Azcárraga Milmo, Emilio (1930–1997)

Azcárraga Milmo was an entrepreneur, television pioneer, and chief executive officer of Televisa, Latin America's largest media network. Born on September 6, 1930, he was the son of the radio and television mogul Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta and Laura Milmo, a member of a prominent Mexican entrepreneurial family. His father founded the firm Telesistema Mexicano (which would later become Televisa) with the former Mexican president Miguel Alemán and the entrepreneur Rómulo O'Farrill. The Azcárraga family held a controlling interest in the Televisa media empire, which came to dominate Mexican programming and Spanish-language periodicals.

Azcárraga Milmo graduated in 1947 from Instituto Patria, an influential Jesuit preparatory school, and studied at the Culver Military Academy in Indiana but did not earn a degree. He began his career modestly, selling the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He worked in sales at Station XEW and then became director of the business accounts for Channel 2, Televisa's leading station. Eventually he served as vice president of production for Televisa. After his father's death he became president of Televisa in 1973, and, according to Forbes magazine, his family reached a net worth in 1994 of $5.4 billion. Fortune magazine ranked his family's wealth as thirty-ninth in the world the previous year. After his own death on April 16, 1997, his son Emilio Azcárraga Jean took over the leadership of Televisa and, as of 2000, owned 51 percent of Televicentro, the Televisa holding company.

Azcárraga Milmo was known for his aggressive and occasionally flamboyant style, earning him the nickname of "El Tigre," the tiger. He also continued his family's policy of generous support for the arts. He was president of the Friends of the Arts in Mexico and a major sponsor of Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries, an exhibit that appeared in New York, San Antonio, and Los Angeles in 1990 and 1991. Despite his wealth and influence, he never became a member of Mexico's most influential entrepreneurial organization, the Mexican Council of Businessmen. Under Azcárraga Milmo's leadership, Televisa's news programs became identified with the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the Mexican government, a posture that he publicly and vociferously supported. Under his son's leadership, after an internal struggle within the company, efforts were made to alter Televisa's image and provide politically neutral news coverage.

See alsoRadio and Television .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fernández, Claudia, and Andrew Paxman. El tigre Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. Mexico: Grijalbo, 2000.

Orme, William A., Jr. A Culture of Collusion: An Inside Look at the Mexican Press. Coral Gables, FL: North-South Center Press, University of Miami, 1997.

                                    Roderic Ai Camp