did not sit down and did not shut up at the press conference in Iowa. In one way or another, I had been preparing for that moment my entire career. For more than three decades, I have had the opportunity to work with absolute freedom as a reporter in the United States. Censorship was why I left Mexico in the first place, and I wasn’t about to shut up now.
  But the nation that had offered me complete freedom of speech and the promise of equality was changing dramatically. A certain segment of American society, often outside the eyes of mainstream media, was displaying a growing anxiety and resentment against minorities and foreigners. This segment was mistakenly blaming them for their personal misfortunes and the larger problems affecting the nation. This phenomenon was not a new one. It started gaining momentum after Barack Obama first took office, and despite the inherent sense of irrationality, it had been searching for legitimacy and representation among the more conservative groups in the country. Trump wasn’t the leader of that movement, but he read it well and worked it to his electoral advantage.
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  This is how I gradually became a stranger in the country where I had lived for more than half my life. The land where my two children were born. In the end, I have to admit that when I heard the cry of “Get out of my country,” it took me by surprise. In fact, it still rings in my ears to this very day.
  Excerpted from STRANGER by Jorge Ramos. Copyright © 2018 by Jorge Ramos. English translation copyright © 2018 by Ezra E. Fitz. Reprinted by permission of Vintage Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
  STRANGER will be released February 27. Pre-order it here.
  Sign up for our newsletter to get the best of VICE delivered to your inbox daily.

  Follow Jorge Ramos on Twitter.

Stranger: The Challenges of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era

Donna Seaman
Booklist. 114.11 (Feb. 1, 2018): p18+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Stranger: The Challenges of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era. By Jorge Ramos. Tr. by Ezra E. Fitz. Mar. 2018. 208p. Vintage, paper, $15 (9780525563792). 070.9.
Ramos, an Emmy-winning journalist, syndicated columnist, and Univision anchor, attained even greater visibility in August 2015 when presidential candidate Donald Trump had him thrown out of a press conference in Iowa. Ramos tells the full story of that confrontation by way of launching this timely and clarifying mix of candid memoir and sharp commentary about "what it means to be a Latino immigrant in the time of Trump." Ramos reflects on why, even though he has lived in the U.S. for 35 years and has become a citizen and a father, he still feels like a stranger. He recounts his difficult decision to leave Mexico as a fledgling journalist to escape state censorship, asserts journalism's role as a "public service," and expresses his love for the U.S., an "experiment ... based on the extraordinary process of converting 'others' into 'us.'" Under Trump, this inclusiveness is grievously imperiled. Decrying discrimination and deportation and the tragic predicament of the courageous DREAMers, he calls for resistance against the erosion of freedom. Ramos also celebrates Latino lives and finds reasons for optimism. --Donna Seaman
YA/S: YAs might appreciate Ramos' direct and personal style, clear approach to urgent issues, and reflections on his youth. DS.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Seaman, Donna. "Stranger: The Challenges of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 18+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527771778/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2daf7abe. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A527771778

Ramos, Jorge: STRANGER

Kirkus Reviews. (Jan. 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ramos, Jorge STRANGER Vintage (Adult Nonfiction) $15.00 3, 6 ISBN: 978-0-525-56379-2
The celebrated Mexican-American journalist takes on the anti-immigration tenor of the Trump era.
On Aug. 25, 2015, Donald Trump had the author removed from a press conference in Iowa, telling him, "go back to Univision." Already well-known for his role as anchor at that network, Ramos (Take a Stand: Lessons from Rebels, 2016, etc.) was thrust further into the spotlight following the incident, an experience that also led him to further soul-searching regarding his status as a legal immigrant in an increasingly anti-immigrant political and social landscape. Here, the author attempts to synthesize his thoughts about our present state of affairs and how, "to many people, I represent the Other." The concept of the Other recurs throughout the book, which contains much similar material to his previous one and suffers from repetition and uneven organization near the end. Nonetheless, Ramos' message is powerful and vital. "Almost all of us here are either immigrants or the descendants of foreigners," writes the author, "and that has always helped us to cross borders and exceed the limits of what we thought was possible." In brief chapters, some of which have been previously published or reworked, Ramos uses both personal storytelling and concrete data to demonstrate the absolute necessity of immigrants to the success of the U.S. as a nation. (In strictly economic terms, one estimate notes that immigrants "pay $90 billion in taxes, while using only $5 billion in public benefits.") Of course, in the current climate of fake news, facts and figures are often ignored or distorted--something Ramos fully recognizes--but he diligently hammers them home anyway. Among other topics in these essays, the author discusses the proposed border wall, "the geography of stupidity"; Barack Obama's lamentable deportation track record; his disappointment with the Latino voter turnout in the 2016 election; the tenuous status of undocumented workers (he dedicates the book to "the Dreamers, my heroes"); and the prospects for his children's future.
Repetitive in places but not fatally so--a forceful, readable manifesto.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Ramos, Jorge: STRANGER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643131/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=173a3e2c. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A522643131

