Valeria Vegas (Valencia, 1985) rose to fame with the Veneno series. She was the author of Cristina Ortiz's memoirs, ¡Digo! Neither whore nor saint, on which the Javis were based for television fiction.
Seven years after that sales success, the journalist and writer launched her first novel, The Best Supporting Actress (Today's Topics). “I had the story in my head as a result of a brief news that in the last years of Gracita Morales, which had been difficult for her. I read then that Aisge had given her an assistant to help her. That enlightened me and it fascinated me to investigate the bond that these two characters could have”, says the author, who declares herself a fan of the work of Terenci Moix, Maruja Torres, Espido Freire, Jackie Collins and well-written biographies.
Valeria is 37 years old and although she neither wanted nor looked for it, she has become a trans reference who fights for normality. In 2021 she was included in the Forbes list of influential people for her work as a defender of the rights of the LGTBI collective. She is currently a talk show host on the Y ahora Sonsoles program on Antena 3, and on Sundays she is on Ser with Macarena Berlín. She has also directed the documentary series about Nadiuska that will premiere soon on Atresplayer.
“I have not applied to be a trans reference but you cannot avoid it either. It weighs on me because behind it there is a responsibility that I do not want to assume. I have a lot of references, and I see myself on the other side and I look weird. But she knows that if her example can help others, she is there for whatever it takes.
He says that his referents have been very varied, "and I have never classified them as trans or cis." From Pamela Anderson, Sara Montiel, Alaska, Elvira, who is an American presenter of horror shows, Nadiuska, Susana Estrada, in short, "women who were a bit out of the norm." With these referents, Valeria built herself "a bit like Frankenstein."
He remembers that during his childhood he learned to speak without gender. "Instead of saying that she was tired or tired, she would say 'how tired I am'. I knew how to live without gender. I knew to be a fictional thing. But I never hid, ”she recalls. She was about 7 years old when in the school yard they already told her that she did "things for girls". “I already felt that identity and the world also reaffirmed it to me. In my head I already thought that I would love to be a woman, but I did not think that the word transsexuality existed, I did not know that this was possible, for me it was like science fiction”.
But in 1995, when I was 10 years old, I was watching television with a schoolmate and Bibiana Fernández appeared. "He told me that Bibiana was trans and I remember that that night I went to bed super happy thinking that everything I was inventing about a me in another way was possible to come true."
Telling the family was another story. "I didn't want to disappoint them and it took me a long time to verbalize it, although they already imagined it." At the age of 20 his transition took place. “The day I said it at home I remember it as the first day of my life. If my family loves me, let the world explode, it was the same for me. I have always assumed that not everyone has to like me; that the important thing is my circle and that they love me”.
That is why she is clear that the only advice she can give to those who are at the point where she was is: “Let them worry about being happy. Sometimes we have happiness much closer at hand than we think, and we do not take the step out of fear. Making the decision for yourself is a great pleasure, being able to choose, being able to own your own life, that is priceless. When you break that chain, it's worth all the gold in the world."
In love she is a very traditional woman. She has been with her partner for 15 years, an architect "with whom we say 'I love you' to each other every day". She assures that when she started with him at the age of 23, it was not her intention that she last so long. “We spent the first year and went for the second, and we've been like this for almost 15. When you're well, you don't consider changing. It's like when you have a comfortable sofa, why are you going to change it?
