Maria Elena Salinas

In the one-and-a-half-hour solo portion of her interview, Maria Elena Salinas talks about her early life working in radio, which eventually led to her move to television. She describes reporting for Spanish International Network, where she worked closely with mentor Pete Moraga on developing her style and journalistic skills. She recounts covering several stories such as the the beatification of Juan Diego, the 1994 talks between Mexico and the Zapatistas, and several earthquakes and natural disasters. Salinas recalls covering the Iraq War from Baghdad and discusses challenging then-governor Pete Wilson on his stance on immigration. She outlines her feelings about advocacy journalism, and details her methods of preparation for interviews with world leaders such as Augusto Pinochet. She concludes her portion of the interview by talking about her feelings on the then-state of diversity in television.

In the one-hour joint portion of the interview Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas describe how they met and how they divide up co-anchoring duties on a nightly basis on Noticiero Univision. They discuss Univision's role in the recent and then-upcoming presidential elections and the prospect of a Latino candidate winning the presidency. Ramos and Salinas outline changes they've seen in Spanish news since they began their careers, and comment on their longevity and how they feel about each other as journalists. Jenni Matz conducted the interviews on May 21, 2015 in Doral, FL.