Ramos, Jorge. Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History

Boyd Childress
Library Journal. 130.7 (Apr. 15, 2005): p106.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2005 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Ramos, Jorge. Dying To Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History. Rayo: HarperCollins. Apr. 2005. c.192p. tr. from Spanish by Kristina Cordero. illus. ISBN 0-06-078944-1. $19.95. INT AFFAIRS
May 14, 2003, began as a day of hope for large group of immigrants looking for better life in America and ended as a day o unspeakable tragedy. Packed into a trailer truck like cargo, at least 74 men ant women suffered dehydration, asphyxiation and fear as they traveled from Harlingen to Houston for over four hours with virtually no air and no water. In the end 19 died, all male, including a five-year old boy. Ramos (Noticiero Univision anchor; No Borders) tells the story of the tragedy utilizing official case documents and interviews with survivors and investigative personnel. He places blame on the "coyotes" involved primarily 25-year-old Karla Chavez, who faces life imprisonment in a May sentencing. The author also points a finger at Mexican and U.S. officials, proclaiming the urgent need for immigration reform and an end to such needless deaths. Like Luis Alberto Urrea's The Devil's Highway, this excellent account of modern-day murder is highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert LJ 1/05.]--Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., AL
Childress, Boyd
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Childress, Boyd. "Ramos, Jorge. Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History." Library Journal, 15 Apr. 2005, p. 106. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A131904445/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9606c170. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A131904445

The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Elect the Next American President

Latino Leaders. 5.5 (October-November 2004): p59.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2004 Ferraez Publications of America Corp.
http://www.latinoleaders.com/
Full Text:
A Book by Jorge Ramos, translated by Ezra Fitz Price: $24.95 / Hardcover--Harper Collins, NY On Sale Now www.amazon.com
It has been broadly speculated that the winner of the presidential elections of 2004 will be decided by the Latino vote. This is the premise upon which famous news anchorman Jorge Ramos developed his most recent book, The Latino Wave.
With a population of 40 million and growing, Latinos have become the largest minority group in the US, and their sheer power will continue to grow consistently in the upcoming years. Jorge Ramos knows this, and he makes a compelling argument of why it is important for candidates to adjust their agendas to address the needs of the Latino community.

The look starts in the year 2000 with President Bush courting the Latino vote by actively incorporating the Spanish language in his campaign, and it moves on to discuss the phenomenon of Hispanic immigration in the US. At the end, Ramos makes a smooth transition back to the initial thread of his story and makes an argument against the "taco and sombrero" approach to politics that many politicians have so far adopted, as well as their inability, or unwillingness, to try to understand and address the issues that am truly important to the Hispanic community in the US today.
The Latino Wave is a brilliant expose of the idiosyncrasies of Latino politics, and our suggestion to politicians who want to win the Latino vote at any given point in this country is quite simple: Read it.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Elect the Next American President." Latino Leaders, Oct.-Nov. 2004, p. 59. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A123852500/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0a2da7f1. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A123852500

The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Elect the Next American President

Publishers Weekly. 251.22 (May 31, 2004): p66.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2004 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
JORGE RAMOS. Rayo, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-057201-9
"The future of the Unites States is a Hispanic one," argues Univision news anchor Ramos (No Borders: A Journalist's Search for Home). He insists that Latinos' large and increasing numbers, Spanish-language mass media and rootedness in nearby mother countries will keep their ethnic identities from atrophying to kitsch and cuisine; they will integrate, but never assimilate. (But that's a claim that's hard to square with his observation that by the third generation, Latinos generally stop speaking Spanish and start intermarrying.) In a chapter titled "How to Woo Latinos: A Guide," Ramos argues that Latinos most often align with Democrats on labor issues, but with Republicans on social issues, and outlines how to move beyond the split. Less targeted are Ramos's vague and cliched musings on the complexities and conflicts of Latino consciousness. He talks to various political and cultural leaders of the Latino community and is unabashed in attacking left-leaning populist Latin American politicians like Hugo Chavez. He draws attention to Latino casualty rates in Iraq that are disproportionate to representation in the ranks and to continued school segregation and workplace racism. Laying out the issues (immigration, most prominently) that he thinks will galvanize the Latino vote for the presidential election, Ramos offers his own "Ten Recommendations for a Latino Agenda," which are predictable but clear. Agent, Bill Adler at Bill Adler Books. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Elect the Next American President." Publishers Weekly, 31 May 2004, p. 66. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A118446944/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e651ded4. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A118446944

