Univision star
to make Little Village stop
BY ANA MENDIETA STAFF REPORTER
Univision's popular anchor Jorge Ramos reports the evening
news daily to 1 million Latinos nationwide.
An unknown in mainstream media, he beats the evening news
ratings of English language networks in Miami, Los Angeles and Houston.
Still, Ramos will take time Saturday to sign copies of his
latest book at a supermarket parking lot in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, during
the 16th annual Little Village Book Fair.
Hunting the Lion (A la Caza del Leon) is
Ramos' exclusive interview with Mexico's former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari on
alleged corruption from 1988 to 1994 when he was in charge.
"The book is not about me having interviewed Salinas
or President Bush. My readers see me as someone who arrived in this country as an
immigrant, worked as a waiter and a cashier, and is now a successful professional,"
Ramos said. "The bottom line is that I continue to be an immigrant.''
The presence of Ramos and other popular Latino authors at
the Little Village Book Fair underscores the rising Spanish-language book industry in the
United States.
"The growth of Latinos in this country is definitely
having a great impact in the publishing industry. In the past, you proposed them to bring
books in Spanish, and they weren't interested. Now the tables have been turned,'' said
Ernesto Martinez, national sales manager of Giron Books, the organizer of the Little
Village Book Fair.
Harper Collins and Random House recently have launched
Spanish language divisions, Harper Collins Rayo and Random House Espanol, respectively. In
March, Publishers Weekly, the country's largest publishing trade magazine, launched the
magazine Criticas to serve as an English language guide to the latest Spanish language
titles.
"Thirty-five million Latinos live in the U.S., and we
will get to be the second-largest Spanish speaking country in the world. That has caught
the attention of a lot of publishers, who have now learned how to market to Latinos,''
said Criticas editor Adriana Lopez.
Last year, 50,000 people visited the Little Village Book
Fair, its sponsors said, and this year organizers expect to draw as many as 75,000. |
