So happy to share another specially curated batch of episodes featuring some of the inspiring women we've had on the show.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to Latina to Latina. On this podcast, I talk with Latinos about how they got to be so amazing.

How do you introduce a legend? For more than 30 years, Marielena Salinas was one of the most recognizable faces of Univision.

She came into our homes via the nightly newscast and brought us reports from around the country and around the world.

Not only did her work inform and empower Latinos, it inspired an entire generation of Latinos like me to become

journalists. Then last year, Marilena announced that she was leaving the network to pursue new

opportunities. On one of the rare days when we were both in Miami, we sat down to talk about

the sacrifices she made along the way, how she knew when to leave, and what it has taken to reinvent herself.

Thanks for doing this. How exciting to do it in Miami.

I know.

I've been watching you on Instagram, and it's what I like to call the emancipation of Maria Elena Salinas.

It's like you have a different life than you did a few months ago,

and I wonder what that feels like to you. It's nice. It is a different life. There's a lot of

good parts to it, and there's some awkward parts to it. I say awkward, because especially in the

beginning, I told myself, you're on vacation. But when January came along, every day around noon, I would look at

my watch and think, it's time for me to get ready to go to work. Oh, no, I don't have to go to

work. But there is a sense of freedom where I'm happy and proud of the decision that I made.

I own my own time. I can basically do what I want. And I try to do all the things that I was never able to do. Like what? Yeah. Well, the frivolous things that I always said is, what did I want to do? I want to go to a happy hour. It's been nine months and I've been to one happy hour. That was scheduled by someone else. But, you know, I spend more time with my

daughters. I'm taking care of myself a little bit more than I used to. I'm traveling not only for

work, but also for pleasure. And I am going around the country doing a lot of these speeches that I used to be invited to, and I couldn't because the company that I worked for didn't allow me to.

And I feel a lot freer when I speak. Whatever I say, I feel like I'm saying it for me and from me and not on behalf of a company.

When did you know it was time to leave? Wow. me and not on behalf of a company.

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