Jorge Ramos said goodbye to Univision in style this Friday, December 13. Through an emotional writing, he reviewed his almost 40 years of experience at the television channel and recalled the words of Gabriel García Márquez “Journalism is the best job in the world.”
The article began with a heartfelt dedication to his family and especially to his life partner, Chiquinquirá Delgado, to Paola, Nicolás, Carlota and María Elena.
Ramos, who laid the foundations to be one of the most prominent journalists in the United States, finished his last newscast and on Sunday, December 15, the last broadcast of his program ‘Al Punto’.
“It’s hard to say goodbye to what you like to do most and that has given you so much in life.”
Later he mentioned “For a little more than 38 years I was hosting the Univision Newscast, broadcast on television for the United States and several Latin American countries. I estimate there were about 8 thousand newscasts. More or less”.
He spoke of his inexperience when he began working in television: “I started very young, at 28, and I was so inexperienced that a company executive suggested I dye my hair gray to improve my credibility. I didn’t pay attention to it, but life, very soon after, would reward me with completely gray hair. “Sometimes I think that each gray hair has a name, it comes from a place or a moment that changed me.”
“He saved me many times”
In his story, Ramos remembers former co-workers and adds that Ilia Calderón will take charge of the newscast, being the first Afro-Latina journalist in the United States to have that responsibility.
“At the beginning of my career as an anchor I could barely read the teleprompter. (The trick is to talk to the camera as if it were a person and that is not natural). That’s why my first partner on the news, Teresa Rodríguez, would write down the words on my paper script with her impeccable red nails in case I got lost. And he saved me many times. I have had the privilege of working on the news with the best journalists: Teresa, Andrea Kutyas, María Elena Salinas and, until today, Ilia Calderónwho will take charge of the newscast, the first Afro-Latina in the United States to have that responsibility in English or Spanish,” she said.
The journalist alluded to Gabriel García Márquez, perhaps one of the greatest references in literature and journalism.
“Journalists are not like actors, who can live several lives through their characters. We have only one life, but a very intense one. The Nobel Prize in Literature, Gabriel García Márquez, was right when he said that journalism is the best job in the world. It forces us to stand firmly on the ground, as Isabel Allende once pointed out to me.. Furthermore, I believe that journalism allows you to be young and rebellious all your life.”
To say goodbye, the Mexican stated that journalists also carry their traumas and fears.
“I have been touched by everything. I was in seven wars – never in combat – and I mention it only because I had the great fortune to return unscathed. Or so I thought. But, like soldiers, journalists also carry our traumas and fears.”
He added: “If you emotionally block yourself in war or very violent coverage from continuing to work, you will continue to block yourself when you return home. Everything you see with your heart becomes a scar and sometimes it bleeds when you least imagine it.”
The journalist was fired amid applause and joy by his co-workers, and was immortalized in a video published on his Instagram.
Continue reading:
- Jorge Ramos says goodbye to Univision after a career of 38 years
- Chiquinquirá Delgado and Jorge Ramos splurge on decorating their mansion for Christmas
- Ilia Calderón will remain the sole presenter of the Univision Newscast