Ramos, Jorge. No Borders: a Journalist's Search for Home

Vanessa Bush
Booklist. 99.4 (Oct. 15, 2002): p364.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Tr. by Patricia J. Duncan. Oct. 2002. 320p. illus. HarperCollins/Rayo, $24.95 (0-06-621414-9). 070.9.
Emmy Award-winning TV journalist and author of The Other Face of America (2002), Ramos this time explores the immigrant experience from the perspective of his own career in journalism. Although he has lived and worked in the U.S. (20 years) nearly as long as he lived in Mexico (24 years), Ramos maintains the feelings of an immigrant--a sense that he belongs to both countries but does not fit into either one. He puts his insider-outsider perspective to use in his news analysis, bringing a different perspective to news events from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the terrorist attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001. Ramos recalls his rebellious spirit as a youth and his eventual decision to leave what he describes as the suffocating atmosphere of Mexico's unruly economy, regressive politics, and traditional social values. He finds his Latin background by turns a deterrent and a benefit to his career as he makes a life for himself in the U.S. Readers interested in the immigrant experience, particularly of Hispanics, will enjoy this insightful memoir.
YA: The immigration experience and the journalism story will grab teens. HR.
Bush, Vanessa
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bush, Vanessa. "Ramos, Jorge. No Borders: a Journalist's Search for Home." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2002, p. 364. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A94079766/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=39bceeb5. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A94079766

No Borders: A Journalist's Search for Home. (Nonfiction)

Publishers Weekly. 249.38 (Sept. 23, 2002): p64+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
JORGE RAMOS. HarperCollins/Rayo, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-06-621414-9
Ramos (The Other Face of America), seven-time Emmy Award-winning news anchor of Noticiero Univision, moved to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 25 and has lived here for 20 years. "What am I," he pointedly asks, "a Latino, a Hispanic, a Latin American immigrant, or a Mexican?" This question resonates throughout his affable memoir, and it turns out to be unanswerable. By the book's end, Ramos is still searching for a place where he does not "feel like a foreigner" or someone who's "just arrived." These efforts to define himself, however, did not distract Ramos from pursuing an enormously successful career. In easygoing prose, he describes his rise to become, at 28, "one of the youngest national anchormen in the history of American television." Claiming not to believe in luck, but rather in preparedness, he tells readers he was chosen for one of his first big assignments (covering the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt) simply because he was the only reporter in the room with English language skills and a ready p assport. Speaking from extensive experience, Ramos points out the curious position of Spanish-language journalists in this country: "Most of the United States, of course, does not understand us [Spanish-language journalists] ," and "many people do not even know we exist." Yet Univision is America's fifth largest station, and when Ramos and his co-anchor Maria Elena Salinas host the evening news, they attract 10 times the viewing audience of CNN at that time slot. Readers from this large viewing audience will devour Ramos's inspiring immigrant story. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Bill Adler. (Oct. 15)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"No Borders: A Journalist's Search for Home. (Nonfiction)." Publishers Weekly, 23 Sept. 2002, p. 64+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A92409197/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6876a950. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A92409197

