Gen X would possibly know Daisy Fuentes greatest for her breakthrough TV spot as MTV’s first Latina VJ again in 1993, concurrently internet hosting each MTV in English and MTV Internacional in Spanish. However earlier than she was a lauded tv star turned speak present host, Fuentes was a globetrotting little lady whose household moved from Cuba (the place her dad was from) to Spain (the place her mother was from) with a view to escape the Castro regime. They in the end settled in New Jersey the place she began her younger profession by getting into the world of modeling, which parlayed right into a gig because the climate particular person for Spanish-language station Telemundo—which is exactly when MTV took discover of this quickly rising star.
Thirty years and 135 IMDB credit later, Fuentes, now 56 and chiller than ever, has a brand new calling. Alongside along with her husband, pop-rock mogul and Grammy-winner Richard Marx (“Limitless Summer time Nights” would possibly come to thoughts), Fuentes has embraced veganism with the identical fierce dedication and drive that, earlier this 12 months, led Folks en Espanol to call her one of many “25 Most Highly effective Ladies.”
For Fuentes, the dedication to mirror her worldview by the use of her eating regimen isn’t solely a nod to animal and environmental safety, but in addition to her bigger-picture view of what it means to be persistently compassionate. Fuentes is, at her core, an activist, utilizing her large platform to talk for the marginalized—whether or not it’s her fellow immigrants, her BIPOC sisters and brothers who’ve been pushed to the margins for a lot too lengthy, or the billions of farmed animals exploited for a grossly unsustainable and unjust meals system.
VegNews’ Jasmin Singer sat down with Daisy Fuentes to debate her journey to veganism, her rabble-rousing methods, and the place, precisely, tequila matches in (spoiler alert: tequila at all times matches in).
Daisy Fuentes/Instagram
VegNews: We love that you simply and your husband Richard Marx went vegan collectively. Inform us a bit extra about what the last word impetus was for you two to go vegan.
Daisy Fuentes: Richard had been a vegetarian since he was in his twenties, and was pescatarian after I met him. So it was a bit simpler for him to make the change. Via social media, I grew to become extra conscious of what was actually occurring [for animals]. We lastly determined to observe just a few documentaries—and as troublesome because it was, then we watched just a few extra. I spotted I’d by no means made a connection or actually considered my meals and what it actually was. We additionally discovered about meals as drugs. It was all too apparent. We had all this new data, and we couldn’t keep the identical. I imagine with information comes duty; we determined we needed to make a change and evolve. Like most vegans, I solely want I’d executed it a lot sooner.
Daisy Fuentes/Instagram
VN: And there’s one other manner you’re channeling your compassion: style! How has your veganism impacted your style traces?
DF: My style sense has additionally advanced. I not care about carrying the “it” designer of the second or getting that must-have bag each lady desires. I’m extra conscious of what I’m shopping for and what I put my title on. My model doesn’t take a look at on animals or use leather-based or suede. I additionally don’t assume we should always have to decide on between paying our mortgage or getting that designer bag. I don’t need to be a slave to style, however I nonetheless need to look trendy and know the developments, so I can translate them to be extra inclusive, wearable, and inexpensive.
Richard Marx/Instagram
VN: You’ve been within the leisure trade for over three many years, however you’ve stated that you simply solely just lately began to essentially settle into a piece/life steadiness. What shifted?
DF: I acquired married. I’ve been busy working for many years, however discovered actual love and married later in life. I now need to get pleasure from this a part of life extra. I hate that even when I stay to be 90, I received’t get to spend sufficient time with the love of my life—whom I solely met in my forties! I’ve acquired clear priorities now. I don’t need to, or need to, do the whole lot; I need to get pleasure from life. I need to study myself, my husband, and the universe. I need to spend extra time with household and fewer time doing issues I don’t completely love.
Richard Marx/YouTube
VN: Talking of you and your husband, you began a podcast collectively—Tequila Discuss—that began in the course of the beginnings of the pandemic and ran the next two years. How did the concept come up, and what was that like?
DF: It began as one thing we did just a few occasions on Instagram Dwell, whereas we have been having a drink. We love to speak and we love tequila. Some folks thought we should always make it an everyday factor. We talked about the whole lot you’d speak about when having a drink with a pal … present affairs, popular culture, tales within the information. We vented, we acquired philosophical, mentioned the world—I cherished it.
Daisy Fuentes/Instagram
VN: Extra importantly, what’s your favourite strategy to drink tequila?
DF: I’m a purist. Añejo tequila on the rocks with a lime wedge.
Daisy Fuentes/Instagram
VN: Tequila apart, how are you training self-care today?
DF: I’ve embraced residing in a less complicated manner. So many luxuries and acquisitions have turn out to be so foolish and pointless. I meditate and spend plenty of time in nature. I stay on the seashore and that’s been my remedy. I’m grateful on daily basis that I get to roll off the bed and onto the sand with my husband and our candy canine. We hike among the most lovely trails on this planet proper in our yard—the Santa Monica mountains. However most of all, I’ve discovered that I like being house, cooking, studying, and studying. When the world offers me lemons, I get some tequila and make the perfect of it.
Daisy Fuentes/Instagram
VN: And what’s been the largest factor you’ve discovered about your self just lately?
DF: That I like being genuine. I like residing my fact, talking my fact, and never worrying about what folks consider me. I used to be busy simply working and doing what folks do whereas life was passing me by. I want I lived in accordance with my values sooner. I ought to’ve discovered my voice after I was youthful. I need to encourage younger folks to seek out their voice, their causes. To maintain an open thoughts, and to vary it as usually they should. To query the whole lot, and rise up for what’s proper.
VN: What offers you hope?
DF: Youthful generations. They know and perceive a lot greater than many adults who’re close-minded and caught of their methods. Individuals who rise up for others and towards injustice give me hope. Even when it’s all dangerous information and persons are at their worst, there are at all times some good folks serving to and making a distinction. They provide me hope.
