More Americans get their news…en español??

Last week I had the chance to sit down and chat with Maria Elena Salinas, Univision news co-anchor. She’s a very smart and well-spoken woman, whose petite frame and youthful face belie her 51 years. I interviewed her for PODER about her autobiography, I Am My Father’s Daughter. Of course the conversation turned to many other topics, notably immigration (Maria Elena is the daughter of Mexican immigrants). She said that while the issue isn’t a Latino issue, it has galvanized and united the community, in her opinion. (But I’m not going to give away the store – read the rest of the interview in the July/August PODER.)

Maria Elena, who has been anchoring the news for 25 years, also told me she shares a birthday—December 30— with two other notable newswomen: Katie Couric and Meredith Viera. We talked about all the fuss being made about a woman anchoring the evening news, and Maria Elena said, “The big challenge for Katie is not to beat ABC and NBC. We often beat CBS in a lot of major markets. First, she’s going to have to beat us [Univision].”