It is no secret that since Francisca Mendez-Zampogna won ‘Nuestra Belleza Latina’ and has received all kinds of criticismmany of them offensive and cruel. The one they insist on the most, to this day, is about a grimace in her mouth, to which many question why she doesn’t fix the ‘crooked’?
on the day about mental health awareness in a segment dedicated to this in ‘Despierta América’, Francisca revealed, for the first time, the story of the ‘crooked’ mouth.
who writes this article, was in the studio of the Univision morning showand at the end of the program I interviewed her exclusively to expand on what she had just confessed on the air: what an anxiety attack had caused a momentary paralysis in his face, leaving that aftermath, or that memory of that stage of her life alone, without money and without an apparent future in New York.
THIS IS HOW FRANCISCA TELLS HER STORY:
-On Mental Health Awareness Day, you revealed in ‘Wake up America’ what led you to have what you are always questioned about: your very particular and unique way of mouthing.
Francisca Mendez-Zampogna: For mental health awareness we had a segment today, where I was able to have the opportunity to share with all my people, something that happened to me a long time ago, when I lived in New York… I did not know what had happened to me, but tI had an anxiety attack so big that I had a little paralysis on my face.
I told it here, in ‘Wake up America’, And when the producer spoke to me for that segment, I said: “I’m going to say it”. It’s not that they stop criticizing me, because it really doesn’t affect me anymore as it affected me before, but so that one also be careful sometimes with the things you say. When they sometimes mentioned, “Your mouth is crooked, and why is your mouth crooked? And why don’t you fix that?“… People don’t know what’s behind it. One should always be very careful in the things he says.
-What happened?
Francisca Mendez-Zampogna: Precisely because of the uncertainty of living in New York, of not having money, of not knowing what was going to happen to me as the years went by… All that stress had me very bad, and one morning andor I got up with my heart to everything I gave, I got scared because while you have that lack of control also in your heart, andThoughts begin: “You are going to die, you are going to have a heart attack, what is happening?”… Suddenly my face got like a cramp, and I started touching myself and hitting myself, hitting myself so that that side of my face would react and then I said, “If you don’t calm down you’re going to die”, and I started to breathe, breathe, and it passed.
I remember that I got up the other day, I looked in the mirror and saw that my face was slightly bent, I wasn’t scared and I started to massage myselfat that time I was already working as a waitress, I went to the restaurant to work and it happened to me, I forgot and I never gave it a thought.
No one in the restaurant ever said anything to me: “You’re so ugly with a crooked mouth,” or anything like that, but it seems that being on television, television makes many things evident that sometimes in person they may not be, and lPeople started criticizing, “Why don’t you fix your mouth? You have a crooked mouth”… It is a memory of anxiety, it is a memory in the difficult moments that I lived while I was in New YorkY That’s why now I wear it with prideWhen they write to me and question me, I take it lightly, because it makes me unique and different and it’s the truth. Who else on television has a crooked mouth?
-How do you discover and how do you combat anxiety?
Francisca Mendez-Zampogna: Being very aware of my thoughts and things, I began to tell myself that what is going to happen, when the time comes I worryI don’t have to start worrying from now on… It was also repeated in New York, that I fainted again, that type of episode was repeatedof events in my life that also It made me think and say: “Fran ok, you can’t go crazy with things that aren’t going to happen yet”… And I began to control my mind a little more.
It’s not that things don’t worry me, they worry me, but I think I anticipate how it will be: “This thought is going to lead me to the other, and to the other thing”… And now what I do is breathe, calm down and focus on the things I live with at the moment. One day at a time, as our friend Raúl (González) says, I live what I have to do and I wait for what the next day brings. This is how I have been calming down, because in reality I eat andor I also come from a dysfunctional family, I grew up with an alcoholic stepfather and all that, and look here I have a scar, which I had never shown.
-What is that scar on your finger?
Francisca Mendez-Zampogna: As a child I bit myself because it gives you problems like anxietythen it is to work on it little by little, to want to overcome it, cike now I have a son too, I can’t go through life stressing myself with things, because I don’t want to pass those things on to Genarothen simply anticipate the thoughts like saying: “it is not yet the world that you are imagining and that you are visualizing, when they happen you worry and find the solution”, and that is how I go little by little.
-When you see your scar, and you look in the mirror and you see your unique and unrepeatable face, what do you think? What do you feel?
Francisca Mendez- Zampogna: It is a reminder that I went through difficult times, and it is important that I never forget thatbecause that also keeps me grounded, everything that has happened to me has marked me, I say that for the better, if it had not happened to me I don’t pay attention to that, I wouldn’t have cared, maybe it would have ended in a worse way, maybe I would have had a heart attack just like it has happened to many people. What I feel is gratitude and appreciation and I say: “Well God, for everything that has happened to me, you have helped me to move forward and build this woman that I share with the world now.a woman who considers me strong, not because I’m not afraid, not because I don’t cry, not because I don’t suffer, but because I am clear that everything happens for the best”, and that has helped me a lot to always move forward.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE ON VIDEO:
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