He’s the liberty-loving Latino reminding America that your ethnicity shouldn’t define your politics. Newsmax and KSEV radio host Chris Salcedo has seen a dynamic rise in the media world.
And it is no accident.
It has come with thousands of hours of hard work, research, and dedication, which has led to his new book, The Rise of the Liberty-Loving Latino: The New American Revolution.
Salcedo’s journey began in 1992 when a radio station moved into his hometown above a bakery. “So I applied there. I asked the program director, ‘I’ll do anything. I’ll clean your toilets, I’ll run sandwiches for the jocks, I’ll do whatever you need to be done,’” the radio host recalled.
The program director saw the young Salcedo’s potential and gave him something a little more meaningful to do. “My first gig was typing the news at an adult contemporary station,” he said.
A short six months later, he was on air reading the news. From the foothills of San Diego, Salcedo made his way to TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, where he covered traffic and weather before making it big as a news anchor.
“From there, to Washington, D.C., for an all-news radio network—fledgling—spent a couple of years there,” Salcedo went on to say, “then back to Dallas-Fort Worth, where the Chris Salcedo Show was born on the Blaze.”
Salcedo went on to note that Glenn Beck was the first to really let his opinion shine. “Glenn Beck was the first to recognize the Chris Salcedo Show—not Chris Salcedo, a news person or a newsreader. [Beck] recognized that Chris Salcedo was a Latino who had lots to say.”
Today, Salcedo hosts a radio show, podcast, and TV show daily. Looking back, he says it’s always been conservatives who have given him a platform to radiate across the airwaves. “It’s always been left-wingers who didn’t think that I had anything to offer,” Salcedo said.
It’s a sentiment that ties into The Rise of the Liberty-Loving Latino. The book, Salcedo says, “chronicles what I classify as the biggest political revolution to hit the United States since the formation of the Republican Party.”
For decades, he has been documenting what he calls a “monumental shift as Latinos all across the fruited plain [who] have said, ‘Oh, wait a minute, I’m really not a socialist. I’m really not a leftist. I love America.’”
Salcedo has seen firsthand how the left tries to demoralize Latinos from voting Republican. “They call us coconuts [because] we are brown on the outside and white on the inside, as if a desire for freedom and liberty, adherence to the rule of law, and the stability that the Constitution provides is somehow a ‘white thing.’”
He blistered at this sentiment: “That’s what the left does. Communist, socialist, leftist—they demonize anything that they don’t want.” Salcedo went on to explain that it is not just Latinos who lean right that the left gives nicknames to. “They do [the same thing] to our black brothers and sisters. They call them Oreos.”
“I find it repugnant, the idea that you have to be a political persuasion to lay claim to your heritage. It’s insulting. Most real Americans reject it. But do you know why the Democrats embrace it?” he rhetorically asked. “[It’s] because they’re not Americans anymore.”
“55%of the Latino community went for President Trump in states like Texas,” Salcedo boasted. “That’s not a hypothetical. That actually happened across the country. A majority of Latino men voted for President Trump. That’s not a hypothesis. That’s not something that’s my opinion. That actually happened.”
He welcomed the debate from the left about the way Latinos vote, but he always hits back with facts. Still, he also wants it to be noted: “I, as a conservative, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend Republicans. I mean, the Republican Party hasn’t been conservative in a good many years. I can recommend America First.”
Salcedo believes those who believe in the Constitution and rule of law have congregated under this “America First” umbrella thanks to President Donald Trump.
“I sat down with Trump, and I gotta be honest with you, I’m hoping I conveyed what it’s like to sit down in a room with him well in the book,” Salcedo said. “It’s different than what you see on television.”
The conversation, Salcedo expressed, is “the launching pad to the broader discussion about [the shift in the way Latinos vote].” He believes “those who are fighting the hardest right now to preserve America have been joined by a whole lot of Latinos, which, since the election, has only grown.”
For young people looking to follow in Chris Salcedo’s footsteps, he believes you have to be committed. “My theme song on my radio show is ‘Hole Hearted,’” Salcedo said. “It’s about lost love, you know, there’s a hole in my heart. But I took it literally, as in W-H-O-L-E.”
“To do this job, you’ve got to be fully committed to what you believe in and what you talk about.” He later added that it’s important “to be honest in what you’re doing” and “be open to what God is telling you.”
Chris Salcedo’s book The Rise of the Liberty-Loving Latino: The New American Revolution comes out December 9 and is available for pre-sale now.
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.