Rise To Stardom: The Incredible & Inspiring Journey Of Hispanic Sports Journalist Alejandra Becerra

Anybody who is obsessed with sports knows what it’s like to be totally immersed in a game when their favorite team is playing. Even when you’re at a bar, you are so laser-focused on the game that you can’t even hear the loud conversations that are taking place right beside you. What you’ll probably notice, however, is that one girl who’s always talking about your sports team and providing insightful commentary.

Despite the fact that sports commentary is widely perceived as a “man’s world”, women are starting to dominate the scene and prove that they can do the job just as well (if not better). When you have an expert on the TV screen who’s also soft on the eyes, fanatics will tune in and keep their eyes glued to the screen. Not only are women starting to take on more of these important roles within the English-speaking sports networks, but it’s also happening more in the Hispanic sports community as well.

This observation became most apparent to me when I discovered Hispanic sports journalist Alejandra Becerra on Instagram. This Guadalajara, Mexico native boasts an impressive profile upon first glance: Served in the military, speaks a total of 3 languages fluently (Spanish, English, Portuguese), former professional bodybuilding athlete, and an avid soccer fan. If that biography doesn’t scream out “sports anchor and reporter”, I don’t know what does.

Anyhow, I was scrolling through some of her Instagram posts and took an interest into what she was saying. Although most of her posts were in Spanish, I was able to understand the main message being delivered. What really got my attention, was her posts about overcoming obstacles and staying strong in the face of adversity.

Being a woman and a minority in America is already a hard sell as it is, so I was eager to discover how she got to her position today and learn about the struggles she went through to become successful. To my surprise, she responded and was more than happy to tell me about her story. Like most successful people in life, her journey towards success was no walk in the park.

Alejandra moved to San Antonio, Texas when she was 12 years old and dreamed of becoming a radio host. Thanks to her persistence in fulfilling her dream, she had her own radio show when she was 17 and was recognized as the youngest radio host in the Alamo CIty! She eventually went to community college, but she stopped her studies when she got married to an active-duty military member at the age of 20. After leaving San Antonio, she started working in the Air Force and was eventually stationed in Germany. While there, she got inspired to become a competitive bodybuilder, and through her relentless work ethic she eventually became a professional athlete. On top of that, her success allowed her to become a role model for health and fitness within the military community in Germany.

It was at this point that I just had to stop and ask her how she was able to accomplish all of this in such a short period of time. At this point in the interview, we hadn’t even started talking about her career as a sports anchor! For Alejandra, the big trick was seeing past all forms of negativity in her life. It was one thing to ignore the people telling her “you can’t do it” or “you’re just not good enough”, but she also had to stop telling HERSELF those very same things. Because she was able to do this at such a young age, and consistently practice the mental skill of seeing past all the negativity, it became automatic for her to stay positive and push past any obstacles she encountered in her life.

Going back to Alejandra’s story, she graduated from the University of Maryland in 2013 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcasting and Journalism, completed her military duties and returned to San Antonio to be close to her family. It was at this moment where her journey towards achieving her dream of being a sports anchor began, as she knocked on Univision’s door for an entire year without any positive answers. Her persistence eventually paid off, because in 2014 she finally got the job with Univision!

However, herdream come truequickly came crashing down in 2016 when she was laid off from Univision and left jobless. It could have been a major setback for Alejandra, but she knew that this was nothing more than yet another struggle to overcome in her journey. Fortune and good luck was on her side, as Telemundo contacted her and quickly hired her.

As I asked Alejandra more questions about her success as a sports expert on television, she emphasized the difficulty of having to prove herself as someone with credibility and knowledge in a male-dominated field. There were definitely times when her energy ran low and she felt like she didn’t have the strength to persevere, but she was determined to succeed at all costs. She told me that Hispanic sports fans are experts on sports statistics and history when it comes to their favorite sports teams, which was one of the things that allowed her to be factual and entertaining during live broadcasts. She knew that she had to do things right, no matter what, and that strong commitment played a big part in her rise to stardom.

Although Alejandra now has a dream job where she is both recognized and respected, I had the sense that she had a bigger goal in her mind. When I asked her about it, she told me all about her ambitious plans: “Once you reach a goal, you have to keep your eyes forward. My next goal is to be recognized at a national level, and even an international level, but I need to take things one step at a time. I’ve knocked on the doors of ESPN and Fox Sports without any answers so far. But I’m going to keep on knocking until they open or I knock the door down, and it’s only a matter of time.”

I continue to be amazed at how much Alejandra has accomplished at such a young age. It’s not hard to see why she’s on billboards all over San Antonio, the 7th largest city in the United States. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from talking to Alejandra, it’s that your gender and your ethnicity do not define who you are and what you are capable of achieving in life. Everybody and anybody, with a dream in their heart and a ‘never-give-up’ attitude in their mind, can achieve great things in their lives.