Who Is: Patricia Batres’ Strength is Her Family

By Ruben Hernandez

Patricia Batres is always welcome in the homes of the TV viewers who watch Telemundo news. The sight of her on the screen competently covering issues important to the Valley Latino community is a familiar one to the thousands of families who tune in to her interviews daily.

Yet Patricia has her own beautiful family and off-screen lifestyle that she graciously shares with our ArizonaLatinos readers.  To achieve a balance between the intense demands of daily journalism and enjoying her husband and her two sons at home is an art, she says.

 “My philosophy is you have to be very grounded,” she says. “So many women who are empowered forget where they really came from. You always have to remember who your family is, and have their support. You must know which people you are surrounded by will always be there, in good times and bad times. To me, family is the most important thing. I believe family values are very important to all Latinas.”

Patricia laughs often as she relates how she really likes being a sports mom. Her sons Massimo, 16, and Rickson, 11, are heavily into basketball and soccer, which means she must carve the important time from her 50-hour work week to participate directly in their lives as they grow up. Her husband also is active in sports, she adds. “Everyone in my family plays, and my boys were named after fighters.” To Patricia, sports and family life are the same thing; so much so that she even met her husband at the 1984 futbol World Cup playoffs in Orlando, Florida. 

Her personal and professional journey began in San Francisco where he lived with her parents until she was 10. She moved to Manzanillo and Guadalajara in Mexico. While in Mexico she worked in the travel industry because she spoke English learned from her parents. When she came to live in Orlando, Florida, her first U.S. job was selling timeshare condominiums. It was there she met and married her husband. Then she lived in Holland, and about 16 years ago she came to Arizona to be with her parents.

“It was a new place for me, with few opportunities for work,” she recalls. In 1998 she auditioned with Telemundo for a job doing business segments. At that time Telemundo didn’t have a news show, but they were starting up a news department. They asked her if she were interested. 

“I was not a journalist then, but now I can say I grew up with the company. If you really love what you do and have a passion for it shows through all the years. I’m still learning. I’ll never be the type of person to act like I know it all, because I don’t.”

Patricia has been with Telemundo as it grew in programming and ratings into the No. 2 most watched Spanish-language TV news show. Now the network has partnered with NBC to expand the quality of its programming.

Behind each five-minute news segment is an entire production crew, Patricia says. “So much love goes into a piece. There’s the cameraman, the editor. We have grown enormously. That so much of the public watches us is the proof of how much they love the product.”

It’s the constant contact with the Latino community that she loves best, she adds. “Our job is to provide the tools to a community hungry for information to help them grow. That’s why they’re here. We are a vehicle to help them.”

While expressing a deep devotion to her job, Patricia says she is relieved to go home and enjoy her family and personal time. She shares that her No. 1 passion is music of all types. She loves dancing ballet, flamenco and performing gymnastics. She works out as regularly as possible. She admits her most soothing therapy is – washing dishes, believe it or not.

Patricia Batres says teaching her children the lessons she has learned in life will always be important to her. “I tell my kids to always be humble, grateful and polite if you succeed. Whatever you do, love it.”