The CNN en Español Crowd in Latin America

You have no shortage of gringos who claim to come to Latin America to escape whatever politics of back home.

Like I wrote here, it's most common for them to say that they will leave if the candidate of the opposite political party wins office.

Be it anyone from Obama to Trump to Joe Biden and whoever else it will be in the future.

Of course, plenty of people on both sides might realize with enough time that whatever Latin American country they moved to is not the political paradise they hoped to escape to.

For the right wing gringos, some of them might realize that social justice warriors and feminism exist here also as I wrote about here.

For the left wing gringos, they might notice how relatively less PC so many of the locals are like I wrote here or here. 

For either side, they might get involved into reading about the politics of the new country and get upset when the "wrong" politician wins down here.

Be it Bolsonaro in Brazil that would piss off any leftist to any leftist candidate winning that would, as I wrote here, trigger the right wingers to claiming that "the country is becoming Venezuela."

One benefit that left leaning gringos have though is that, as far as I am aware, they don't have Fox News en Español being played down here.

Out of curiosity, I tried to find out if there even was a "Fox News en Español" but didn't find anything.

Of course, there are right leaning news publications from Mexico and other Latin American countries but most gringos are not that involved in learning about their new country to realize the political leanings of the local news companies.

And at least the left leaning gringos will never have to be triggered seeing a well known right wing news company from back home that would trigger the fuck out of them.

Unfortunately for the right leaning gringos, they do not have that luxury.

Here I introduce to you CNN en Español.

And, for those who think Brazil would be free from this, we have "CNN Brasil" or "CNN em Português."

And it's one thing that, when you hang out with more right leaning gringos, you definitely notice occasionally the ire that they have towards CNN breaking into the news market down here.

"Fuck CNN en Español"

It was not too long ago that I was in a bar with some friend of mine named Blayde.

While having some beer, he casually mentions how "damn nice it is for things to start to feel normal."

Knowing him well, I knew where this was going.

For the last 2 years, he's always been constantly complaining about the Covid restrictions and how obsessed so many Mexicans seemed with people putting on masks.

He even told me a story one time of being harassed by a crowd of Mexicans yelling at him supposedly near some market close to Metro La Viga over his refusal to put on a mask at one point.

And so now here we are -- in a bar where nobody is wearing a mask (not even the waiters) -- and we can have a beer.

Of course, they still had that sign put up on the wall declaring how they are required to have a limited number of customers inside due to Covid.

Even a sign telling people to put on a mask.

But literally nobody was wearing a mask.

Like a relic from the past.

And the conversation continued from there.

To him ultimately complaining about "CNN en Español" Latin Americans.

It's an observation you'll hear among other gringos also.

Where, for whatever reason, a lot of Latin Americans seem to place higher trust in media institutions from the US such as CNN.

Especially upper class ones as Blayde described it that day.

Only the Rich Latin Americans Watch CNN en Español?

Quite often, it will be framed as mostly the upper class that watches it.

Where half of the upper class is more reasonable and not "brainwashed" by CNN as Blayde would and the other half are.

Having spent a lot of time in poorer neighborhoods, I'd disagree with that though.

You have no shortage of poorer locals who also put more faith in "CNN en Español."

The main ones who do, from what I've noticed, seem to be:

1. Elderly old grandmas who go to church often and put their faith in mainstream media like the boomers of any country.

2. More commonly, you got left leaning Latin Americans who are professors, young nerdy students, etc. They happen to not have as much money and live in poorer areas but equally place as much faith in media institutions from the US like CNN.

However, you definitely have a lot less poor people watching "CNN en Español" than some of the upper class Latin Americans.

There might be reasons for that.

I don't really know them but, if I had to guess, it'd probably be due to:

1. Perhaps upper class Latin Americans are trying extra hard to be "gringo" or "European" and so they watch that shit.

2. You have those who can afford to travel to the US, have family there and whatever else so they are more exposed to CNN.

