A prominent and award-winning journalist in Spanish-language news faced boos and yells to get off the stage after she invoked Donald Trump and gave a portion of her commencement speech in Spanish.
Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas, a Peabody Award-winner, told
The Washington Post on Tuesday that the incident Sunday further shows "our country is really divided."
"It's really sad," Salinas told the Post. "And it's a testament to what has happened in our country."
Salinas, the keynote speaker, was delivering her commencement speech to the California State University Fullerton's College of Communications when non-Latinos became unruly after Salinas "became a little too Latino-centric and blatantly anti-Trump,"
Fox News Latino reports.
At the university, where the Latino student population is around 40 percent, Salinas made a point of praising Latino graduates and speaking Spanish to honor their parents for their sacrifices on behalf of their children.
"This left non-journalism grads and non-Latinos/non-Spanish speakers feeling excluded," the
OC Weekly reports. "Parents in the audience and even students in the ceremony began demanding Salinas switch to a more inclusive tone by shouting phrases such as, 'What about us?!'"
Things worsened when Salinas encouraged the journalism students to rebut Trump.
"… they blame us so much for so many things, that now they're even blaming us, the media, for creating Donald Trump. Imagine that," Salinas said, according to the Post.
"Get off the stage!" someone can be heard yelling.
Salinas told the Post she has been targeted on social media to go back to Mexico, despite being born and raised in California.
"It's really sad that people can turn such a special moment into a racial war," said Salinas, who told the Post she was sorry if some felt left out.
"I don't think I insulted anyone by saying a few words in Spanish to the parents. The whole speech was directed to everyone."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.