The Voice of the Voiceless: A Look at Jorge Ramos’ 'Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era'

By Diana Vidals

Growing up, if you were to turn on my family’s TV, you would always be met with the Univision Noticiero theme song and greeted by the familiar voice of Jorge Ramos. In my home and across the United States, there is no voice more reliable and respected by Latinos than that of Jorge Ramos. Throughout his extensive career, spanning 39 years as a news anchor for Univision, Ramos has built a name for himself as a journalist who seeks the truth and asks the hard questions. Through his work, he has taken a firm stance in standing up for Latinos and immigrants in the United States, becoming a voice for the voiceless. 

Photo Source: The New York Times

My respect and admiration for Ramos runs deep, it is no shock that when I came across his book, I immediately took it with me and became engrossed in its pages. Through personal and professional anecdotes as well as statistical research, Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era examines the increasing hate and intolerance against Latino immigrants in the United States as a result of Trump’s 2016 election campaign. 

Stranger was published in 2018, a fact I found jarring once I realized how closely history is repeating itself. Within its first pages, Ramos sets the stage of the political climate at the time, recounting the moment he was famously kicked out of a press conference by Trump, a move Ramos defined as an infringement on his rights as a journalist. Though unconscionable, this is not the moment that the chapter focuses on, instead Ramos dwells on the incident that occurred minutes after when one of Trump’s followers berated him with the all too familiar phrase, “Get out of my country.” Ramos attributes this incident to hate, “hatred is contagious. And Trump is infectious.” Ramos recognizes that this incident is not isolated, it is a new trend kickstarted by  Trump’s smear campaign against Latinos, and it is worse than anything he has seen or experienced before.

Photo Source: Getty Images

While the book serves as a critique of Trump, at its core it is the story of an immigrant caught between two lands. Ramos first came to the U.S. from Mexico in 1983 in search of better opportunities in the field of journalism after having his work censored by the Mexican government. Through his personal story of immigration, Ramos illustrates the tough decision making behind leaving home, emphasizing, “when the conditions of expulsion and attraction line up, the decision to emigrate is made.” 

Ramos goes on to explain the feeling of displacement immigrants often hold being “othered” in the United States and unable to return to the home they once knew, “No matter how hard we try to recite the pledge of allegiance in perfect English or sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” with gusto, we will never be seen as truly a part of the same melting pot as them.” 

Despite these conflicts, Ramos recognizes the U.S. for the amazing opportunities it provides him and his family. More importantly, he does not feel that this “otherness” diminishes his identity as a Mexican and naturalized American. Now an American citizen, he believes he does not have to pick and choose his identity, “I am a Mexican who lives in the United States and an American who was born and raised in Mexico…and I insist on being all things at once. No one can force me to choose.”

While I found Ramos’ personal stories with immigration impactful, I think this book is great for anyone interested in immigration in the United States. In a time when empathy and personal experience are belittled, it is important to be armed with facts and Ramos provides many. Throughout the book, he not only makes the effort to correct ludicrous claims made by Trump against immigrants in the U.S., he presents statistics showing exactly how necessary the existence of immigrants is for this nation to thrive.

Overall, I found Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era an impactful read. I highly recommend it for anyone who, like me, is a fan of Ramos’ work! However, most importantly, I recommend it to anyone who seeks to be educated in a time when misinformation, lies, and hatred run amuck, “Yes, hatred has been brewing since Donald Trump stepped into the world of politics, but we cannot accept or normalize it.”