Zimmerman Family
Zimmerman Family

The following is the [Translated] transcript of the interview made by journalist Jorge Ramos to Gladys and Robert Zimmerman in the program to the point of the Univision Network, on Sunday 9 December 2012.  (*Note Gladys speaks fluent Spanish as her first language)

The transcript is a little fragmented in translation but you can get the gist.  HatTip Ottawa925

The interview

Jorge Ramos: in his first interview for a half in Spanish, accompany us here, in the Studio, Robert Zimmerman, brother of George Zimmerman. Thanks for being with us.

Robert Zimmerman: Many, Jorge, thank you.

Jorge Ramos: and via satellite, his mother, Gladys Zimmerman, who for security reasons does not want to show his face. Mrs. Zimmerman, thanks for being with us.

Gladys Zimmerman: Anything, good morning George.

Jorge Ramos: Let me start. You certainly Peruvian and speaks the Spanish perfectly, and this is going to be much easier this interview with you. The first question is, where George is at the moment.

Gladys Zimmerman: George is located in the State…, forgiveness, in Seminole County by order of the Court.

Jorge Ramos: what are the conditions which has imposed it the Court? Can he leave the House?

Gladys Zimmerman: Oh, Yes, he can leave the House, from 6 in the morning until 6 in the afternoon.

Jorge Ramos: and you do or have fears that identify it?

Gladys Zimmerman: There are days when it has to do. More than anything by their mental health.

Jorge Ramos: certainly guess that in these moments, rather than enter and exit through basic questions, is not working and performing any other activity through which you can earn money, I guess, huh?

Gladys Zimmerman: Unfortunately not, Jorge. And I doubt that in the future, or in the near future, the able to work and…

Jorge Ramos: Lady…

Gladys Zimmerman: And can earn some money.

Jorge Ramos: Let me begin by talking about this case. I understand that, due to legal issues, there are many things of which you cannot speak. Will you tell me which ones do and which ones are not.

Gladys Zimmerman: As not.

Jorge Ramos: the first time that you learned that his son had been involved in this incident, in which he shot him Trayvon Martin, did you hear about you?

Gladys Zimmerman: I heard by him.

Jorge Ramos: what you told him?

Gladys Zimmerman: he told Me that he had had an incident and that unfortunately he had to use his weapon to defend themselves.

Jorge Ramos: about the weapon, how is that George has access to weapons? His home was the custom be armed? Is it something that the Zimmerman did?

Gladys Zimmerman: Look, I’m going to say, we have lived in Virginia most of our life, we lived there for 31 years, and George has lived there for 17 years of his life. He was born, grew up, graduated from high school and came to Florida. In Florida is that the laws are different, in the sense that can people obtain weapons, obtain a license and be able to load them. The same happens in Virginia, but here I’ve noticed that people can get a gun and what say you “concealed weapon” (authorization to carry a concealed weapon) and load the gun (is) the most normal.

Jorge Ramos: and you knew that George had a weapon?

Gladys Zimmerman: The truth is that I did not know that George had a weapon.

Jorge Ramos: did you know if George was involved in surveillance activities within the zone where he lived?

Gladys Zimmerman: Yes, I knew that he was…, that she was helping, totally, all burglaries that had been in those residences. I know these residences and it seemed to me that there were so many, so many robberies, especially with an area that is closed, no?

Jorge Ramos: very well. And now yes, Madam, I go to the point. As you know, his son George is charged with the death of Trayvon Martin. And many suspect in the United States than did for racist reasons. However, you insist, and his lawyers, that was not for racist reasons, but that was to defend against a personal attack. What is your interpretation? What was happened, Madam?

Gladys Zimmerman: George isn’t racist, my family is not racist. That will come out in evidence, do okay? What you will also be in evidence and has been seen lately, it is the photo of my battered son. My son defended himself by his life. The young man who attacked him, for reasons equis, which we do not know, has left a trace, a trail and thank God there’s a photo that can prove that footprint. Apart from the track…

Jorge Ramos: refers to photography that, in color, leaves her son with wounds in the face?

Gladys Zimmerman: indeed. That picture that was handed over to the defense in black and white and that now has been, thanks to God, presented in color, shows how my son has been attacked. According to the autopsy of the young Martin, he did not have no trace except the bullet that entered him in the chest, unfortunately, that killed him.

Jorge Ramos: now, you say…

Gladys Zimmerman: apart…

Jorge Ramos: you say that George is not racist. There are many people who say that if Trayvon Martin had not used a hood and were not African-American, that he would be alive now. I.e., they suggest that all this was motivated simply and the unique fact that Trayvon Martin was African-American.

Gladys Zimmerman: do not. This happened because Trayvon Martin attacked my son. If Trayvon Martin had not attacked my son, in the wild manner that attacked him… Look at Mr Ramos, if you throw a punete in the nose… I not I guess the pain that I may cause. But that pull a punete in the nose, that you do fall to the floor, which are mounted on top of you and that hit him fiercely, which break the head, everytime you want to lift tiran head to the pavement, and that a neighbor opened the door and say: “Stop, because I’m going to call the police”. And that neighbor gives the description that the person who was hitting it, was that lying on the floor, was what is being said MMA, which is mixed martial arts. I had never seen the sport, but saw it on YouTube and I was amazed at the way so wild that they hit people.

Jorge Ramos: now, the reaction of his son to use a weapon, was not excessive? Not could he have defended himself in another way?

Gladys Zimmerman: Not can tell you I…, because I’m not in their shoes. But the only thing I can tell you is this: you put the photo of my son, thus, in colors, and put the tape (audio tape). This tape asks for help, help, help, in which many witnesses claim that it is the voice of my son. Including Trayvon Martin, Mr Tracy Martin, Pope says that it is the voice of my son.

