"An inspiring, timely, and conversation-starting memoir from the barrier-breaking and Emmy Award-winning journalist Ilia Calderâon-the first Afro-Latina to anchor a high-profile newscast for a major Hispanic broadcast network in the United States-about following your dreams, overcoming prejudice, and embracing your identity"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
An inspiring, timely, and conversation-starting memoir from the barrier-breaking and Emmy Award–winning journalist Ilia Calderón—the first Afro-Latina to anchor a high-profile newscast for a major Hispanic broadcast network in the United States—about following your dreams, overcoming prejudice, and embracing your identity.
As a child, Ilia Calderón felt like a typical girl from Colombia. In Chocó, the Afro-Latino province where she grew up, your skin could be any shade and you’d still be considered blood. Race was a non-issue, and Ilia didn’t think much about it—until she left her community to attend high school and college in Medellín. For the first time, she became familiar with horrifying racial slurs thrown at her both inside and outside of the classroom.
From that point on, she resolved to become “deaf” to racism, determined to overcome it in every way she could, even when she was told time and time again that prominent castings weren’t “for people like you.” When a twist of fate presented her the opportunity of a lifetime at Telemundo in Miami, she was excited to start a new life, and identity, in the United States, where racial boundaries, she believed, had long since dissolved and equality was the rule.
Instead, in her new life as an American, she faced a new type of racial discrimination, as an immigrant women of color speaking to the increasingly marginalized Latinx community in Spanish.
Now, Ilia draws back the curtain on the ups and downs of her remarkable life and career. From personal inner struggles to professional issues—such as being directly threatened by a Ku Klux Klan member after an interview—she discusses how she built a new identity in the United States in the midst of racially charged violence and political polarization. Along the way, she’ll show how she’s overcome fear and confronted hate head on, and the inspirational philosophy that has always propelled her forward. - (Simon and Schuster)
An inspiring, timely, and conversation-starting memoir from the barrier-breaking and Emmy Award'winning journalist Ilia Calderón'the first Afro-Latina to anchor a high-profile newscast for a major Hispanic broadcast network in the United States'about following your dreams, overcoming prejudice, and embracing your identity.
As a child, Ilia Calderón felt like a typical girl from Colombia. In Chocó, the Afro-Latino province where she grew up, your skin could be any shade and you'd still be considered blood. Race was a non-issue, and Ilia didn't think much about it'until she left her community to attend high school and college in Medellín. For the first time, she became familiar with horrifying racial slurs thrown at her both inside and outside of the classroom.
From that point on, she resolved to become 'deaf' to racism, determined to overcome it in every way she could, even when she was told time and time again that prominent castings weren't 'for people like you.' When a twist of fate presented her the opportunity of a lifetime at Telemundo in Miami, she was excited to start a new life, and identity, in the United States, where racial boundaries, she believed, had long since dissolved and equality was the rule.
Instead, in her new life as an American, she faced a new type of racial discrimination, as an immigrant women of color speaking to the increasingly marginalized Latinx community in Spanish.
Now, Ilia draws back the curtain on the ups and downs of her remarkable life and career. From personal inner struggles to professional issues'such as being directly threatened by a Ku Klux Klan member after an interview'she discusses how she built a new identity in the United States in the midst of racially charged violence and political polarization. Along the way, she'll show how she's overcome fear and confronted hate head on, and the inspirational philosophy that has always propelled her forward. - (Simon and Schuster)
Ilia Calderón is an Emmy Award–winning journalist, the coanchor of Univision’s flagship evening newscast Noticiero Univision, and cohost of Univision’s primetime news magazine Aquí y Ahora. She is the first Afro-Latina to anchor a national weekday evening newscast for a major Hispanic broadcast network in the United States, having previously coanchored three other news desks for Univision and two for Telemundo. She currently resides in Miami, Florida, with her husband and daughter. - (Simon and Schuster)
Ilia Calderón is an Emmy Award'winning journalist, the coanchor of Univision's flagship evening newscast Noticiero Univision, and cohost of Univision's primetime news magazine Aquí y Ahora. She is the first Afro-Latina to anchor a national weekday evening newscast for a major Hispanic broadcast network in the United States, having previously coanchored three other news desks for Univision and two for Telemundo. She currently resides in Miami, Florida, with her husband and daughter. - (Simon and Schuster)
Kirkus Reviews
A prominent news anchor recounts her life. Univision anchor Calderón offers a moving and timely memoir reflecting on her experiences as a woman of color: "There's no doubt. I...am black. Colombian, Latina, Hispanic, Afro-Colombian, mixed, and anything else people may want to call me or I choose to call myself, but I'm always black. I may bear Castilian Jewish and Syrian Arab last names, but I'm simply black in the eyes of the world." Growing up in Istmina, Colombia, she was taught tolerance. "Understanding, equality, fairness, solidarity, generosity," she writes, "those were the messages that were repeated" at her family's table. But when she attended a Catholic high school in MedellÃn, Colombia's second-largest city, Calderón, the only black or mixed-race student, became increasingly aware of inequality, poverty, and racial injustice. In MedellÃn for college, she decided to major in social work, hoping to effect change in her own country. When a chance opportunity landed her a job at a local news station, however , her focus changed to journalism. "I'd found a profession in which inquiry was applauded instead of punished," she writes, "and my boldness wasn't an obstacle but expected and approved." Calderón recounts her professional rise as co-anchor in Bogotá, as newscaster at Telemundo in Miami, and finally as anchor for Univision. "It's good," she admits, "nobody ever told me I was going to be the first Afro-descendant to anchor national newscasts in Spanish media wherever I went!" Her positions have afforded her visibility and power, and much of her memoir bears witness to oppression and discrimination. "What kind of country are we leaving the new generations?" she asks. "Or rather, what kind of society are we handing over to them? One where fundamental rights are violated and no one says anything?" For her—and, she hopes, her readers—there is no choice but to speak out. A candid memoir that sends an urgent message. Copyright Kirkus 2020 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Afro-Latina Univision news anchor Calderon takes on racism in this fascinating memoir. She opens with a frightening scene in 2016: during an interview in rural North Carolina—out of cell phone range—a Ku Klux Klan leader threatens to "burn" her (he lit a cross on fire, but allowed her to leave). In the ensuing chapters, Calderón shares her life experiences, beginning with her childhood growing up mixed-race in Istmina, a small, isolated town in Colombia, where she is raised by her mother and grandfather in the 1970s. (Of her ethnicity, she writes: "Colombian, Latina, Hispanic, Afro-Colombian, mixed, and anything else people may want to call me or I choose to call myself, but I'm always black.") Calderon studied social work in college, but when she learned of an opening at a local TV news show, she auditioned and landed the spot. Her story then unfolds in a series of journalistic career moves; she eventually came to America to work for Telemundo and then Univision, where she became the first Afro-Latina to host the evening news. Whether covering Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017 or reporting on caravans at the southern border in 2018, Calderon stresses the importance of confronting racism head on, using her platform to report on and expose injustice. Calderon's powerful story will resonate with readers. (Aug.)
Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly.