Jorge Ramos nos presenta su libro Asi veo las cosas
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00:00Very interesting. Well, you have written, to begin with, thousands of columns. I don't know, more than a thousand.
00:10I think there are more than a thousand columns in the last 30 years, yes.
00:15So, in this book, you collect some of these columns, but the catch is that they are the ones that reveal more about your personal part.
00:24So, tell us about this format, why did you decide to publish the book this way, and what are we going to find there?
00:32What happens is that when I go on television, or I do podcasts, or when I do radio, or I'm on social media,
00:42I'm like a journalist and I'm like an immigrant, but a lot of people don't know what's behind it.
00:49And the columns have allowed me for more than 30 years to tell the most personal, most intimate part of my life.
00:59There are many things on television that get stuck in your throat and stomach. A lot.
01:06When you go to cover a war, when you cover a natural disaster, an accident, or simply when I go to the border to cover the immigrants who are crossing,
01:12there are things that you see that you don't have to tell, because no one hired me to cry, or to laugh, or to give my opinion on the news,
01:21but that mark you deeply. For example, I just received an American Airlines card saying that I've flown more than 3 million miles.
01:31And I really appreciate it, but at the same time, people don't know that I'm afraid to fly.
01:37And despite everything, that's something I have to overcome in each of my trips.
01:43Not long ago, sadly, my brother Alejandro died.
01:51And it occurred to me, I suffered the same experience as when my father died 20 years ago.
01:57I felt that I was in the wrong place.
02:00I should have been with my father when he died, after his third heart attack.
02:04And I should have been with my brother, who suffered from a fulminant leukemia.
02:08And that was in three days, Mayra.
02:11But those things that mark me a lot more, people don't know them.
02:20And it's not that they're secret, but I simply write them in the columns and distribute them to several newspapers throughout the United States and Latin America.
02:28But those are the things that have marked me the most, and I decided to put the most personal ones in the book.
02:36It's interesting because I was thinking about Jorge Ramos, not the journalist, but the man who appears in the cover of Time magazine.
02:44The man who has appeared in many other magazines, magazine covers.
02:50Which is a bit, let's say, in a way, a celebrity.
02:53Your face is well known.
02:56You've interviewed many celebrities, and you know what fame is, and what fame can do to people.
03:03How it affects them personally.
03:05It seems interesting to me that you've decided to open that window a little bit, to show us your intimacy.
03:12Why did you decide to do it?
03:14Because, look, I'm 66 years old, Mayra.
03:17I have more past than future.
03:20And I think one should have the luxury of being able to tell one's own story.
03:28And it's very possible that the image that many have of me is a story, or an incomplete image.
03:36If you base yourself only on certain interviews that I've done with dictators like Nicolás Maduro, or Hugo Chávez, or Fidel Castro.
03:48Or the confrontations that I've had with Donald Trump, and with the president of Mexico, López Obrador.
03:54Or with the former president of Colombia, Uribe.
03:58You would have the impression that in my personality, there is that constant desire to confront.
04:07But those who know me know perfectly well that I'm totally the opposite.
04:11I try, as a good Mexican, to avoid confrontation, to negotiate, to be in good terms.
04:17And Chiqui at home laughs a lot that people must think that I'm very serious and that I'm fighting all the time.
04:24And I'm precisely the opposite of all that.
04:27So there was, in summing up the most personal columns, the desire to show another part of me that is much more complete.
04:40Lately, I've been doing a new program called Algo Personal, through VIX, where I have the opportunity to talk for an hour with some of the main artists and writers of our time.
04:52There I think I show much more of my personality.
04:55But in the news, it has been something else, and I think it was time to let go a little more.
05:01Now, you also obviously talk about your children.
05:05Well, I'm going to go with Carlota, but first let's talk about your children, because there is a very interesting anecdote that you tell.
05:14Particularly about Nicolás.
05:16And I'm going to read what you've said about it.
05:19That he said he didn't want a famous dad.
05:22Nicolás wanted a dad who was present.
05:24And that made you know in a very specific way.
05:28Can you tell us that anecdote? Because it seems very moving to me.
05:32Yes, you know that I've had...
05:36I've had to go through seven wars and I've been in...
05:40I think that, fortunately, in the most important historical events of the last 30 years.
05:46And journalism and paternity have something in common.
05:50Which is that 50% is being there, present.
05:54Journalism forces you to be there, present.
05:57And paternity forces you to be there, present.
05:59However, the most difficult thing for journalists is the damage and the pain you cause within your family.
06:09For so many absences, for so many vacancies, for so many anniversaries and birthdays that you miss.
06:16And not long ago, Carlota, Chiqui's daughter, who is also my daughter, was graduating from high school.
06:25And I couldn't be there because I had to be covering the elections in Mexico.
06:29How can I tell Univision and my boss that I can't be in Mexico at such an important moment?
06:34But I would have to explain it to Carlota too.
06:36In the anecdote with Nicolás, a good day.
06:39I think Nicolás would be less than 10 years old.
06:43Maybe 7 or 8.
06:45He gave me a blue note, which I thought was for Father's Day.
06:51And it said,
06:54Dad, stop working.
06:56Dad, stop working.
06:58Nicolás didn't want a journalist.
07:01Nicolás didn't want someone with millions of followers.
07:05Nicolás didn't want anyone who has written books.
07:09Nicolás wanted a dad.
07:10Nicolás wanted a present dad who was there with him when he needed him the most.
07:15And that is, I think, one of the most difficult things for us as journalists.
07:22Not long ago, Teresa Rodríguez, with whom I did the news, told a similar anecdote.
07:28She said that her son, Víctor, asked him why he was going to take care of me, the news reporter,
07:35when he should stay at home taking care of him.
07:40Babysitting, she said.
07:42Why are you babysitting Ramos and not babysitting me?
07:46Those are the most difficult things.
07:48And you know it perfectly.
07:50If the interview were the other way around,
07:52I don't know how many times you've stopped being at home when you feel like you should have been there.