#19: EMMANUEL RINCÓN ON SOUTH AMERICAN POLITICS
An exclusive interview on the Hispanic media landscape + Donald Trump + chaos in Brazil + socialist tyranny in South America + MORE!
For the first ever THE OUTER EDGE interview I had the pleasure of talking to journalist and senior editor of the bilingual outlet Americano Media, Emmanuel Rincón.
Americano Media is one of the foremost conservative media outlets for the Hispanic community. It regularly covers political news from across the continent and is a valuable source for both Spanish and English speakers alike.
Emmanuel is also the author of the dystopian novel “El Decálogo del Hombre Igualitario” which you can purchase on Amazon as an eBook or a paperback copy.
If you want to follow him more closely please make sure to check him out on Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
THE OUTER EDGE: First of all Emmanuel, thank you for agreeing to do an interview with us. You are a modern renaissance man of sorts. For those of you who don’t know Emmanuel, he is a lawyer, a journalist, an editor, a novelist and a prominent voice in new media.
Currently he serves as a senior editor for the network Americano Media – a bilingual conservative platform for the Hispanic community.
So let’s start there, Emmanuel… This media outlet is relatively new from my understanding. Tell us a little bit about why it has sprung up in recent years and what the Hispanic media landscape looks like in the USA?
EMMANUEL RINCÓN: In the United States and probably in the rest of the Western world there is an abundance of media married to the dominant narrative, it is what we know as the mainstream media and it is made up of private and public media at the service of progressive politicians. The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post in the United States; the BBC, The Guardian in the United Kingdom; EFE, El País, in Spain, and so we could go through each nation understanding that the most powerful media have a marked ideological affinity.
Unfortunately the conservative/libertarian groups have greatly neglected their level of influence in all kinds of socio-cultural phenomena capable of influencing the thinking of the population, not only the media, but also the publishing industry, cinema, music, art and universities, have been absorbed by leftist activists who today transmit a decadent and anti-western ideology in our own nations. It is a kind of collective social suicide and the worst thing is that it is being financed with our own money and institutions; because of this, very late yes, but better late than never, alternative communication initiatives have started to emerge to counteract these dynamics, and that is today Americano Media, a communication platform that seeks to show Hispanics a vision of the world that is not contaminated by the progressive bias that dominates the predominant narrative.
THE OUTER EDGE: In the last US election we witnessed a remarkable shift of voter demographics. Former US president Donald Trump saw major gains in places like Florida and the Texas Rio Grande Valley – areas with large Latino communities. I think estimates show an almost 10 point shift of Hispanic voters swinging towards the Republican Party. Why do you think the community is turning away from the Democrats?
EMMANUEL RINCÓN: Honestly, I think it is due more to the mistakes and radicalism of the Democratic Party, than to the efforts of the Republican Party. Certainly Donald Trump was a leader who in his last years in the White House tried to reach out to Hispanics, and I think he did so with a remarkable degree of success, but beyond him, the Republicans have really made no effort to seduce the Hispanic voter, and much of their base probably doesn't even understand at this point the importance of the Hispanic vote in changing the reality of the country.
Hispanics are people who are very ingrained in their customs and religion, for a political party to come to you and tell you that your child can have 27 different genders, that men can menstruate, that their 7 year old children should see drag queen shows, that it is okay to abort a 7 month old baby, among many other progressive and radical aspects, certainly does not sit well with the Hispanic community. If we also include the Democrats' rapprochement with the tyrannies of our region, their increasingly socialist discourse and policies, the surprising thing is that they continue to have a majority in their favor, even though they are losing more and more support; but, it is evident that all this is due to the perception that has been transmitted to Hispanics of the two parties by the media.
THE OUTER EDGE: For the most part western media has either altogether ignored politics in South and Central America or when they do cover it, it is largely from a biased angle. Are North Americans and westerners at large being presented an insular and skewed view of politics south of the border? How do you hope to repair that?
EMMANUEL RINCÓN: The fundamental problem behind all this is that neither Americans nor Europeans really know our region, they look at everything from a very superficial point of view and are unable to understand the social, political, ideological and cultural relations of our nations. They probably do not always have a bad intention, perhaps, sometimes just ignorance, but the truth is that when Hispanics/Latinos see their countries through the mainstream media, they can obviously feel underappreciated, confused or misunderstood. For proof of this, the Washington Post article in which they wondered why there were no blacks on the Argentine national team, which literally became a meme throughout the region.
It's funny because I assume their writers must think they are breaking barriers and researching and analyzing topics unexplored by Hispanics, but really, they are making fools of themselves trying to transport their childish first world problems to countries that have real social conflicts, like an inflation rate reaching 100%, or prosecutors being assassinated for investigating the nation's former president (now vice president), Cristina Kirchner.
Ultimately, we as Hispanics also have a responsibility, and that is to find funding mechanisms for successful communications ventures that can fill the gaps in the mainstream media.
THE OUTER EDGE: Let’s talk about Brazil. It’s been on everybody’s mind recently. We’re seeing the news coming out about the so-called “insurrection attempt”. Obviously, there have been comparisons to January 6th and Jair Bolsonaro has been called the South American Donald Trump for quite some time now. You’ve been quite outspoken on your Twitter about the biased media narrative surrounding the election and subsequent protests. Can you elaborate more on your perspective around what happened and how it’s being politicized?
EMMANUEL RINCÓN: The Sunday that the attacks happened I was playing tennis, I had about two hours without checking my phone and when I opened Twitter and saw the videos I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I really, really couldn't understand who could come up with the idea that it was a good idea to go out and vandalize the nation's public buildings, I don't know what they were really hoping to achieve. I watched some videos in which some Bolsonaro supporters claimed that there were infiltrators in the demonstrations, and I have no doubt that it could have been so, but surely a bulk of those people were true Bolsonaro supporters and they ended up doing Lula a great favor by giving him the perfect argument to persecute the entire opposition.
We must be honest, what happened was absolutely reprehensible, but from there to talking about a "coup d'état" and trying to criminalize Bolsonaro for it, is completely embarrassing. In the first place, some demonstrators with stones and sticks cannot overthrow a government like the one in Brazil, they can break windows and smash some pictures, but not confront an army, and secondly, blaming Bolsonaro, when from day one he asked his followers to demonstrate without violence, in peace, and when he immediately reproached what happened, is a sign of the misery of the rulers in office, and the serious mistake made by those who participated in that unfortunate spectacle.
I understand very well the frustration of many people for the progressive quasi-totalitarian agenda they are trying to implement in our countries, but we must be smarter when it comes to politics, especially because unfortunately today that malevolent group has the power of international institutions and the media, while we only have the data -which are not too emotional- reality, history and our arguments -which are infinitely superior- but to succeed we must measure each step well and not give the victory to the left.
THE OUTER EDGE: To finish off, what are some underrated stories you think people should be paying attention to in the south of the continent?
EMMANUEL RINCÓN: In Cuba there is a tyranny that has been in power for 64 years and the media has normalized the coverage of the island as if it were a democratic place, how is this possible? The same thing is happening in Venezuela, where 24 years have passed, there are millions of exiles, wounded, dead and nobody pays attention to it anymore.
In Nicaragua the exact same thing is happening, and now, all the governments of the region are allying to legitimize the aforementioned bloodbaths. There is no doubt that Petro, Lula, Fernandez, Lopez Obrador and company are accomplices of the normalization of barbarism, and our work must be precisely to remind the citizens of each of the countries of the continent, how the leaders and politicians of their nations are trying to cover up the aberrations that occur in these tyrannies, since the next ones could be them.