By Teresa Puente –

Oprah is so big that the city of Chicago is shutting down Michigan Avenue for more than 48 hours for the season premiere of her show.

The set is locked down even tighter than Grant Park was on Nov.  4, 2008 when Barack Obama hosted his election night rally there.

It just shows us how powerful and popular Oprah has become. It makes me wish that someday soon this country will have a Latina Oprah.

Oprah’s success and building an audience of women viewers paved the road for other women like Tyra Banks and Ellen DeGeneres on the talk show circuit. And we see powerful women ascending in television news shows like Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News. And it was recently announced that Diane Sawyer will replace the retiring Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC World News.

But where is the Latina Oprah, Katie or Diane?

Now some of you may have heard of Cristina Saralegui. She is the Cuba-born host of a Spanish-language talk show on Univision. But the Miami-based CRISTINA show is more Jerry Springer than Oprah. The show was on daily for 12 years until 2001 but now it is a weekly show airing on Mondays at 9 p.m. central time on Univision.

So there is definitely a void that needs to be filled.

There certainly is a market. Hispanics are now 15 percent of the United States population and Latinas account for around half of that number. It is estimated that by 2050, the number of Hispanic women in the United States will reach 48.9 million, an increase of nearly 340 percent from 1990, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. However, the total U.S. female population will grow only 62 percent, to 206.6 million. This means Latinas will be almost 25 percent of the female population in the United States. These statistics show there is an audience.

And there are Latinas already on television news who could do the job if they wanted.

In Chicago, we have Judie Garcia at WGN (Channel 9), Sylvia Perez on WLS (Channel 7) and Natalie Martinez at NBC5, among others. And nationally there is Maria Celeste Arraras on Telemundo and Maria Elena Salinas on Univision.

I only have one request. I just hope whoever becomes the next Latina Oprah will not be a blonde. I have nothing personal against blondes. But most Latinas are not blonde, not naturally anyway. I hope that whoever becomes the next Latina television talk show host or national news anchor will look like most Latinas who are brunette. It’d be nice if she had some curves too.

Oprah isn’t a light-skinned or slender African-American woman. Like many women she struggles with her weight and body image. This everyday woman appeal is part of what has made Oprah so successful.

It’d be nice to see a Latina on television who doesn’t look like a supermodel.

I know she’s out there and some smart television executive would be wise to give her an opportunity.

As Latinas, we need to tell them ándale, to hurry up. I’m holding my remote waiting.