Tom Llamas isn’t just another news anchor—he’s a living, breathing testament to the immigrant dream, the power of family, and the unshakable pride of Cuban heritage. His story starts long before he ever stepped in front of a camera, back in the homes of two Cuban refugees who risked everything for a shot at freedom.
His parents, whose names might not be splashed across headlines, are the quiet architects of his success. They didn’t just give him a last name (pronounced YAH-mas, by the way—don’t mess that up). They gave him a legacy, a work ethic, and a deep connection to a culture that pulses through his life, his career, and even the way he raises his kids.
The Parents Who Built the Foundation
Tom Llamas’s mom and dad didn’t just flee Cuba—they escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a fierce determination to rebuild. His mother grew up in Havana, his father in Oriente, a province in eastern Cuba. When Castro took power, his mom got out immediately, while his dad’s family left a few years later. They met as teenagers in Miami, two kids bonded by loss, resilience, and the kind of grit that only comes from starting over in a country where you don’t even speak the language.
Imagine that for a second: no money, no English, no safety net. Just hope. And yet, they clawed their way up. His dad became a dentist (fun fact: he once treated the kids of Univision legend Jorge Ramos, which eventually led to a teenage Tom getting his first newsroom tour). His parents didn’t just survive America—they thrived in it, raising a family in a Miami bursting with Cuban exiles, where politics wasn’t just dinner-table talk; it was personal. The news was always on in their house, a mix of English and Spanish broadcasts, dissecting everything from local elections to the latest crisis back on the island.
That’s where Tom’s career began—not in a fancy journalism school, but in a living room where current events were as much a part of the family as Sunday ropa vieja. He’d watch his parents send care packages to relatives still in Cuba, stuffing Kool-Aid packets into greeting cards because the sugar was a lifeline, and the government would confiscate anything too obvious. He remembers visiting cousins who’d just arrived from Cuba, their ribs visible under their skin, their eyes hollow with hunger. One image still haunts him: kids as old as five breastfeeding because there was no milk left. Those weren’t just stories. They were his family.
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Spanish, Salsa, and the Sound of Home
Tom Llamas’s Cuban roots aren’t just background noise—they’re the soundtrack of his life. Spanish wasn’t a second language in his house; it was the first. The one his parents spoke when they argued, the one they used to tell stories about Cuba, the one that still slips into his broadcasts when he’s interviewing someone like Nicolás Maduro (yeah, he did that—in fluent Spanish, no less).
He’s passing that legacy to his three kids, Malena, Juliette, and Thomas. They’re being raised on pastelitos, Nochebuena feasts with roast pork, and the rhythms of Celia Cruz (Tom took his wife, Jennifer, to see her at Jazz Fest back in their Loyola days—full-circle moment). The kids are learning Spanish, slowly but surely, because Tom knows language is the key to culture. He wants them to understand what it means to be the grandchildren of exiles, to carry that history in their bones.
And here’s the wildest part: that history is now being written into American TV history. When Tom took over NBC Nightly News in June 2025, he didn’t just get a promotion. He became the first Latino to solo-anchor a major network evening newscast in prime time. Think about that. A kid whose parents arrived with nothing, whose family sent powdered drink mix to starving relatives, now sits in the same chair once held by legends like Tom Brokaw. That’s not just success—that’s a full-blown American epic.
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So yeah, Tom Llamas speaks Spanish. But more importantly, he lives it. In the way he reports, the way he parents, the way he remembers. Because for him, every broadcast, every story, every buenos días to his kids is a love letter to the two people who taught him what it means to fight for a better life—and never forget where you came from.
