Essential: Being Latino and Indispensable in America

A deeply reported and personal exploration of identity, resilience, and belonging from one of the most influential Spanish-language journalists in the world, Essential offers a nuanced, urgent portrait of what it means to be Latino in today's America and the contradictions of being vital to a country that still struggles to recognize you fully.

In a country still grappling with its sense of identity and the question of who belongs, Essential explores: What does it mean to be Latino in America today?

Blending years of on-the-ground reporting with personal reflection, Enrique Acevedo offers a layered, urgent portrait of a community both shaping and being shaped by the nation's future. Latinos comprise nearly one in five Americans, including more than eleven million in California alone. Yet their place in the national conversation is too often reduced, politicized, or misunderstood, especially when filtered through the narrow lens of immigration.

With President Trump back in office and immigration again a defining fault line in American politics, this book arrives at a pivotal moment. From frontline workers during the pandemic to families navigating the opaque machinery of deportation, Essential explores labor, identity, resilience, and the quiet contradictions Latinos carry every day. It challenges the false choice between assimilation and exclusion. It calls on the country to expand its definition of belonging to reflect its people's full complexity and history.

Part memoir, part chronicle, Essential is a powerful testament to the stories we tell about who we are and who we still have the chance to become.

Enrique Acevedo is one of the most influential Spanish-language journalists in the world, reaching one of the largest and most engaged audiences across the Americas. An Emmy Award-winning anchor, he currently leads En punto, Televisa's flagship newscast. He was previously a correspondent for CBS News, where he reported across platforms on major global events for iconic shows including 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS Evening News, and CBS Mornings. Acevedo, a leading voice in the fight against disinformation, has championed efforts to promote media literacy, elevate trustworthy journalism, and confront the spread of false narratives across digital platforms. His work consistently bridges cultures, languages, and borders to tell the stories that matter most.