The Passport You Already Have | Latina Leadership Podcast with Andrea Diaz

Andrea: Hola amiga. Welcome to the Latina Leadership Podcast, a podcast by Latinas for all women. Get ready, because today’s conversation is really special. Hola amigas. Is Andrea here, your host of the Latina Leadership Podcast. And last week in the Voices We Carry, we talked about the heavy, powerful stories we reclaim from our past. You know, the ones that shape our identity from the inside out. And today we’re talking about a different kind of story. Not the ones we inherit or reclaim, but the ones we are given, the stories we absorb about the world, about other people, about what is safe and what is dangerous, and the mental maps we carry without ever realizing we packed them. And this episode is about what happens when you decide to go and check that map against the actual territory. And when you go see for yourself. And we have an extraordinary story from a listener, Michelle, her journey is not just about seeing 100 countries, is about the 100 times she had to put down an old story and pick up a new, truer one. And I’m going to read her full story. And then we will talk about the most powerful skill she learned along the way, and a skill I think we all need. So here is Michelle’s story. Let me pull up my phone here. And this is in her own words. So let’s read it.

Michelle: My story began far from airports, maps or anything resembling a world traveler. Growing up in Colombia in the 90s, traveling the world felt wildly out of reach. Other people had family vacations abroad and passports full of stamps. And none of that—what I did have were books. Literature was my first love and my first passport, and nothing shaped me more than the words of Gabriel García Márquez. His stories were magical and raw. So much like Colombia itself. 100 Years of Solitude was not just a novel, it was a mirror and a map. It convinced me that anything was possible. At 18, I moved to the US, holding one audacious dream. Meet Gabo. I searched, emailed, asked around, and nothing worked. The universe was not ready to grant that wish yet. Instead, it gave me something far more powerful. In 2001, with a paper map, a room near the Zócalo and absolutely zero travel experience, I boarded a flight to Mexico City. My first solo trip, I was exhilarated, terrified and wildly unprepared. And then destiny unfolded throughout the magical, pulsating life. I wandered markets thick with spice and color. And I climbed pyramids that whispered ancient truths. I tasted food that felt like revelation. I listened to stories from strangers who became friends. Somewhere between a dusty Oaxaca pyramid and a mural in Mexico City, something clicked. This was not just a trip. This was a calling. Life had dared me to dream beyond what had been handed. And I answered. In 2004, three years after that first trip, I finally met Gabriel García Márquez. The dream that pushed me into the world became full circle. Fast forward 25 years. 100 countries, 65 of them solo. And now I see the deeper truth of this entire odyssey. Travel was not teaching me to discover the world. Travel was teaching me to unlearn it. I realized I had been carrying something heavier than my backpack. The inherited stories I had been taught about the world. Stories written by textbooks, governments, headlines and fear. And then the world shattered them. In Bosnia, where I expected tension, I found warmth. In Rwanda, healing. Where I expected only grief. In the Middle East, generosity so vast it broke every false narrative I had absorbed. In Kosovo, my name for the West Bank. I did not meet conflict. I met people, real people, with humor, hospitality, courage, joy and dignity. Border by border, conversation by conversation, the world erased the false map I had inherited. I learned to wipe the slate clean and see with my own eyes. And that is when I understood the greatest lesson of all: unlearning. Unlearning became my true passport, connection my greatest destination. Because the moment you release inherited fear, the world becomes breathtaking, expands. It softens. It opens. Travel taught me that this classroom has no walls. Because the world itself is the lesson. A journey that began with a girl who had never imagined she would travel the world became an odyssey across 100 countries. A pilgrimage towards truth, a rebellion against fear, and a love letter to humanity. Gracias, Gabo, for lighting the spark that carried me across the world and into the story I was meant to live.