Ramos, Jorge. The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future

Boyd Childress
Library Journal. 127.2 (Feb. 1, 2002): p119.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Ramos, Jorge. The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. Rayo: HarperCollins. 2002. 288p. tr. from Spanish by Patricia J. Duncan. ISBN 0-06-621416-5. $24.95. SOC SCI
Ramos sends his message loud and clear: Hispanics are the emerging minority, and their contributions to American society both culturally and socially are already well established. More importantly, Hispanics are a powerful economic voice--all that is left is for their political clout to catch up with their economic impact. With over seven million Mexicans born in Mexico living in the United States, these immigrants cannot be ignored. Crossing into America simply for opportunity, Mexicans fill many jobs most Americans would reject, yet discrimination is still widespread, and the nearly two and a half million illegal immigrants face even greater hardships. In brief vignettes, Ramos, a native Mexican and as a Univision anchorman one of America's most recognized Hispanics, delivers powerful images of immigrants attempting to provide for their family and improve their quality of life, and he destroys many of the stereotypes of Mexicans seeking only welfare benefits. Among the many villains, Ramos counts former California governor Pete Wilson, conservative Pat Robertson, and the migra, or Immigration and Naturalization Service. Initially published in Mexico as La Otra Cara de America, this significant book belongs in all libraries.--Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., AL
Childress, Boyd
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Childress, Boyd. "Ramos, Jorge. The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future." Library Journal, 1 Feb. 2002, p. 119. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A286255457/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=30143c6a. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A286255457

The Other Face Of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. (Nonfiction)

Publishers Weekly. 249.3 (Jan. 21, 2002): p78.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
JORGE RAMOS. HarperiCollins/Rayo, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-06-621416-5
"I have encountered a lot of discrimination in my life... words like wetback, or ugly words like tar baby." The speaker is not an undocumented Mexican immigrant or a Salvadoran refugee, but George P. Bush, the son of Florida Governor Jeb and his Mexican wife, Columba. Ramos, columnist and Emmy award--winning anchor on Noticiero Univision, makes the case that if a Bush can face racial and ethnic discrimination, imagine what confronts the average Latino. It's a compelling point, as most of the people Ramos writes about in this lively, smart and sometimes cursory tour through U.S. Hispanic lives and cultures have nowhere near the status or privilege of a Bush family scion. The 49 short and mid-length pieces of this collection cover a wide range: e.g., undocumented Chicano nannies in Aspen tending the children of wealthy white vacationers; the energetic battle by Puerto Ricans to stop the navy shelling of Vieques; the shooting death of Amadou Diallo by New York City police. Ramos makes quick, tart points in the s horter pieces, but his longer meditation on the Elian Gonzalez affair shows that he can write sustained, critical think pieces as well. More a journalistic collection than a full-length study, the book is entertaining, informative and well done, but breaks little new ground. (Feb.)
Forecast: Look for some sales via Ramos's Noticiero Univision profile and 35-paper syndicated weekly column, but the lack of a solid news hook or personal interest story will prevent larger numbers.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Other Face Of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. (Nonfiction)." Publishers Weekly, 21 Jan. 2002, p. 78. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A82352538/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=05e6141f. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A82352538

The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. (Non Fiction)

Kirkus Reviews. 69.23 (Dec. 1, 2001): p1670.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2001 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ramos, Jorge
Rayo/HarperCollins (288 pp.)
$24.95
Jan. 15, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-621416-5
Voices and experiences from the great Hispanic emigration to the US, gathered and put into appropriate context by the levelheaded yet passionate journalist Ramos.
There is not a corner in the US--from baseball to education, music to the agricultural sector--where the presence and cultural influence of Hispanics has not made itself felt, and this in the face of widespread racism, discrimination, and exploitation. Univision newscaster Ramos states the obvious--though much of it is also denied by a majority of non-Hispanic citizens: namely, that the racial and ethnic fibers of the country now reflect Latinization, definitively and irrevocably and for the good. This, says Ramos, is because Hispanics have not melted into the mainstream, but have diverted that stream into their own identity, retaining their language and traditions. Here, Ramos presents a sampling of the Hispanic immigrant experience, legal and illegal, detailing not just the value they have added to the US economy, the de facto population numbers, how young kids must grow up fast (translating and mediating all kinds of business), and the problem of the INS, but also a clear understanding of the factors push ing people out of each specific Latin American country and the big pall for coming to the US: jobs. Despite all the setbacks that Hispanics face--from INS raids that shatter families to the relentless snubs from the white population, with plenty of misery and challenges in between--Ramos chronicles the survival of strong families, their drive and pride and relish in their new circumstances. He also brings a balanced perspective to his reporting, best seen at work in the Elian Gonzalez case, where he is able to make sense of both the Cuban exile population's position and the legal and ethical position of the Clinton administration.
Accept a multicultural society and embrace diversity, says Ramos, or beat your head against the wall. Truer words were never spoken, even if they are still fighting words for too many.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. (Non Fiction)." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2001, p. 1670. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A81147691/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f12ced06. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A81147691

