Washington Post
"Ms. Salinas and her co-anchor at Noticiero Univision, Jorge Ramos, are the voices that Hispanic immigrants turn to for news and guidance as they navigate their new lives while staying connected to their old countries."
The New York Times
-Mirta Ojito
"When you talk about Spanish-language media in this country, you're mostly talking about television, and when you talk about television, you are mostly talking about Univision, which means you are talking about Jorge and Maria Elena."
Pew Hispanic Center
-Roberto Suro
"Maria Elena Salinas, the Latina Katie Couric"
Diversity Inc.
"Maria Elena Salinas
Voice of (Hispanic) America..."
The New York Times
April 30, 2006
"Maria Elena Salinas is an American Jewel".
Her secret and mystery has become our hidden treasure. Her pain became our "promise" and our "discovery"... that every girl should cherish and celebrate being a Father's precious daughter.
Dr. Alvin Augustus Jones
The Paradise Radio Network
Salinas weaves an entertaining tale of the ins and outs of interviewing dictators and presidents as well as what it takes to stay on top- both in the newsroom and at home.
The Miami Herald
April 7, 2006
Few women working in journalism today have lived through what Maria Elena Salinas has. One of the most recognized female journalists in the United States, Maria Elena Salinas has finally placed pen to paper and the outcome is a fascinating memoir, I Am My Father's Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets (Rayo; April 11, 2006; $19.95), about life, family, and the hidden secrets that ultimately shape our lives.
Five nights a week, Maria Elena Salinas delivers the evening news to millions of television viewers on the Univision Television Network, the #1 most-watched Spanish-language network in the United States.
Watched more regularly than Jenifer Lopez, Eva Longoria, and Salma Hayek, Salinas has reported from the White House to the Kremlin, from the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles to the funeral of Princess Diana in London, and from earthquake-ravaged El Salvador to the war torn streets of Baghdad. The American-born daughter of an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, Salinas is a perfect example of what can happen to children who live as Americans, but on the other side of a vast cultural divide.
But when Salinas accidentally discovered that the father who had raised her was at one time a priest in the Catholic church, she was stunned. All that she knew and had based her life upon was suddenly thrown into doubt. Just who was this man she knew as her father and why had he hidden such an important part of his life from his family? She then turned her investigative eye on unfamiliar territory-- herself-- and began a long, arduous journey for answers to questions she never ever dreamed she would be asking.
From her childhood in a poverty-stricken Los Angeles neighborhood and her adolescent years spent working in a Southern California sweatshop, to her astonishing break into network television, along with her coverage of some of the world’s major events and disasters, Maria Elena Salinas delivers the story of her life, and that of her deceased father, in the same warm and straightforward tone that has become her on-air trademark.
Now, for the first time, and on the 25th anniversary of her career with her trailblazing network, this accomplished and acclaimed journalist tells in I Am My Father's Daughter: Living a Life Without Secrets (Rayo; April 11, 2006; $19.95) the amazing story of both her journey to the top as well as the issues raised when family secrets are spilled and answers are very hard to come by.
