Since leaving Mexico City for the United States as a fledgling journalist in the early 1980s, Jorge Ramos has become one of the most trusted faces among America’s Latino population. Presenting the nightly news to an audience of millions on the Spanish-language TV station Univision, he has long held a reputation for putting tough questions to powerful people—from a face-to-face encounter with Fidel Castro about the lack of democracy in Cuba, to pressing Barack Obama on deportations during his tenure, and, most famously, being escorted from a 2016 press conference of then presidential candidate Donald Trump after a terse exchange about immigration.
But speaking from his adopted home of Miami shortly before co-anchoring the evening bulletin, Jorge is a far cry from the pugnacious newscaster of repute, especially when waxing nostalgic about his homeland of Mexico and the comfort dishes of his youth. “My favorite food is still tacos al pastor—with no pineapple, please,” he qualifies. “Although unfortunately I don’t have the resistance to really spicy salsa on my tacos that I used to.”
His dual Mexican-American identity is explored in his most recent book, Stranger, which is at once a clarion call for tolerance in modern times, and, in its lighter moments, a love letter to the best sides of Miami, the United States and Mexico, where he still travels several times a year.
How does the Mexico City of now compare to that of your youth? It has changed so much. Now it’s a gigantic city of more than twenty million people, but it’s still a really wonderful metropolis with an incredible selection of cultural possibilities. I go there to visit my mom, who’s eighty-four and doing great, then I secretly go to see the house where I grew up.
Where else do you love to travel in Mexico? La Riviera Maya, which is close to Cancún. There is a marvelous hotel there that’s been a home away from home for many vacations, and recently Tulum has become a magic place for my family. The other place is San Miguel de Allende. I love that idea of being able to walk everywhere; it’s almost European in that sense. But at the same time it brings me back to Mexico’s history and its architecture.
What do people get wrong about the country?A big misconception is that we are all criminals, as some have suggested, which is absolutely not true. While the country has become more dangerous in some ways, especially for journalists, we celebrate life with an intensity that is hard to find in any other place on earth. The happiest and most intense fiestas and parties in the world happen in Mexico. Whenever I return home I feel completely embraced and protected by friends and family. You will never feel alone in Mexico.
Living in Miami, can you find many of the things you miss about Mexico? I had the longest search for the right tacos in Miami. I have to go to Homestead and to a couple of restaurants in Coral Gables to find the right ones with the right tortillas. But for the real thing I get on a plane to Mexico, and even before I get to my mom’s house, I stop at either El Fogoncito or El Tizoncito to get my dose of tacos. It doesn’t matter how good Mexican food can be outside of Mexico—and it is good here, we have great chefs—I need to go back to those places where I eat tacos standing up.
What’s special about Miami? You always get the sense in Miami that we all came from another place but that somehow it has opened its arms for all of us. Every time there’s a crisis, Miami is there for us. When there was a war in countries in Central America, Miami was there for them. When there was a dictator in Cuba, it was there for them. Miami never ceases to amaze me for its generosity and its understanding of the plight of foreigners.