Andrea: Oh my God, what an amazing story from our listener Michelle. Thank you so much for that. “Unlearning became my true passport.” That line, you know, it stopped me. We spent so much of our lives trying to learn—to acquire skills, knowledge, degrees. But the real story is about the profound power of unlearning, taking off the lenses you were given and trying to see with your own eyes. And she means it perfectly. Those inherited stories, the narratives about places and people we absorb from news headlines, from history books, from casual comments at the dinner table. And for many of us, those stories are also filtered through the immigrant experience. You know, stories of caution, of risks, of the safe path. And Michelle’s first act of unlearning was about her own possibility. A girl from Colombia in the 90s with no passport. Unlearning the idea that the world was not for her. Gabo’s books were her first counter-narrative. They told her a story where magic was real in places that looked like her home. And that cracked the door open. You do not need a plane ticket to start this process. Unlearning is an internal skill. Michelle’s journey gives us a blueprint for how it works, and we can play it right where we are. You know, first identify the inherited story. So what is a belief you hold about a type of person, a career path, way of living, or even about your own potential that feels more like a given than a choice you made? Is it that certain neighborhoods are bad, that a creative career is not stable? That you have to have everything figured out by a certain age? You know, name that. Just like Michelle named the fear-based narratives she had absorbed about entire regions of the world. Second, seek a personal counter-narrative. So Michelle’s counter-narrative started with Gabo’s books. Yours might start with a conversation. Find one piece of direct personal evidence that challenges the inherited story. And this could be talking to someone from the scary neighborhood or reading about someone who built a thriving creative business, or listening to the story of someone who found their path later in life. You’re not trying to rewrite the whole map at once. You know you’re just looking for one crack in the old story, one piece that does not fit. And third, embrace the “Tea by Tea” method. And Michelle did not learn everything in one grand gesture. She did it border by border. Tea by tea. Conversation by conversation. Unlearning is slow. It’s gentle. Work is choosing to have the coffee with the coworker you think you have nothing in common with. You know, it’s reading the article from the perspective you usually dismiss. It is trying the food, listening to music, hearing the personal story. Each small, direct experience is a stitch in a new, truer tapestry. And this is where unlearning meets leadership. You know, leadership is not about knowing all the answers. It is about having the courage to question the old answers. It is about building bridges based on real human connection, not inherited stereotypes. And by unlearning, we create more space in our minds, in our communities, in our workspaces, for complexity, for nuance, for people to exist as their full selves, not as characters in the stories we were told about them. After reading Michelle’s story, I had to ask her, what would you tell someone who feels stuck with the map they were given? Who wants to start unlearning but does not know where to begin? So let us hear her advice in her voice.

Michelle: Hello, ladies. My name is Michelle Suarez. I am from Colombia and I want to share with you a big passion of mine which is traveling. I’m a huge lover of all things travel. I have been traveling the world since 2001, and last year hit a pretty big milestone, which was landing in my 100th country. That was a pretty big milestone as a Latina and as a traveler. I want to share with you a couple things that I wish I would have known before I started traveling. The first thing is that you don’t have to be rich to travel the world. It is possible to do it yourself, to plan your own trips, and to actually travel the world on a budget. To this day, I’ve always been, for the majority of the time, a budget traveler. There’s many regions of the world where your money will stretch pretty far. Southeast Asia, Latin America, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, parts of the Middle East, South Asia—those areas you can easily travel on a budget, anywhere from like 35 to about 50 or $60 per day. And that includes everything—your food, your transportation, your sightseeing costs, everything. So that’s definitely a big tip that, you know, your money can really stretch far. And it depends on where you go to how much you spend. And budget travel doesn’t have to sacrifice the quality of your experiences or your trips. So that’s my big secret that I’ve always been a budget traveler. The number two tip I want to give you is that if you’re holding back or waiting for the perfect moment to travel, to get a promotion, to save thousands of dollars to go on that trip that you’re dreaming about, the time is going to be now. One of the best things I ever did was traveling since I was 18. Fast forward 25 years and I’m at 100 countries right now, and traveling was a huge part of my life. It transformed my life. It changed my perspective on the world, on many things. And I don’t think there’s a perfect moment. I think the perfect moment is actually right now. There are ways to travel anywhere. You just have to find ways to get clear on where you want to go, how long you want to go, what places you want to visit. I have a one-stop shop for all my travel planning, which is Lonely Planet. Their guidebooks are absolutely amazing. They are constantly updated, and they have a guidebook for every country in the world. I’ve always traveled with their guidebooks. So those are really a couple of tips I wanted to give you. And I really want to see you getting out there. I’m rooting for you. And I want to see you exploring the world and making it happen. Because we belong in those elite travel clubs and those 100 plus country clubs. We absolutely belong as Latinas. And I want to see more people out there. ¡Sí se puede! Thank you.

Andrea: Thank you, Michelle, for that message—that idea to start where your immediate world is is so powerful. You do not need a grand plan. You just need your next conversation. Your next question and your next curious choice. Michelle’s story began with a book that made her ask, what if? What if the world is more magical? What if it is for me too? Your journey of unlearning can start with a single question. What is one thing I believe that I have never really questioned? What is the origin story of that belief? And what if? What is one small, safe way I could test it? You don’t have to go to 100 countries. You can start in your own city and your own family and your own mind. The passport you need is not a physical document. It is the willingness to put down the heavy inherited map and draw a new one based on your own travels, your own conversations, your own truth. Thank you again, Michelle, for the breathtaking reminder that our greatest adventures are often the ones that happen within us, as we shed the stories that no longer fit and make room for the world as it actually is. And I’m Andrea Diaz, and may your week be hopeful and find the brave acts to unlearn this week. So looking forward to seeing you in the next one. Bye, amigas!