MEXICO CITY: On my final day in Mexico City, I had a 40-minute treadmill run at the gym, overlooking a busy street below. As I ran, I found myself watching the rhythm of people crossing at the stoplight. And I was struck by something simple but powerful: affection.
Not just couples—but a grandfather holding his grandson’s hand. A son guiding his mother. Entire families linked together as they crossed. At one point, a young man gently helped an older woman step off the curb.
It made me wonder: what does this say about a culture? And why, in the USA, do we hear so much negative, fearful rhetoric about Mexican people when so much of what I see reflects the opposite?
It reminded me of my first television project, American Latino TV. We launched it in 2001—the first successful English-language show specifically targeting a Latino audience. It ran for 16 years, nine of those under my direction, before we sold the company. Because it aired on general-market affiliates—ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox—often in early-morning or late-night slots, I was surprised by how many non-Latino viewers found and connected with the show.
I know because they wrote us lots of fan mail. They told us they’d learned something. That they’d come to appreciate and even love a culture they hadn’t understood before.
Then, around 2004 or 2005, something shifted. The media, and Fox News Channel specifically, began increasingly demonizing immigrants on their main channel, while simultaneously trying to monetize that same audience with Spanish-language ventures like Fox News en Español.
Almost overnight, some of the emails we received changed in tone. Some non-Latino viewers who once expressed curiosity and admiration began repeating stereotypes and grievances—directed at our small shows airing in the margins of local schedules.
We kept going, and our audience and revenue grew as well. But it gave me lasting insight into how easily some people can be misled and how quickly their shaky perceptions can be reshaped—how quickly appreciation can be replaced by suspicion when media narratives change to the lowest common denominator.
We saw echoes of it again during the Super Bowl Half-Time Show drama—how quickly people reacted, judged, and amplified negativity without questioning why.
Which brings me back to that street corner in Mexico City.
How many people who freaked out about a 15-minute musical performance and harbor these unfounded fears have actually traveled to Latin America… walked the streets… experienced the warmth, kindness, and humanity firsthand? How many have been welcomed, helped, and treated well—only to return home and speak of these same people with distrust?
Mexico has an issue with its oligarch-owned media, too. Yet somehow they seem to be handling things much better. No January 6 attempted coups and demagogues. I observed much less constant phone scrolling by young people, and they seemed to have far less internet addiction.
Maybe handholding has something to do with this, or at least demonstrates a humanity-first mentality.
We’re gonna need a lot of hands to guide others across this treacherous territory we’re facing. But with enough love, maybe we can overcome our billionaire media oligarchs whose main objectives seem to be power and money, rather than integrity and truth.
If we demonstrate that integrity and truth pay more than misleading, outrage, and fear-mongering, maybe we can all get there together… hand in hand, instead of fist-to-face, which it sure seems we’re heading toward.
If you get the chance tomorrow, hold someone’s hand. Help someone across the street.
