María Elena Salinas (born December 30, 1954), is an American broadcast journalist, news anchor, and author. Called the "Voice of Hispanic America" by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', Salinas is one of the most recognized Hispanic female journalists in the United States. She was the co-anchor of ''
Noticiero Univision
''Noticiero Univision'' (; ) is the flagship daily evening television news program of Noticias Univision, the news division of the American Spanish language broadcast television network Univision. First aired in 1981 for Spanish International Net ...
,'' the primary evening news broadcast on
Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
, and the co-host of the
news magazine
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or n ...
program ''
Aquí y Ahora'' (''Here and Now'').
Salinas has been working for more than three decades in the U.S. and in 18 Latin American countries. She has interviewed Latin American heads of state, rebel leaders, dictators, and every United States president since Jimmy Carter.
Journalism career
Salinas began as a reporter, anchor and public-affairs host for
KMEX-TV
KMEX-DT (channel 34) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the western flagship station of the Spanish-language Univision network. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Ontario, Califor ...
, the Univision affiliate in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, in 1981. She became the anchor of the national Spanish-language news program ''
Noticiero Univision
''Noticiero Univision'' (; ) is the flagship daily evening television news program of Noticias Univision, the news division of the American Spanish language broadcast television network Univision. First aired in 1981 for Spanish International Net ...
'' in 1987.
She has interviewed figures such as former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama;
Manuel Noriega
Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (; February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017) was a Panamanian dictator, politician and military officer who was the ''de facto'' ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. An authoritarian ruler who amassed a personal f ...
, the former military dictator of Panama; Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega; and the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas (Mexican ), is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.
Since ...
spokesman
Subcomandante Marcos
Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born 19 June 1957) is a Mexican insurgent, the former military leader and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) in the ongoing Chiapas conflict,Pasztor, S. B. (2004). Marcos, Subcoman ...
. She has also interviewed celebrities such as
Jennifer Lopez,
Ricky Martin
Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...
and
Gloria Estefan.
Salinas was among the first female journalists in wartime Baghdad. She herself has been interviewed by
Katie Couric
Katherine Anne Couric ( ; born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, ''Wake Up Call''. From 2013 to 2017, ...
Bill Moyers, and others.
Salinas participated in the bilingual national Democratic presidential candidate debate on Hispanic issues in 2004, and again in 2007 co-hosting the first Democratic and Republican presidential candidate forums in Spanish on the Univision Network.
In 2017, she began an English-language crime program ''
The Real Story with María Elena Salinas'', on
Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Amer ...
. For ten years from 2001-2011, she wrote a weekly syndicated column in English and Spanish.
On Aug.3, 2017, Univision announced that Salinas would be leaving her post as co-anchor of ''Noticiero Univisión'' at the end of 2017. In a Facebook post, Salinas said she plans to become an independent news producer and that she was not pushed out.
On July 1, 2018, she participated in
Telemundo's Mexican presidential elections coverage and on December 1, exactly five months later, she was part of Telemundo's news team covering the Mexican presidential inauguration from Mexico City.
On July 22, 2019,
CBS News announced Maria Elena Salinas would be joining as a contributor. María Elena Salinas joined "
CBS This Morning
''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...
" to break down the diverse Latino communities across the U.S. that were long held as a single voting bloc, but economic, geographic and cultural differences show stark divides in how Latino Americans have cast their ballots in the
2020 United States presidential election.
In March 2022, Maria Elena Salinas became a contributor for ABC News
Public service and philanthropy
For almost twenty years Salinas has volunteered for the
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which encourages immigrants to vote and otherwise participate in politics; she is the spokesperson for its ''Ya Es Hora'' ("It's Time") program.
Salinas is a founder of the
National Association of Hispanic Journalists
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) is a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic and Latino journalists in the United States and Puerto Rico. It was established in 1984.
NAHJ has approxim ...
and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2006. She also sponsors the Maria Elena Salinas Scholarship for college students interested in Spanish news broadcasting.
She is on the boards of the
Hispanic Scholarship Fund and the
International Women's Media Foundation.
Awards and recognition
Salinas has won numerous awards and distinctions for both her journalism and philanthropic work.
Salinas won a 2014
Peabody Award,
Walter Cronkite Award and
Gracie Award
The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary contr ...
for her news and documentary special "Entre el abandono y el rechazo" (Between Abandonment and Rejection), a prime-time report on the exodus of Central American children to the United States, which judges praised as "balanced and revealing."
In 2014, she won the Broadcast Legend Award from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California. In 2012, with her co-anchor
Jorge Ramos, she received an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 2013,
Broadcasting & Cable
''Broadcasting & Cable'' (or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') is a weekly telecommunications industry trade magazine published by Future US. Previous names included ''Broadcasting-Telecasting'', ''Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising'', and ''Broadcas ...
and
Multichannel News presented Salinas with the Award for Outstanding Achievement at the 11th Annual
Hispanic Television Summit, produced by Schramm Marketing Group. Earlier in her career, Salinas was part of the Univision News team that received the Edward R. Murrow Award for the network's coverage of the Atlanta Olympic Park bombings in 1996.
For her philanthropic work, Salinas is a recipient of the Intrepid Award from the
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
, and has been honored by organizations including the
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 by Jack Greenberg to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States."MALDEF" entry in ''Los Angeles A to Z: An ...
, the
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) is a Hispanic nonprofit and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) leadership development organization established in 1978 by organizing members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and is headquartered in ...
, among others.
In 2017, Salinas was a commencement speaker in
American University and
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...
and received an honorary doctorate from American University. She was presented with the
Leading Ladies of Entertainment
The Leading Ladies of Entertainment is an honor presented annually by the Latin Recording Academy, the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards, to commend women "excelling in the arts and sciences, and who have made indelible ...
accolade by the
Latin Recording Academy
pt, Academia Latina da Gravação
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in 2020.
Personal life
Salinas's parents immigrated to the United States from
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
in the 1940s. She was born in Los Angeles in 1954. As a child, she lived in Mexico for 7 years. Since 1991, Salinas has lived in Miami with her 2 daughters, Julia Alexandra and Gabriela Maria.
Salinas's
autobiography, ''Yo Soy la Hija de mi Padre'' (''I Am my Father's Daughter'', 2006) covers her discovery that her father had once been a Catholic priest.
References
External links
*
Stories by and about Maria Elena Salinas, from Univision
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salinas, Maria Elena
1954 births
Living people
Mexican news anchors
Mexican journalists
American television personalities of Mexican descent
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Mexican emigrants to the United States
American women television journalists