Mercedes Hesselroth
speaker
73 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 14 Jul
Mercedes Hesselroth’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
My Tata had a reputation as a jokester.
When I think of him, the first thing I remember is the twinkle in his eye.
He regularly pulled pranks at his office and had a gregarious personality that couldn't be more different than mine.
When he was growing up, the people in Cusco called him the boy who laughs, whereas I was chronically shy as a child, quiet, reserved.
When I was seven years old, my mother gifted me a bookmark with 10 ways to develop self-esteem because...
I had never developed the confidence that I sensed in my peers.
I treated myself unkindly and didn't believe that I held any inherent value, so I chased gold stars and titles and achievements in order to search for external validation.
but I never had to do anything to prove my value to my tata.
He would lift me in the air and tell me I could be president of the United States if I wanted to.
In 2019, my abuela, who we call la mama, unexpectedly passed away and my whole family was all hands on deck in Peru to be with her when she died and to manage logistics and to take care of my tata.
They had been together for 72 years and his whole world changed overnight.
He didn't want to come back with us to the US.
He was very patriotic and wanted to stay in Peru.
He would rather be in charge of his own household than feel like a burden in somebody else's.
We, of course, told him that loving him was not a burden, but he didn't believe us.
After lots of disagreement, he reluctantly agreed to come back with us to America and stay with my aunt and uncle, even though he didn't speak English and didn't know anybody in the country except for our family.
If their places had been reversed, my mom says that La Mama would have had her bags packed before we could even ask her.
I remember her as independent and courageous, always going on adventures.
In many ways, she was also the opposite of me.
To this day, I wonder how I can come from people so strong and feel so small.
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