A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto

Michael J. Pisani
American Journal of Business. 27.1 (Spring 2012): p91+.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/19355181211217670
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 Emerald Group Publishing, Ltd.
http://www.bsu.edu/mcobwin/majb/
Full Text:
A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto
Jorge Ramos (translated from the Spanish by Erza Fitz)
Vintage Books
New York, NY
2010
$14.00, paperback
153 pp.
Review DOI 10.1108/19355181211217670
Most readers of this journal probably have not heard of Mexican-born journalist Jorge Ramos [...] but he leaves his imprint on nearly two million Americans on a nightly basis as the anchor for Univision's Spanish language nightly news. For Americans age 18-34 (in November 2011), Jorge Ramos is the second most watched news anchor after NBC's Brian Williams (Weprin, 2011). A 2010 nationally representative poll of Hispanics identified Jorge Ramos among the top four "most important Latino leaders in the country today" along with US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Congressman Luis Gutierrez (of Illinois), and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (Taylor and Lopez, 2010).
Mr Ramos came to the USA after a dispute with his Mexican television employer (Televisa). Televisa had censored his third story as he was just embarking on his journalism career. Disappointed, Ramos left Televisa and Mexico and headed to the USA in 1983 on a student visa and quickly found employment as a waiter and a cashier to make ends meet. With a college education earned in both Mexico and the USA, Jorge Ramos eventually made it back into television in 1985, this time in the USA. By 1986 Mr Ramos became the news anchor for Univision (at only age 28) where he remains today. Uniquely, Mr Ramos has interviewed Latin American leaders Fidel Castro, Felipe Calderon, and Hugo Chavez and US presidents Obama, Bush (41) and Bush (43), and Clinton. Now, Jorge Ramos is a naturalized US citizen, married with children, living (and fully participating in American life) in the USA, but with familial roots that cross borders.
I believe this brief author introduction offers context to the book, A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto, which focuses on the Latino. Ramos authored this book "to make the invisible visible and to give voice to the voiceless" (p. xvi). Hispanics are numerically the largest minority population in the USA at over 50 million people (16.3 percent of the total population) and Univision is the number one provider of news and entertainment in Spanish in the USA. While America is historically a nation created by (and of) immigrants, oftentimes those Americans whose families immigrated in the (sometimes distant) past forget the immigrant experience is part and parcel of the American story. And when economic times get tough, it may be easy to strike out against the undocumented who are vulnerable and foreign as an easy scapegoat. Prosecution and deportation become the magic elixir that re-establishes prosperity. This is wrong, cruel, and foolhardy.
This is wrong because the undocumented make American lives much easier; "without them our lives would be much less comfortable" (9. 5). This is cruel because the undocumented live in the shadows, invisible to most, fearful that the next encounter may split their families. This is foolhardy because so many undocumenteds contribute much to the fabric of America (see Pisani article on undocumented entrepreneurship in this issue). Also it is impossible to remove the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the USA, the future face of America will be increasingly Latino.
Ramos identifies six elements he believes represents common ground within the immigrant debate continuum. These elements or basics assumptions are:
(1) that current immigration policy is broken and is in desperate need of repair; (2) that nobody is in favor of undocumented immigration (not even the undocumented immigrants themselves); (3) that the US--like any country--has the right to defend its borders and establish a policy of who is allowed in and who is not; (4) that there is absolutely no justification for the ongoing death of countless immigrants in the regions along both sides of the border; (5) that US policy should not break apart families; and (6) that it is impossible to deport every single undocumented immigrant, which is why we must find a realistic option for those who are already here (p. xx).
The bulk of Ramos' work deals with why reform of the current immigration system is necessary. It is filled with selective immigration vignettes, policy makers, and history from a bi-national vantage point inclusive of Mexican and American views. A few points deserve elaboration. Ramos discusses the ramification of the 2008 Latino vote in the presidential election. He argues that President Obama "owes" Latinos for assistance particularly in electoral victories in New Mexico, Nevada, Florida, New Jersey, and Colorado. Ramos states, "The 2008 Hispanic vote wasn't free. It demanded something very important in return: the promise that the invisibles will be brought into the light" (p. 23), a promise not kept by President Obama. Even the most supported and least controversial immigration legislation reform, the DREAM Act (aimed at undocumented minors at time of arrival who are in good standing via educational attainment or military service), has yet to be passed and signed into law.
Ramos also suggests that a future Hispanic president has already been born in the USA and may be currently enrolled in grade school. Based on the Latino demographic shift in America and the increasing influence of Hispanics at the polling booth and marketplace, Latinos may soon be a majority minority in several key Western states not only in population, but in various walks of life. Ramos believes, "If anything characterizes the USA, it's the promise that every single one of us will be treated equally" (p. 25). This premise of equality in America, in Ramos' view, maintains hope for Latinos of a better present and future.
The manifesto that Ramos advocates rests on four pillars. First, words matter. Ramos argues people are not inherently illegal, but rather undocumented. Second, America needs to legalize undocumented workers already present in the USA and provide a pathway to citizenship (though the legalization process should include a monetary penalty). Third, America should better integrate present and future immigrants (including a work program) into the social and economic fabric of the USA. Lastly, the USA should view the engagement with immigrants and sending nations within a long term perspective where a rapprochement with Latin American governments and peoples is sorely missing.
This book is an insightful look into the immigration dialogue from one who has experienced immigration from the inside out. Jorge Ramos came as a Mexican immigrant to the USA and succeeded in achieving the American dream. In his news reporting career, he reports on immigration from the outside looking in as one of the most influential leaders of the Latino community today. His views are important, if not prescient. Policy makers at the local, state and federal levels should read this book. Americans wanting to learn more about immigration from a Latino perspective should read this book.
Michael J. Pisani
Professor of International Business, Central Michigan University
References
Taylor, P. and Lopez, M.H. (2010), National Latino Leader? The Job Is Open, Pew Hispanic Center, November 15, available at: www.pewhispanic.org/2010/11/15/ national-latino-leader-the-job-is-open/ (accessed November 20).
Weprin, A. (2011), "Younger viewers tuning out the evening news? Not at 'Noticiero Univision'", December 2, available at: www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ younger-viewers-tuning-out-the-evening-news-not-at-noticiero- univision_bl00815#more-100815 (accessed January 1, 2012).
Pisani, Michael J.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Pisani, Michael J. "A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto." American Journal of Business, Spring 2012, p. 91+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A294628690/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e2f6ffb2. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A294628690

