Forget the Pope and Sub-Comandante Marcos, the real story is Maria Elena Salinas Miami, Florida

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, Feb-March, 2002 by Anita Savio

But much has changed since then. "Before," says Salinas, "when I would go to cover an election and I would ask for a Spanish-speaking spokesperson, they would say, 'You're from Channel Thirty-what?' And they would bring out the janitor or a translator. Now you see the candidates speaking Spanish. Mr. Clinton told me a month or so before he left office that he hoped to be the last US president who didn't speak Spanish. I was kind of disappointed he didn't learn even one line."

Salinas also recalls, in a recently published interview, an experience that speaks volumes about the early days of Hispanics in the news media.

In the early 1980s she sought work with ABC and CBS. She relates: "ABC never even called me for a first interview. At CBS I did get the chance to interview with the person who was news director at that time. He asked me if I would mind if they assigned me to covering the Hispanic community, because that bothered some Hispanic journalists. I answered, 'Are you kidding? That's what I like best!'"

Salinas, who speaks with an accent, remembers that everything appeared to be going fine until the station manager interviewed her and decided he did not like it. "Ironically," Salinas points out, "there was a British director working at the station at the time, and his accent didn't seem to bother them at all. But a journalist with a Hispanic accent, covering the Hispanic community--well, that was a problem."

In 1987, upon becoming anchor of Noticiero Univision, Salinas's career took wing. In fact, as Salinas also has commented, "That was the best thing that could ever have happened to me. I've covered the Pope nine times. I've interviewed all the Latin American presidents. I was in Russia covering the superpower summit. If I'd been at CBS or ABC I don't believe I ever would have been able to do so many different things."

One of the journalistic coups she is proudest of is the interview she did with the elusive Sub-Comandante Marcos. "We sent a person on the Zapatista tour from Chiapas to Mexico City to hand deliver a letter I had written. When we got to Mexico City we kept insisting and couldn't get an answer. I had been there three or four days, and Rosario Ibarra (a left-leaning Mexican political leader) helped us a bit. I think they had this idea that we were Televisa (the huge Mexican television chain that supports the political establishment), because it is part owner of Univision and they thought I was going to give the interview to Televisa. I called, Rosario called, the producer called. We went to the university where they were staying and left several letters.

By this time I had been there a full week, and I told the people from the movement, 'I'm sorry. I can't wait anymore.' I felt very frustrated because I had been waiting such a long time, and that's what I went to do, and my boss was very disappointed.

"But the Marcos people were saying, 'Call tomorrow, call tomorrow.' And finally they said they would give me the interview, but to call back in two hours. By this time it was Friday morning, three a.m. Finally, they said, 'Call in 20 minutes.' I called, and nobody answered the phone. I called again at seven in the morning. Again they said to call in 20 minutes. I had already packed my bags and called the bellman, and I said, 'That's it. If I don't leave right now, I won't make it back home for the newscast.' I called and said, 'I'm leaving.' Somebody grabbed the phone. I heard a man's voice and he said, 'Maria Elena, soy Marcos. Perdona que te hice esperar tanto. Ven esta noche.'"