Already in 2023, Spanish-language conservative radio shows have been spreading anti-Black narratives and misinformation on a range of issues concerning race – including during Black history month. Hosts expressed outrage over the “Black national anthem,” attacked critical race theory, and even blamed Black families for incarceration and what they called the “stagnation” of the Black community – spreading harmful misinformation and stereotypes in the process.

It's unsurprising that Americano Media is deploying anti-Black rhetoric as it works to become the Spanish-language Fox News, pushing racist talking points that have thrived in English-language right-wing media to its Latino audience. This includes so-called great replacement theory, a conspiracy theory supported by white supremacists claiming “that immigrants are purposefully brought into the U.S. to saturate the electorate with people who will vote for Democrats.”

Attacks on African American studies, the Black National Anthem, and critical race theory

Spanish-language radio hosts regularly attack the supposed teaching of “critical race theory” in schools. They misrepresent and sensationalize the legal scholarship, often portraying it as a nefarious plot to spread anti-American, Marxist propaganda and embed it into public and private sectors in the United States. Narratives equating Democrats and progressives to Marxists, socialists, or communists are common across Spanish-language conservative radio shows and capitalize on intergenerational trauma many Latino communities have after experiences with repressive regimes. 

Americano Media pundits have also supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in blocking AP African American studies in Florida, in reaction to an early version of the course that contained “lessons on social movements, Black Lives Matter, intersectionality, reparations, prison abolition, and more.” Americano Media has even hired Catalina Stubbe, the National Director of Hispanic Outreach for the book banning crusader group Moms for Liberty, to spread anti-critical race theory messaging for the network across several radio shows. Stubbe is also a co-host on Americano’s En Desventaja, a show similar to Fox’s Outnumbered, ensuring the far-right group’s voice is a constant presence on Americano Media.

• Dania Alexandrino, host of Acción 97.9 radio's En Perspectiva and Americano Media show Hablando de Frente, ranted about the Black national anthem being performed at the Super Bowl. She said that “none of the Black players knew any of the words,” that the Black national anthem and other similar ideas are the work of “some white liberal progressive idiot,” and that conversations about slavery should revolve around “Blacks today in Africa [who] continue to sell other Blacks into slavery.” [En Perspectiva, 02/13/23]
• Alexandrino insinuated that Democrats are to blame for the “main problem” in the United States, which she claimed is the “stagnation” of Black and Latino communities as a result of supposed fatherlessness. She went on to claim that Democrats “want the government to be paternalistic, they don’t want the man to be the father” and that liberals “blame white supremacy instead of understanding the root of the problem … the lack of a paternal figure and God in the lives of children.” [En Perspectiva, 01/30/23]
• On Hablando de Frente, Alexandrino said that “we already have a whole month to celebrate and teach Black history in public schools” and that “what [Democrats] are trying to do” is “distort … their political rivals as racists.” [Hablando de Frente, 01/25/23]
• Agustin Acosta and Carines Moncada of Cada Tarde called in Helen Aguirre Ferré, executive director for the Republican Party of Florida, to explain why AP African American studies had been blocked. Aguirre Ferré said that AP African American studies came from Ivy League universities, which she claimed have had problems with “Marxist infiltration.” She also claimed that the courses “must be presented correctly, and we must eliminate " the ideologies imposed on us about white supremacy. Then Aguirre Ferré claimed that it is difficult to be white and Hispanic because “they want to paint the rest of the world as victims of the white man” and “that they want us to divide. They want us to feel like victims. They want us to get angry, to doubt who we are as a people, as a culture, as a country, and to fight and have these hot flashes that we see in other states.” Later, Moncada commented on the Super Bowl saying that the “Black national anthem … which I didn’t know existed – I said there’s no reason to watch this because there’s no reason to racially divide us.” She went on to say that Obama made the United States a more racist country. [Cada Tarde, 02/15/23]
• Acosta claimed that there are hundreds of individuals in the Black community exploiting racism to make millions of dollars instead of finding ways to keep “young Black guys from abandoning high school” and “maintain normal cohesive families so dysfunctional children don’t end up in jail.” [Cada Tarde, 2/15/23]
• Moncada and Acosta claimed that the AP African American studies course involves a “completely manipulated” and “fictitious story that does not fit reality” which has “a tendency to indoctrinate and confuse.” [Cada Tarde, 02/01/23]
• Host of Entre Lineas Freddy Silva claimed that the AP African American studies class contained “critical race theory,” which “seeks to change history and make an anachronistic analysis bringing [slavery] to modern reality in 2023” from “more than a century, two centuries” ago. He also claimed that CRT is nothing but “a sad victim mentality that is pushed onto the Black population in the United States.” [Entre Líneas, 01/27/23]
• Silva also asserted that critical race theory is “simply a hypothesis, they’re theories planted so that people believe the story that there is an oppressive system that’s keeping minorities down.” He says that “leftists and Marxists” often use these tactics, in order to continue to paint themselves as victims. [Entre Lineas, 01/30/23]
• Jesus Marquez, host of Battleground Americano, claimed that the AP African American studies course taught “CRT and LGBT theory to students, and this has nothing to do with African-American history.” His guest Stubbe said “LGBT theory and CRT” were involved in this course, and called them “Marxist theories that treat people as victims or oppressors depending on their race or sex.” She claimed this is the work of “radical leftists.” Stubbe also said, “The roots of these organizations [like BLM and ANTIFA] are all the same, they are all funded by the radical leftist Soros.” She also claimed that they are opposed to those that “follow God’s agenda” and called the organizations “demons.” [Battleground Americano, 01/27/23]

Correction (3/13/23): This piece originally listed the wrong station for En Perspectiva; it is carried on Acción 97.9.