Giselle Blondet: With her feet on the ground and her career in the skies story in the July 2010 Issue of Explore TACA

Giselle Blondet: With her feet on the ground and her career in the skies

By Celeste Rodas de Juárez

The week before our interview, the famous co-host of Univision's morning variety show "Despierta América" had experienced two unusual things. The first was when she entered a popular Miami bookstore and saw a sign that read: "Meet your favorite authors. Soon Giselle Blondet will sign autographs and read excerpts from her book."

In-between the disbelief and the surprise, she asked herself: "What? This means that I have to read [excerpts] from my book in front of a lot of people?"

"That's right," she says. "I had to read, sign autographs and-above all-share with the people. Sure, I knew that all this was expected of me when the book came out, but it's one thing to talk about it and another thing to walk into a store and suddenly come face-to-face with your own advertisement there. It still seems like a dream to me, being able to grow in different ways without having to change professions. It seems like yesterday that all of this was just a dream! In this, my first book (Con los pies en la tierra) my message is that one needs to have faith and willpower. With these two things, you can get ahead in spite of obstacles."

And that she knows from experience. Overcoming her obstacles is exactly what brings us to her second surprise that she received when we had our interview.

"Yesterday, Jorge Ramos (the renowned Univision news anchor) called me to say that my book had reached the number two spot on the Spanish-language bestsellers list in the United States …. I was speechless and didn't know what to say … this was such great news to me!"

Experiences and Revelations
However, she had her doubts while writing the book, in particular about the subjects that she was touching on. "People think that those of us who appear on television live perfect lives, but they have no idea of what we've struggled with or been through, and that it's cost us a lot to get where we are. Having a little bit of fame doesn't make us more fortunate in life. In my case, I consider myself fortunate because I had a mother like mine who, when I was a little girl, made a lot of sacrifices to provide me with a good education. She walked from her job-sometimes in the rain-to pick me up from school. She almost worked herself to death in a hair salon to be able to pay for my private school because she wanted me to have the best education possible."

As her eyes fill with tears, she takes a deep breath and continues. "That's the reason that I was worried so much about not making her feel bad regarding some of the revelations in my book, some of which are very private parts of our lives: for example, when I talk about my father, about sex, about my divorces … but she understood that it was better to be able to talk about all those things."

She spoke out, says Blondet, in order to help others who, like herself, may have been through difficult experiences. One of the hardest, she indicated, was having to resort to divorce.

"I had never before felt like a failure, but when I divorced, I felt as if I had done something wrong," she explains. "Because we live in a sexist society, I was very worried about what people would think. Would they think that I was a woman without morals? But the fact that I've been married two more times [demonstrates] that, yes, I do have values: I believe in marriage."

Although it's hard to believe when noticing her spectacular figure, this untiring Puerto Rican TV star has three children. One of them (her eldest daughter) is already going to college. "It was a real blessing to have her so young," she says. "Later came Andrea, who's now 13, and Harold Emmanuel, who's the youngest. All three make my life marvelous. A few weeks ago I told Harold, 'You'll be my date this weekend,' and we took off for Disney, just the two of us. It was very special."

Waking up America
Blondet arrived in Miami about seven years ago to form part of the "Despierta América" team. Her resumé included a successful career as an actress, with some 20 soap operas and six plays to her credit. She says she didn't hesitate for a moment in facing the challenge of starting over in a new city that's very different from her native New York and betting it all on a new stage of her life.

"I never even let the possibility of failure enter my mind since I've always thought that you really learn from life when you give it your all: you learn just as much from your failures as your successes. We've been through several years of learning and have gone through many experiences, more positive than negative, thank God."

Among the negative experiences she lists "the sad news, such as when I have to talk about the war," while the positive includes "the excellent relationship that I have with all my coworkers, who are like a second family to me."

And the challenges keep on coming. Starting in November, Blondet will have her very own program: "Historias para contar" (Tales to Tell).

"It's a type of talk show, but one with a more modern twist," she explains. "It will begin with the dramatization of a real story, and in the second part, we'll introduce the real protagonists in each case. We'll also have specialists giving their opinions and a live audience. Don Francisco (the popular host of "Sábado Gigante") came up with the concept for this program, and he's been leading me by the hand [with this project] in a very special way."

Since "Historias para contar" will be broadcast during evening primetime, some people wonder whether it will compete with "El Show de Cristina," to which Blondet responds: "I don't think so. When I think about Cristina, I don't think of competing but rather of what I've learned and continue learning from her. She has motivated me a lot. When I gave her a copy of my book, I wrote in the dedication: 'You've been a great motivation to me.' She is a woman who's really gotten ahead-a woman who's demonstrated you can succeed in spite of all the obstacles."

And Blondet is also an excellent example of overcoming obstacles. Between the studio sets and her obligations as a mother, she also found time last year to debut on the high-fashion runways when designer Stella Nolasco presented her fall collection. More recently, Blondet also debuted as a businesswoman when she opened a boutique for her mother. Now she's about to have her own reading club (like Oprah Winfrey's) and is working on her next book.

Although her book is titled Con los pies en la tierra (With my feet planted firmly on the ground), this versatile woman will only be found amidst the stars: without a doubt, Giselle Blondet has become one of the brightest names in the Hispanic artistic firmament.

exploretaca.com - @2004-2010 HCP/Aboard Publishing
Book your trip online now at www.taca.com or click here to locate an office around the world.