An Immigrant's Tale. (Book Review)

Andre's Hernandez Alende
Latin Trade. 10.12 (Dec. 2002): p66+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 Miami Media, LLC
http://latintrade.com/
Full Text:
Jorge Ramos was told he wouldn't succeed in the United States unless he lost his Mexican accent Despite numerous attempts, including enrollment in a diction course, he never did--and he's no worse for it. Today the 16-year veteran of Noticiero Univision reigns as one of the most prestigious journalists watched by 35 million Hispanics in the United States, as well as the residents of 13 Latin American countries where the news anchor's work is broadcast. In Miami, Los Angeles and Houston, his audience exceeds that of celebrated U.S. counterparts like Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw. U.S. President George W Bush granted Ramos the first televised interview after winning the presidency and cordially salutes him since Ramos told him their full names were similar.
In this autobiography, Ramos reveals in detail the events of his life, more so than in any of his previous works, including intimate anecdotes involving his failed marriage and the narrow ties he maintains with his daughter, who spends most of the year separated from him. He narrates his formative years in Mexico at the heart of an upper middle-class family, his clash with customs and tradition and his disgust with political corruption and the government's interference in news content and delivery.
It was the love of broadcast news and a respect for ethics that drove Ramos to emigrate from Mexico to the United States on a student visa He confesses that he may have wished to leave Mexico more than he wished to go to the United States and, had he received a visa to a European country that might have been his destination instead. He relates the difficulties he faced in his first years in California, in a nation where "the best things ... are its opportunities; the worst thing is the racism," and reveals how he managed to open doors, first in Los Angeles and later in Miami.

No Borders is an autobiography written in stretches, explains Ramos, amid interruptions, travel, changes of address and the demands of his daily work on television, his radio commentary and his weekly column in 35 newspapers. The author, confessing that he does not know what it feels like to sit down and write in peace, quotes Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in concluding "a book is a victory," This work, of course, is the story of a personal victory But in many ways it is also the story of the Mexican and Latin American immigrants who entered and continue to enter the United States, illegally and legally, in numbers substantial enough to change the countenance of the country.
Ramos has succeeded in a big way; many immigrants haven't. Even so, Hispanics have steadily improved their economic status in the United States and today their purchasing power exceeds more than US$450 billion. Even immigrants without legal documentation enjoy a quality of life superior to that of their home countries.

