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She is ‘la mera mera’
Candice Avila-Garcia,
June 23, 2021Updated June 23, 2021 7:28 am
Editor’s note: This is part of a weekly series that highlights San Antonio mothers in all areas, including business, media, food, and politicians. Do you have a mother we’d like to highlight? Send Candice a message at candice.garcia@express-news.net.
In San Antonio, television networks are dominated by female news directors. Of the eight television channels in San Antonio, including Spanish-language and Spectrum TV channels, only one has a male news director.
Oh, and another cool fact, some of these women are mothers. I was curious to know how they basically “do it all,” so I asked Univision San Antonio’s News Director Moana Ramirez to give us a behind-the-scenes look at their lives.
Ramirez joined the local TV station in 2014 and is responsible for leading the station’s newsroom.
Her bright personality and fun dance moves led her to be called “La Dancing Jefa”. It started with her walking into the Latino 95.1 studio (located in the Univision San Antonio building) and just dancing. Videos of Ramirez posted on social media and that’s how La Dancing Jefa came to life.
“I was just doing it for fun, but then there were comments from friends saying that today you really lift my spirits or I’m looking forward to Fridays, then I thought what I did was actually someone’s life brightens up, ”says Ramirez.
READ MORE FROM CANDICE: San Antonio meteorologist Gabriel Torres chats about work and life outside of television
The San Antonio News Director definitely sheds light on life outside of the office as well. She speaks to MySA about how she manages life at home and at work, and the challenges motherhood can bring.
This interview has been edited for the sake of style and clarity.
MySA: Tell me about your morning routine.
MR: My morning starts with watching Primera Hora in bed from 5 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. to get my dose of early morning news. Next, I make a mental note of who needs extra coaching from my news team for the day and where I can incorporate it into my back-to-back editorial meetings for San Antonio and Austin. Morning meditation is key to a productive day. When someone in the editorial office says to me at 9 o’clock: “Slow down!” I know that I’ve had too much coffee, that’s my key.
MySA: Describe your working day – what does a typical working day look like?
MR: I’ve learned that we need leaders who are braver and more vulnerable. Resetting and remodeling newsrooms doesn’t happen overnight. Even though my calendar is busy with team and Zoom calls, most of my work revolves around spending valuable time coaching the team rather than arranging more meetings. Focusing on and working with each individual’s strengths, rather than trying to get them to change their weaknesses, I hope to achieve. What is particularly close to my heart is coaching and learning. My working day also means setting the tone for our editorial meetings, what we will report on and how we can make it a more unforgettable experience for our viewers. It’s just not a checklist of stories we broadcast during the news broadcasts, every story we produce has a purpose for viewers. We want viewers to choose Univision 41 KWEX because we take the time for our storytelling and offer the viewer the best overall experience.
MySA: When you have urgent breaking news that requires managers to be involved, how do you manage your mother’s life and work?
MR: Right from the start I taught my boys survival skills like cooking, cleaning and many of the house chores without me. You actually cook better than I could. They know that at some point I have to drop everything in order to continue breaking news mode either at home on the computer or in person at the broadcaster. When there’s a rush hour or my schedule is too full, we split up the work at home and have our rush schedule.
I run the house like an NBA team. Mama is the point guard, Christian is the power forward who comes with 6 feet and 220 with 15 years. He is the protector of the family and Sebastian is the small forward because he is the ball of energy that he is. They learned to work together and pick up the pieces that Mom sometimes can’t because of her workload or simply because I’m not ashamed to say, “I’m tired today, guys, my brain is fried!” They learned patience and cooperation and are happy Always end up on the compensation when we can spend more time with the family.
MySA: How did you manage motherhood and work during the pandemic while working from home?
MR: Communication is key, and I tend to communicate with both my team at work and with my family at home. I’ve taught my boys that communication is key, and this year I’ve learned a great tool: “By protecting my team too much, I’ll keep it from growing.” If they are allowed to make mistakes , they’ll get stronger in the long run, and the plaster on that scrapped knee will be a reminder for next time. The virtual school was often a challenge, as was virtual meetings for me. But my natural ability to learn made me want to learn how to do things better and more efficiently. I wasn’t looking for perfect grades this year, but rather an opportunity to get to know real-life situations, such as the internet went down. What should I do? The process behind this year’s problem solving was key to me as a home-based mom. These are life lessons that aren’t in textbooks.
MySA: How do you decompress at the end of the day?
MR: I’m either walking around the neighborhood with Yukki, our silver lab, or going to Sebastian’s soccer practice while listening to podcasts about Brene Brown’s leadership and recently adding Glennon Doyle’s “We Can Do Hard Things”. These help me to concentrate on my leadership and coaching both at work and at home with my two boys.
MySA: What do you love most about being a mother?
MR: Being the mother of Christian and Sebastian gives my lungs oxygen and they fill my heart with inspiration. You inspire me to be able to inspire others. My boys teach me technology and I can probably talk about Star Wars, Clone Wars, Mandalorian and the meaning behind the colors of lightsabers for about 20 minutes. I communicate with Christian, my 15 year old, on Discord and Facetime with Sebastian. Most of all, I love learning from them and seeing how they patiently teach me, reminds me that I have to do something right. There are no two parenting guides that are the same. Recently, my 9 year old Sebastian challenged me to learn how to do a backflip 180.
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