Christina Saralegui

A suite on the top floor of a luxury hotel might seem like a strange place to be broaching the subject of respect, but then Cristina Saralegui has rarely taken the conventional approach to anything she's done. "I'm not afraid to say I'm a very intelligent woman," she says. "[Latinas] cannot say that they're intelligent. They can be beautiful, but they cannot be intelligent. "And they cannot brag about it and say, 'Yes, damn, I am smart and I am a woman,' because we couldn't get married. . . .

A suite on the top floor of a luxury hotel might seem like a strange place to be broaching the subject of respect, but then Cristina Saralegui has rarely taken the conventional approach to anything she's done. "I'm not afraid to say I'm a very intelligent woman," she says. "[Latinas] cannot say that they're intelligent. They can be beautiful, but they cannot be intelligent. "And they cannot brag about it and say, 'Yes, damn, I am smart and I am a woman,' because we couldn't get married. . . .

Spanish-language magazine editor Christina Saralegui, described as "Oprah Winfrey con salsa," will headline a new weekday talk show starting April 17 on KMEX Channel 34. Cuban-born Saralegui also is known as the "Latin Helen Gurley Brown" because for 10 years she has been editor-in-chief of a Spanish-language version of Cosmopolitan magazine.

Christina Saralegui, impeccably dressed and primed for confrontation, steps on stage before her Spanish-speaking studio audience, ready to discuss a topic that might be difficult for some to handle. "Just a few years ago, a woman was valued only for the presence or absence of her virginity," Saralegui begins. "Virginity was the tool she used to capture a man. But according to recent statistics, more than three-quarters of North American women have had sex before marriage. What is the reason for such radical changes and how have they affected the Hispanic woman?"