Beyond the personal information, Ramos's book offers a revealing vision of a phenomenon of our time: the Hispanization of the United States. The explosion of Ramos's career reflects the explosion of the Hispanic population. In the same manner that today Spanish television exceeds the ratings of English channels in some markets in the United States, Spanish has become the second language. in various cities, those who cannot speak Spanish face reduced opportunities to get a good job.
This demographic shift has not gone unnoticed by politicians, who have learned Spanish or, at least, picked up useful phrases to lace through their speeches or public appearances as they scramble to curry the favor of Hispanic voters. Ramos identifies a transcendental case: Bush won the election against Al Gore, says the journalist, because he spoke a bit of Spanish and supported the Cubans in Miami during the drama involving Elian Gonzalez, the child who lost his mother on a raft headed from Cuba to Florida. The boy was eventually plucked by force from relatives in Miami and returned to his father in Cuba. Bush, Ramos points out, was thankful for strong voter support "from the Cubans in the state of Florida. And that's why I won't forget them."
Bush made that statement in almost perfect Spanish. Perhaps without noticing it, by using Spanish language he was highlighting a sign of our time.
Andres Hernandez Alende
COMMENTS? WRITE: ahernandez@latintrade.inc.com
RELATED ARTICLE: OTHER TITLES OF INTEREST
A new book has set Mexico on fire. It is Ricas y Famosas (Distributed Art Publishers), a photo collection showing the wives, daughters and lovers of the country's well-heeled amidst the opulent surroundings of their everyday lives. Many Mexicans hoped the government of Vicente Fox would ease social inequality but, if this book is any indication, that has not happened. Author-photographer Daniela Rossell had permission from all the women interviewed to publish their photos. William Bernstein proposes a way to eliminate financial advisers in The Four Pillars of In vesting (McGraw-Hill). This book, divided into four lessons, combines market history with investment theories as it instructs independent investors how to build a solid portfolio. Bernstein offers all the tools necessary to succeed in the stock market without the help of a broker. The book also outlines exercises to determine the investor's risk tolerance.
Alende, Andre's Hernandez
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Alende, Andre's Hernandez. "An Immigrant's Tale. (Book Review)." Latin Trade, Dec. 2002, p. 66+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A95355292/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d04390c8. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A95355292

Seaman, Donna. "Stranger: The Challenges of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 18+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527771778/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2daf7abe. Accessed 17 May 2018. "Ramos, Jorge: STRANGER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643131/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=173a3e2c. Accessed 17 May 2018. Childress, Boyd. "Ramos, Jorge. Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History." Library Journal, 15 Apr. 2005, p. 106. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A131904445/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9606c170. Accessed 17 May 2018. "The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Elect the Next American President." Latino Leaders, Oct.-Nov. 2004, p. 59. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A123852500/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0a2da7f1. Accessed 17 May 2018. "The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Elect the Next American President." Publishers Weekly, 31 May 2004, p. 66. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A118446944/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e651ded4. Accessed 17 May 2018. Bush, Vanessa. "Ramos, Jorge. No Borders: a Journalist's Search for Home." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2002, p. 364. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A94079766/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=39bceeb5. Accessed 17 May 2018. "No Borders: A Journalist's Search for Home. (Nonfiction)." Publishers Weekly, 23 Sept. 2002, p. 64+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A92409197/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6876a950. Accessed 17 May 2018. Childress, Boyd. "Ramos, Jorge. The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future." Library Journal, 1 Feb. 2002, p. 119. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A286255457/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=30143c6a. Accessed 17 May 2018. "The Other Face Of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. (Nonfiction)." Publishers Weekly, 21 Jan. 2002, p. 78. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A82352538/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=05e6141f. Accessed 17 May 2018. "The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future. (Non Fiction)." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2001, p. 1670. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A81147691/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f12ced06. Accessed 17 May 2018. Pisani, Michael J. "A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto." American Journal of Business, Spring 2012, p. 91+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A294628690/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e2f6ffb2. Accessed 17 May 2018. Alende, Andre's Hernandez. "An Immigrant's Tale. (Book Review)." Latin Trade, Dec. 2002, p. 66+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A95355292/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d04390c8. Accessed 17 May 2018.