Jorge Ramos: Mrs Zimmerman…

Gladys Zimmerman: Put the two things together.

Jorge Ramos: I insist, you told us in this program that George is not racist. I understand, of course, that George and his son Robert, went on several occasions to Peru. And you know perfectly well that in Latin America there is a lot of discrimination, not only against indigenous groups, but also among people who have darker skin color. What is what you taught him their children regarding this discrimination that we suffer in Latin America? How he taught them?

Gladys Zimmerman: Look, Mr Ramos, us at the Peru we have a saying: “El que no tiene de Inga is mandinga”, which means that he has no Indian has black. In my family we come proudly from a Peruvian afro race. My children know their guys, they know their aunts, they know our roots and my roots are not white, my roots are Peruvian afro. So they have been educated, not just in the House as a family, in the school… My children do not know colors. I tell them my children because they are part of my family, that I do not know of skin colors.

Jorge Ramos: Lady, you know that President Barack Obama was involved in this matter by saying that if he had had a son man, would be cone Trayvon Martin. How do you react to this?

Gladys Zimmerman: Look, at the beginning it hurt me very much, but now that it is has been like the sequence. Because virtually I’m going to say, Jorge, at the beginning I saw no television. My husband, doctors, forbade me television viewing. The thing was very traumatic. But now, seeing as has been this case worked by Trayvon Martin family lawyers, I do not blame him the President, because he also misled him. All this has to be clarified, all the lies that have been said, Mr Crump (Benjamin Crupm, the Martin family’s lawyer), Mrs Natalie Jackson, through Ryan Julison, with Julison Comunications, have to go to the air, because until the President himself painted him something that was a lie. And they lied to the nation and lied to the whole world.

Jorge Ramos: Mrs Zimmerman…

Gladys Zimmerman: Thats my current reaction.

Jorge Ramos: Mrs Zimmerman, back with you at times. I’m going to talk now with his son Robert, who is here with us in the Studio. Robert, thanks again for being here present on the point. The team of lawyers of thy brother, George Zimmerman, has filed a complaint against the NBC for defamation. Why?

Robert ZimmermanRobert Zimmernan: Well, George explains in his own words that there was one, there was a creation of a racial narrative. Because this story, based solely on the merits of the crime, was not sufficiently sensational for those who wanted to report more. Since the beginning of used the word “White”, “Black”, white, Black, and “gated community” (gated community) to advance a speculative narrative of what had happened, very different from what actually happened that day.

Jorge Ramos: the debate is between if your brother did so by racist motives or if he did it to defend themselves. What you know you said your brother?

Robert Zimmerman: Well, I was as brother I must ask why Trayvon Martin threw him that punete. Many focus on what he did. What George did what had made forty times in a year, called the police. What George did is what made 400 times in 13 months where he lived, a community of less than 200 houses around there. Four hundred calls to the police, why? Because there were many robberies, there was a woman with her baby who had months in his bedroom while they robbed the House, and there was much fear. So is that what I think George did…

Jorge Ramos: but is not the first time that George uses a pistol to defend himself that way.

Robert Zimmerman: Oh, Yes, Yes. In the State of Florida handguns are licensed, but you must have hidden. Where we were, my mother began to explain, in Virginia law is completely the opposite. Without a license, one could load gun as I’ve uploaded when I went to shoot outside, with such that it is visible.

Jorge Ramos: did you know that George had gun?

Robert Zimmerman: Yes, Yes, I always knew that George and his wife, the two were allowed by that gun. Had an attack or a conceited (alleged) attack that could occur from a dog, that this has nothing to do with this case, but then a police officer suggested to him: ‘ look, if you are so afraid of this dog and these people cannot control it, better you’re armed to keep you in the hospital “.

Jorge Ramos: very well. What is what follows now? Which is what you…? You are emphasizing, and I ask you, George, the fact that you are a Hispanic family, as part of the defense?

Robert Zimmerman: No George, because I think that is going, that is reverse the progress of race. We are an American family and what happened that night was a tragedy. It always was for our family. But say: we are latinos and by that fact latinos have to be with us, but the party’s equis because that person is of that color, would not be the right thing either. What has surprised the public now, is that we are not white. That picture of George who appears to not have hair, by your skin very, very white because it was a photocopy, represents it evil. And if that photo had been in color, if people had known more of George, out of the word “White”, White put on the posters when they were asking for $10 mil to kill him, dead or alive, dead or alive, give it. If they had known something of the events of that night, perhaps we would have not come to this point. But going forward, we have to make it clear, not only that we are not racist, but that racism in the United States and around the world are watching us, as my mother said, they misled until the President. Racism in this country is a very lucrative sport. Many have his hand in a bag of money, and there is lots of money to do claiming racism. Not without even checking it.

Jorge Ramos: Robert, thanks for being here with us, so I appreciate a lot.

Robert Zimmerman: thanks.

Zimmerman Family -  Grandfather - Grandmother - Mother as childJorge Ramos: Lady Gladys, thanks for being with us. Before dismissing me, only I would ask him why he decided to talk to us and why he decided to hide his face. He fears for his life?

Gladyz Zimmerman: Yes, fear for my life. I have to protect her, I have to protect my family, I have a 88-year-old mother to which I have to take care of. And, if you have to go forward and defend my child, the best way that I can do it is covering my face. We’ve gone out with Univision because we are confident that it is a medium that will get to the truth. And I’d like to be a Hispanic media to be delivered in search of the truth.

Jorge Ramos: Gladys Zimmerman, thank you for talking with us.

Gladys Zimmerman: Nothing.

Jorge Ramos: Robert Zimmerman, thanks for being here.

Robert Zimmerman: Thanks Jorge.

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