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María Celeste Arrarás, Award for a Lifetime of Artistic Dedication: The Primer Impacto format found me

November 13, 2022

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Homenaje Maria Celeste Arraras

Puerto Rican journalist, writer, and television host, María Celeste Arrarás was recognized with the “Una Vida de Dedication Artística” award at the sixth edition of Premios PRODU. “I never let obstacles cut short my career,” she said in an exclusive interview with Alejandra Oráa in which she talked about the challenges she had to face to build her career, the lessons learned and she also offered advice for new generations.

Arrarás said that she came into the Primer Impacto format without looking for it. One day she had to fill in for the host of a similar space called Noticias y Más, when Televisa joined Univisión.

“I was working with newscasts, thinking that we were serious journalists, while the rest were sensationalists,” said the former host of Al Rojo Vivo. “When I started to make the format, I realized that it was flexible, that I could give my opinion and show that I had a brain and not only knew how to read a teleprompter, to give credibility to this type of different news. That’s how I found myself in the Primer Impacto format and that format found me too.”

Arrarás Mangual developed an extensive career on Univisión and Telemundo, and since 2021 she is on CNN en Español. She started at a local television station in Puerto Rico. From there, she traveled to cover important international news events, such as the fall of the Soviet Union and other news for which she received many journalistic awards.