Univision’s Ramos & Saralegui On Time Magazine Top 25 Influential Hispanics.

Univision Network’s news anchor Jorge Ramos and talk show host Cristina Saralegui are featured among “The 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America,” profiled in Time Magazine’s August 22, 2005 issue.

Ramos and Saralegui, the only media personalities on the list, share the honor with 23 other distinguished Hispanics including U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzáles, U.S. Senator Mel Martínez, ad agency mogul Lionel Sosa, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Hispanic Scholarship Fund president Sara Martínez Tucker, actors Jennifer López, Salma Hayek and George López, and fashion designer Narciso Rodríguez.

“An Emmy-winning journalist who combines looks and eloquence with bluntness and tenacity, Ramos, 47, once got slugged by Fidel Castro’s bodyguard for asking Castro if Cuba would ever hold democratic elections,” says Time Magazine about Jorge Ramos. “Every President since George H.W. Bush has made sure to be interviewed by Ramos, whose network is now the fifth largest in the U.S. and whose evening news show (which he co-anchors with Maria Elena Salinas) reaches six times as many Hispanic households as any English-language network.”

A native of Mexico, Jorge Ramos has co-anchored Noticiero Univision since 1986. During his career he has received numerous national recognitions, including seven Emmy Awards, Columbia University’s 2001 Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the 2002 Ronald H. Brown Award from the National Child Labor Committee, and the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication.

“The United States is going through a truly demographic revolution,” said Ramos. “There will be more Latinos than non-Hispanic whites by the year 2125, the United States is already the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world (with the exception of Mexico) and Time’s coverage recognizes how Hispanics are changing the face of America.”

Regarding Saralegui, the magazine states: “Like Oprah Winfrey, to whom she is often compared, Saralegui, 57, has become a brand, which includes Cristina La Revista, the magazine she started in 1991; a talk show, which has won 11 Emmys and an estimated 100 million viewers worldwide; a Miami television studio; Casa Cristina, a furniture line; an upcoming clothing line; and a burgeoning acting career that has included an appearance on ABC’s George Lopez. Her bilingual website receives an average of 50,000 hits a day. Her book Cristina! My Life as a Blonde is out in Spanish and English. And she runs a foundation, Arriba la Vida/Up with Life, which aims to educate Hispanics about HIV.”

Saralegui’s Emmy award-winning talk show, “El Show de Cristina,” has been airing uninterruptedly on the Univision Network since its debut in 1989. Among the many prestigious recognitions she has received throughout her career in broadcasting are: The Gracie Allen Tribute Award, given by the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television; AMFAR’s National Community Service Award; the Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award; the International Distinguished Achievement Award by the Simon Weisenthal Center in Miami; and Imagen Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also the first Hispanic TV personality to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“It’s a great honor to have been selected,” expressed Saralegui about her inclusion in Time Magazine’s list. “For me, what’s most important is having been able to provide a forum for the thousands of people who have come on the show with a message. To those who had something to share and had no voice, I was able to give them that voice. That’s what it means to have influence and be a part of life’s solutions—not only life’s problems.”