María Celeste Arrarás: 1960—: Journalist

A Los Angeles Times article discussed the inherent differences in the Telemundo and NBC networks, from how a breaking news story is written to the amount and style of accessories its female journalists are allowed to wear on the air. But after just a few months on the job, Arrarás herself was surprised at how little a difference there was between the Spanish-language broadcasting stalwarts and a well-established, deep-pocketed news source like NBC. She said that as a Univision reporter, she and her colleagues had often dreamed of working in the "majors," as she called them. "We had this big myth that it would be a different ballgame—that it would be awesome, bigger and better," Arrarás told Calvo. "But, to my surprise, it was very similar. The only difference is there were more resources. You can pre-plan and take things at a more normal pace. In Spanish TV, we have less resources, so we are more aggressive. We are hungrier."

Despite the tremendous attention given to her debut Arrarás was frank about her talents. "I'm not the greatest anchor in the world," she told Ojito in the New York Times, "but what I lack in talent I make up with honesty." Arrarás is the first Latina celebrity spokes-person for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and is working to ban circuses in Puerto Rico that use animals. Her high-profile job landed her on People en Espanol's "10 Most Intriguing People of the Year" in 2002. With her own agent at entertainment-industry powerhouse William Morris, Arrarás was, in the end, still surprised by her choice of career—given the fact that she often disliked being in the public eye as a youngster. "I said I'll never do that," she said in the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service interview, "and little did I know—I ended up doing the same thing."