The journalist, son of exiles who arrived in the United States fleeing from the dictatorship, has reached one of the most prestigious positions of American television.
Madrid, Spain.- The journalist Tom Llamas, son of Cuban immigrants who arrived in the United States fleeing from the dictatorship, has marked a milestone on American television by becoming the first Latin to conduct the NBC Nightly News night news, one of the most influential informative programs in the country.
Born in Miami in 1979, Llamas grew in a family marked by exile. His parents arrived without money or knowledge of the language and found in the United States the opportunity to start over. “My parents came here with nothing, they didn’t speak the language, they had no money, they lost their country, and this beautiful place called America gave them a second chance,” he recalled in an interview in the program Today of NBCjust in the days before his debut as a presenter of NBC Nightly News.
That sacrifice legacy inspired the Camino de Llamas, which he studied at the Loyola University New Orleans before starting his career at WTVJ, the local Miami chain. Since then, his career has been marked by perseverance: he was a reporter in WNBC in New York, joined ABC News in 2014 and became presenter of the weekend edition of World News Tonight. In 2021 he returned to NBC, where he drove Top Story On the NBC News Now platform and worked as a senior correspondent.
In March 2025, the chain announced it as the successor of Lester Holt in front of NBC Nightly News. On June 2, he officially debuted, becoming the first Latin journalist to occupy that space, an achievement that symbolizes the opening of a land historically dominated by Anglo -Saxon presenters.
In interviews, Llamas has highlighted the influence of referents as José Díaz-Balart, whom he describes as a mentor. “Being the first to face something like the night news … I sink, really. It’s surprising,” he said about the weight and emotion of this new chapter.
Recognized with Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Awards, Llamas has insisted that beyond the awards, their greatest satisfaction is to pay tribute to the sacrifice of their parents and so many Cubans who, like them, found in exile a new life. “Knowing that they came here with nothing and now I’m going to face the night news … that’s the American dream.”