• San Antonio Express-News
  https://www.expressnews.com/entertainment/arts-culture/books/article/Stranger-looks-at-an-increasingly-strange-12710464.php
  Word count: 1006

  ‘Stranger’ looks at an increasingly strange land
  Yvette Benavides, For the Express-News
  March 1, 2018

  0

  Photo: Vintage Books

  Image 1 of 2
  “Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era,” By Jorge Ramos, Translated by Ezra E. Fitz, Vintage Books, $15

  Those of us who write and read creative nonfiction, true stories, understand the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. The quote is rarely attributed to its original author, possibly because we each hit upon the absolute wonder (and sometimes pain) of this discovery every time we sit down to write or read a true story. Mark Twain is credited with being the first to publish the line as an epigraph in the fifteenth chapter of the book “Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World.” Most, however, might not ever have heard or read the rest of that line from Twain. The full line is “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”

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  Jorge Ramos’ latest book “Stranger” is nonfiction, detailing events that are assuredly stranger than fiction, including his stunning ejection from a press conference on June 15, 2016 for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Dubuque, Iowa. Immediately after that, he experienced an attempted sucker punch when a Trump supporter followed Ramos out of the press conference and said between gritted teeth “Get out of my country.”
  The United States is, in fact, Ramos’ country. He was a journalist in his home country of Mexico and left in 1983 because, ironically enough, an editor wanted to censor his story, one that was critical of the Mexican president “for the lack of democracy in the country.”
  More Information
  Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era
  By Jorge Ramos, Translated by Ezra E. Fitz
  Vintage Books, $15
  The video from Dubuque played over and again on the wall-to-wall coverage of the candidate’s many brazen and bizarre photo ops, starting with that now infamous one with his escalator descent to a podium where he denigrated Mexicans as “rapists” and “criminals.”

  Ramos reached out to Trump in a hand-written note where he included his personal cell phone number and an invitation to talk. Trump followed by publicizing the number on social media and further mocking Ramos and Univision, the network that airs the newscasts Ramos anchors and the public-affairs shows he hosts. Ramos writes about Trump, “Granting an interview or engaging in a dialogue with a Univision journalist — or any other Spanish-language media outlet — just wasn’t suited to his plan to criminalize a defenseless minority.”
  Ramos didn’t cower. He followed the candidate down the campaign trail to Dubuque, Iowa. He wanted to tell the viewers of Univision what Trump was going to do to effect the deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants and to build the wall along almost 2,000 miles of US/Mexico border.
  This is the long, strange context that grounds the book, “Stranger,” but it isn’t the whole story or the only one.
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  Interspersed among the chapters about Trump are other ones — well-researched commentaries about the proposed border wall, immigration, and Dreamers, to whom Ramos has dedicated this book. Ramos, who is registered as an Independent, also includes a chapter about his contentious relationship with former President Barack Obama, whom he criticized for deporting more immigrants than any other president in the history of the United States.
  The book is also about the identity crisis so many in the United States, and not just necessarily immigrants, endure, particularly today when it seems that our own country is inhospitable to those of us with Spanish surnames or other features that identify us as non-Anglo or non-White. Ramos writes, “Despite what the Declaration of Independence says, not all people here in the United States are treated as equals. Some — those who have a darker skin color than others — can lose their lives…”

  Ramos is a careful and thorough researcher, citing studies about the media, demographics, the border and immigration. A wealth of statistics ground the assertions Ramos makes, and the well-publicized words and actions of Trump himself also stand as evidence for the assertions.
  Perhaps the most moving of the chapters in a book full of stories that evoke a range of painful empathies and emotions are the ones to do with Ramos’ childhood. It wasn’t an idyllic one to be sure. In Mexico as in the United States, Ramos now considers himself, as the title suggests, “a stranger.”
  Ramos also writes a letter to his children, Paola and Nicolás in a chapter with the unlikely title of “Disobey!” The letter is powerful and poignant — and pointed. Ramos writes: “Disobey. When you are standing in front of a racist, disobey. When they want to discriminate against you, disobey.”
  The quote from Mark Twain goes “The truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.” Or maybe the Truth is. “Stranger,” by Jorge Ramos details the strangest of times in modern history for our country and illuminates the undeniable possibilities for “strangers” who keep the dream of hope alive by refusing to remain silent — and sometimes by disobeying.
  Yvette Benavides is a professor of English and creative writing at Our Lady of the Lake University.

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