3. They have more free time to watch programs like CNN in contrast to the poor ass Mexican working literally 12 hours a day, 6 days a week making gorditas by the corner in the street.

Though, when it comes to the first two points, I'd add some side observations:

First, as I wrote here or here with examples, you have no shortage of poorer Latin Americans who try hard to come across as "more gringo" or "more European" or "more foreigner" in general (among all the other examples on my website).

Second, when it comes to certain nationalities like Mexicans or Puerto Ricans, you obviously have more poorer or average people who have been in the US also. As I wrote here, you do notice though South Americans who have been up there tending to be wealthier than the Mexicans, some Central Americans, etc.

Anyway, regardless of the reasons, you definitely notice that the "CNN en Español" has a more upper class audience to it or at least upper middle class.

Not as many dudes living in Iztapalapa watching it than dudes in Polanco.

Having said all that, I have come across at least some of the reasoning for why some of them watching "CNN en Español" (though it doesn't represent everyone obviously).

The Latin American Faith in "CNN en Español"

Another thing also, regardless of class, as to why I think some Latin Americans like "CNN en Español" is because they put faith in it simply because it is from the US.

From a "first world country."

As I wrote here, you have some Latin Americans who, for various reasons, place that extra faith in all mainstream companies or products from the US simply because they believe it is higher quality.

Sometimes they are right and sometimes they are dead ass wrong.

When it comes to "CNN en Español," I personally don't watch it (nor CNN in English) but I can get why some of them would put more faith in that than some of the local news.

Mostly because a lot of the local news in Latin America (though not all) is also garbage.

It's garbage with less funding to cover fewer stories.

Quite often repeating the same shit that gets printed up north in the US or elsewhere.

Or, as you can see here, being basically bought out by the current government in office and are very biased.

As you can see here, it's not uncommon for journalists to get whacked in Mexico specifically as it is one of the most violent countries for journalists.

And I'm sure a few other countries -- like Colombia or Guatemala -- probably are not the safest places to be journalists either.

Finally, above all, CNN (along with the NYT and other gringo publications) simply have more money to do a wider variety of stories than local news companies.

Among other reasons for why you sometimes notice higher quality in gringo publications than local Latin American ones.

Having said that though, the gringo news companies like CNN, NYT or whoever else also often get shit wrong as well and have their own biases and issues obviously.

Final Thoughts

Back at the bar, I remember Blayde going off some more on the topic.

Even saying that "if Fauci told Latin Americans to wear 9 masks at once and get waterboarded as a way to stop Covid on "CNN en Español," they'd do it.

And, to be honest, I don't entirely disagree with him.

As you can see here, apparently they required 2 masks in Peru at one point.

"El uso de la doble mascarilla es obligatorio en el país desde abril de este año, cuando mediante Decreto Supremo N° 083-2021-PCM ..."

Above all, you definitely notice the higher degree of trust that Latin Americans have for "professionals" from back home like Fauci or "CNN en Español."

And, to the new right wing gringo in town who hasn't had too much time down here, he will likely end up confused as to why so many of the locals seemingly hold the word of  "CNN en Español" equal to the Bible.

And, unlike the left wing gringos who don't have Fox News down here, they will have to occasionally get annoyed at seeing "CNN en Español" on the big screen in airports, hotels or wherever else.

That or they'll have to get used to it.

But, when incidents like Covid happens, it'll be harder to ignore when the locals take the programming from CNN and just spit out whatever they hear into your ear.

In best case scenario when that happens, it might be like when a local is complaining about Trump and the news wrongly reported what he said.

To, in worst case scenario, you get harassed to put on 2 masks (and probably waterboarded) because Fauci said so on....

"CNN en Español"

Regardless of your politics anyhow, it's definitely a curious detail about some Latin Americans in how high regard they hold news from our country and also how right leaning gringos have to suffer with this shit put on air down here but left leaning gringos are free from any Fox en Español.

Among all the other things mentioned already in this article.

Anyway, if you got anything to add, drop a comment below.

And follow my Twitter here.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt