The drums of war continue to beat on Telemundo. NBC’s Spanish-language sister affiliate, fresh from yesterday’s scaremongering, sought a victim for today’s “impact on the families” story, ahead of potential troop movements to the Middle East. But they got a lot more than what they expected.
Watch below as this military spouse gave Telemundo a lesson on duty, sacrifice, and resiliency:
NICOLE SUÁREZ, TELEMUNDO: Tensions between the United States and Iran have led the Trump Administration to mobilize troops towards military zones, who will have to put their lives on pause and leave their families behind. Rogelio Mora-Tagle is with some of them, in North Carolina. Tell us.
ROGELIO MORA-TAGLE, TELEMUNDO: Well yes, Nicole. We are in Fayetteville, in the state of North Carolina. there is a military base that is very close by, and I’m precisely at a bakery where most of the employees have a loved one that is in the United States Armed Forces. I’m with Isamar Díaz, she is 29 years old, from Puerto Rico and expecting her first baby- due to arrive next Monday but her husband could be deployed to the MIddle East this Friday. How are you going through this situation, Isamar?
ISAMAR DÍAZ: It’s very tough in terms of not knowing the status of our spouses. I, or the military wives here at Fort Bragg, we don’t know what’s going to happen with them but with God before us, we know that everything is going to be alright.
MORA-TAGLE: What would be the prevalent sentiment amongst you?
DÍAZ: Support. Support and camaraderie amongst all my colleagues because six of them are military spouses.
MORA-TAGLE: What does your husband say, given the possibility of missing out on the birth of his first daughter?
DÍAZ: That The Lord will be with us. And if He wills it, he will be present here with us.
MORA-TAGLE: You’re positive?
DÍAZ: Yes. Yes. That’s what’s important.
MORA-TAGLE: Thank you very much, Isamar. Well, that’s the sentiment of this community, Nicole, which I reiterate, is tense ahead of the possibility of a military conflict between Iran and the United States. Back to you, Nicole.
SUÁREZ: No doubt, a difficult situation for these families, above all else due to the uncertainty of what may lie ahead in the future.
The framing of the interview suggested a platform for a military spouse to come on and complain about the potential hardships ahead, about potential actions against a belligerent Iran, and even about the Commander in Chief. But it sure didn’t come out that way.
Indeed, Telemundo correspondent Rogelio Mora-Tagle seemed lost during the interview, as though he didn’t expect the responses he got. The interviewee was neither aggrieved nor supplicating to government, as is often the case on Spanish-language news media, but resolute in her sense of duty, camaraderie, support for the mission ahead, with a deep faith that overcomes adversity.
The story was set up so that Telemundo’s viewers walked away with a deeper sense of fear, grievance, and anger. Instead they saw honor, thanks to a young mother-to-be whose husband may or may not deploy to the Middle East, partly in response to an operation that Telemundo is working overtime to delegitimize.
