Ilia Calderón: What You Have To Know About Her New Book

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Debuting as an author is another dream come true for Ilia Calderón, who this summer is launching her book Es mi turno: A journey in search of my voice and my roots with the publisher Simon & Schuster. The co-presenter of Noticiero Univision y Aqui y Ahora (Univision) spoke exclusively with People en Español about this new challenge.

"The book is the story of my life, it is the story of why I often kept silent about so many things and because one day I decided to speak," says the award-winning 47-year-old Colombian journalist. "And the value and respect that should be given to these silences, and the respect that should be given to the terms in which a person decides to tell their story," adds the communicator, who has faced discrimination and racism on its way to success. Although he tells his life lessons, Calderón clarifies that it is not an “empowerment didactic book”. "I hope that through my story, other people can be empowered," she says. "I tell my story and the way I overcame certain problems."

He also remembers his childhood in El Chocó, Colombia, and talks about the great impact his mother has had on his life. “If there is a word that defines my mom, it is resilience. She taught me that no matter how big the problem is, you decide how big you put the problem, "he says. "In the [Colombian] Pacific we have a phrase that says: 'Whoever has had to fight for everything never gets tired,' and Goyo from Choquibtown uses it a lot. It is true, when you were born needing so many things, you will never tire of fighting for what you want.”

From her mother, Doña Betty, she learned the value of work and family. “The value of the family for me is fundamental. Not a day goes by that I don't talk to my mom and my two sisters, one in New Zealand, one in Medellín and my mom who is divided between Medellín, Miami and New Zealand. Every day I call them, I talk to them, I am present in their lives, in the lives of my nephews,”says Calderón, who lives in Miami with her daughter Anna, 7, and her husband Eugene Jang.

Her sense of independence is something she also inherited from her mom. "My mother taught me respect, discretion, she taught me not to bend down so that no one gets on my back," says Calderón. “I was a teacher and I left school where I entered in the morning and continued working in the stationery with my grandfather. It was there in those desks that my sisters and I did our homework with the help of my mother and grandfather. She never stopped working, until one day we spoke and decided to retire. Now she works taking care of grandchildren,”jokes the journalist. "She said to us: 'That you don't have to depend on your husband to buy your most intimate things, you have to be independent.' She went to a seamstress to make her clothes and never put the zipper on the back to avoid depending on anyone,she always put it aside so that nobody had to help her get dressed. That's how I grew up, with that value and that work ethic.”