Jorge Gilberto Ramos Ávalos was born on March 16, 1958, in Mexico City, Mexico,[7][12] to a Roman Catholic family,[13] and he was raised in the Bosques de Echegaray neighborhood of Naucalpan, a suburb of Mexico City.[14] His father was an architect.[15] He attended Catholic schools where he states he was abused by the priests.[15]
Ramos worked for Grupo Televisa's flagship XEW-TV in Mexico City for the network's local version of 60 Minutes. At the age of 24, he quit that job after a story he produced that was critical of Mexico's government was censored.[14] In 1983, he left Mexico on a student visa for Los Angeles, where he planned to enroll in the UCLA Extension's journalism classes. In 1984, he was hired by KMEX-TV, an affiliate of what was then the Spanish International Network (SIN) in Los Angeles, which operated on a shoestring budget in a run-down facility on Melrose Avenue. At KMEX, Ramos felt he could express himself freely: "To me it was a palace... the United States gave me opportunities that my country of origin could not: freedom of the press and complete freedom of expression."[2] Three years later, he became the host for KMEX's morning program, Mundo Latino.[14] In 1987, Ramos then joined SIN's national operation[16] which was rebranded as the Univision network a year later after coming under new ownership; Univision has a broad entertainment and news-sharing agreement with Televisa.[citation needed]
Since 1987, Ramos has been the anchorman for Noticiero Univision, a nightly Spanish language newscast, alongside colleague María Elena Salinas. He also hosts Al Punto, a Spanish-language Sunday public affairs program aired weekly on Univision, and America with Jorge Ramos, an English language news magazine on Fusion TV.[17]
Ramos also writes a bilingual newspaper column that is published internationally, and appears regularly as a pundit on English-language cable networks, like CNN and MSNBC. Polls among American Latinos rank him as the most trusted and influential Hispanic in America, surpassing all other political leaders, and his Q Score among Latino audiences places him between soccer star Lionel Messi and pop singer Shakira.[17]
In 2002, he founded Despierta Leyendo (Wake Up Reading), the first book club in the history of Spanish-language television.[19]
In 2012, Ramos, critical of the lack of Latino moderators in any of the U.S. presidential debates, complained that the debate commission was "stuck in the 1950s". When Univision held its own forums with candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, Ramos challenged both of them on their immigration policies, specifically Romney's "self-deportation" policy, which Ramos considered an insult to Latinos, and Obama's deportation of more than 1.4 million people, and his reneging on his promise to address immigration during his first term. Washington Monthly named Ramos the broadcaster who would most determine the 2012 presidential election. Ramos' increased notability, however, led to criticism of his advocacy approach. To this Ramos has stated, "Our position is clearly pro-Latino or pro-immigrant ... We are simply being the voice of those who don't have a voice."[2]
On August 25, 2015, Ramos attended a news conference held in Dubuque, Iowa, by Trump. Prior to attending, Ramos studied previous Trump press conferences and discovered a pattern of Trump repetitively interjecting "excuse me" and calling on another reporter when asked a question opposing his beliefs. Due to this knowledge, Ramos refused to sit down and persistently continued questioning Trump about his immigration policies when rebuffed.[25] Ramos insisted on his rights as a reporter and United States citizen to ask a question, prompting Trump's Head of Security Keith Schiller to push him backwards out of the conference room.[15] About 15 minutes later, Trump allowed Ramos to return to the conference, where he and Trump engaged in a heated exchange on the issue. Trump later explained that he had not called on Ramos for a question, as he had called on another reporter in the audience. Ramos accused Trump of "spreading hate" with his calls for mass deportations of undocumented families, and repealing birthright citizenship, and questioned the feasibility of Trump's proposals. He also questioned Trump's viability as a candidate among Latino voters, citing a poll indicating that 75% of those voters held unfavorable opinions of him,[26][27][28] and projected that Trump would only get 16% of the Latino vote.[29] Election exit polls showed Trump getting 29% of the Hispanic vote, a 13% increase over Ramos's projection. Most Latinos did not vote though. Latino turnout was actually under 50%, even lower than the historically low election turnout overall. It was higher in the prior election since Obama was running. [30]
The press conference incident inspired Ramos to create his documentary Hate Rising focused on increasing incidents of racial bigotry and violence across the country, which aired October 23, 2016, on Univision and Fusion.[31] In preparation for the documentary, Ramos met with members of various hate groups across the country including Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis, along with Latino and Muslim victims.[32] His journey lasted nine months, often placing him in danger as both an immigrant and a Mexican-American man.[33] In order to gain face time with members of white supremacist groups, Ramos partnered with director Catherine Tambini, an American who the groups were under the impression they would be speaking to, and only right before the interview started did Ramos sit down to ask questions.[34]
In 2016, Ramos began leveraging Facebook Live to stream raw footage taken on his phone to social media audiences, gaining 2.6 million views on his Iowa caucus videos and over four million on his reports during the New Hampshire primaries.[35]
On February 25, 2019, he was held with his journalistic group in the Miraflores Palace after an interview with Nicolás Maduro. After seizing the equipment and interview recordings, he was released hours later and deported from the country. During the interview, Maduro denied there was a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, which led Ramos to show Maduro images of Venezuelans eating garbage to point out that there was indeed a crisis. After being released, Ramos stated that he and his group were held because this action bothered Maduro. The Information Minister of Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez, described the incident as a "cheap show."
On April 12, 2019, his intervention in the morning conference of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador was controversial over the confrontation he held with López Obrador, around homicide figures in Mexico in the period of the administration. The episode opened a debate on the use of figures of malicious homicides in Mexico and its different sources. He interviewed Fidel Castro, confronted Obama on deportations, confronted Trump and is reportedly an admirer of Oriana Fallaci.[36]
Personal life
Ramos earned a master's degree in international studies at the University of Miami in Florida.[2]
In 2008, Ramos became a United States citizen, after many years of feeling personally conflicted over the matter. He had considered himself just another "Mexican with a green card." That year, however, his 50th birthday, he had lived in Mexico 25 years and 25 years in the United States, and came to a realization, explaining, "You have to go through a mental and emotional process to recognize who you really are," Ramos said. "I finally recognized that I cannot be defined by one country. I am from both countries. It took me many years to make peace with that thought, and that I was never going back to Mexico."[2]
Although raised Roman Catholic, Ramos does not believe in God, calling himself an agnostic.[45][46] He has criticized Pope Francis for presiding over the canonization of Pope John Paul II, who he believes willingly covered up abuses committed by Catholic priests.[47]
^Ramos, Jorge (December 4, 2020). "What I Learned From My Brush With Trump". New York Times. So, like any sensible journalist, I wrote to the new candidate and asked him for an interview. However, instead of answering my letter, he posted it on Instagram along with my phone number. As a result, I received hundreds of hateful calls and texts and I had to change my number.
^Desta, Yohana (June 26, 2015). "Donald Trump loses all chill, posts private information of Univision star". Mashable. It turns out Donald Trump doesn't just fire people: He doxes them, too... Trump decided to post a photo on Instagram of a letter sent to him by Univision anchor Jorge Ramos... In the letter, Ramos wrote down his personal cell phone number, which Trump didn't bother to blur out.
^Phillips, Amber (July 21, 2015). "Donald Trump just doxxed Lindsey Graham on live TV". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 14, 2015. Trump's behavior is raising eyebrows, but this isn't even the first time in his month-long campaign that Trump has been accused of doxxing someone. When Univision cancelled his "Miss USA" pageant, he allegedly published a letter on Instagram from Jorge Ramos, the channel's popular anchor, with Ramos's personal cellphone number.
^Archived copy. Cala (in Spanish). Interviewed by Ismael Cala[in Spanish]. CNN en Español. November 18, 2013. Archived from the original on November 4, 2019. Retrieved August 26, 2019. Como no sé, tampoco pretendo saberlo{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)