October 23, 2024 • 22 mins
Thalía has it all—an icon of icons with a life as dramatic as any telenovela. There’s conflict, scandalous romance, a ransom, and a fairytale wedding. From the time she was a child running around the streets of Mexico City, it was clear she was something special. A singer, dancer, and performer, she captured the hearts of an entire country. Join us for the first part of our journey into the life of the queen of telenovelas herself: Thalía.
Lilliana Vazquez and Joseph Carrillo are the hosts of Becoming An Icon with production support by Nick Milanes, Santiago Sierra, Rodrigo Crespo, Evelyn Uribe and Edgar Esteban of Sonoro Media in partnership with iHeart Radio's My Cultura Podcast network.
If you want to support the podcast, please rate and review our show.
Follow Lilliana Vazquez on Instagram and Twitter @lillianavazquez
Follow Joseph Carrillo on Instagram @josephcarrillo
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Dalia has got it all.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Decades of hits and eras that have touched multiple generations,
fashion lines, iconic music videos, and a meme worthy telenovela.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Scenes, and her story touches on so much of what
we've talked about this season. You've got child stardom, media industry,
power brokers, salacious rumors, behind the scenes, drama, and unstoppable talent.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Her story is telenovela worthy.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
There's fights, scandalous romance, a ransom, and a fairy tale wedding.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's also a perfect study in playing the fame game,
building an audience and staying connected with it no matter what.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But D'alia's story would be nothing if not for Dalia herself. Confident, impulsive,
unapologetically herself, and forever in touch with her inner child.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Her story might share much in common with other icons
from this season, but Talia herself, well, there is no
one else like her, and that was clear from day one.
I'm your host Liliana Oosquez.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And I'm Joseph Carrio and This is Becoming an Icon.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on
how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Because we are going in.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
The only way we know how, with whenas, unassas and
a lot of opinions, as we relive their greatest achievements
on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic.
(01:56):
Our story begins into that de Mexico, where on August
twenty sixth, nineteen seventy two, Ernesto sod Payas and Yolanda
Miranda Mankee welcome their fourth daughter into the world.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Little Ariadna Talia Sodi Miranda will show herself to be
hard working, mindful, keeps her pencils in a row, virgo
big straight, a student, vibes at her best. She's down
to earth, but perfectionism and high expectations can lead to
disappointment with the people around her.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
If you already know what goes down with Timrice, you
might be nod in your head.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
She's going to take care of herself, but she might
miss the big picture. Luckily, the moon in Areas will
keep her in check with a self starting, adventurous energy aka.
She won't be stuck in her head, but trust her instincts.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Unlike many of our icons from this season and some
from last. Dalia was born into a pretty well off family.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Daddy was getting that coin. Ernesto was a scientist, medical pathologist,
criminologist and right.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I guess having four jobs was maybe a good thing
back in the seventies. In any case, Thalia's mother, Yolanda,
was a dedicated homemaker for eleven years. Yolanda was busy
with three daughters, and then along came Talia.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Dalia was an accident.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yolanda says by the time her youngest daughter was born,
she and Ernesto felt like they could have been her grandparents.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Now that's some brutal honesty.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Aware from what we can tell, this didn't make for
an unhappy childhood though. Falia grew up in Santa Maria
La Ribera, a colorful and famous neighborhood in Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And she had that kind of childhood people only dream
about now. She roamed free and explored the streets on
her bike.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Falia has fond memories of eating vanilla raisin balletas and
having picnics at the Kiosko Morisco, a big, colorful pavilion
that looks like it was time warped out of medieval Spain, but.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Before our girl could even walk. She was on TV.
She was just a year old when she appeared in
a soda commercial. Some girls are just born to be
on screen.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Fun fact.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
She also grew up in one of the neighborhood's most
famous buildings, the House of Dogs, a building guarded by
twenty seven dog statues.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
God, my neighborhood growing up had a house like that,
But the dots are real now.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Once Talia was able to get around, she became a
bit of a tomboy. She played baseball and made mischief
with a slink shot it's giving.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
It now, and then the backwards baseball cap pink bubblegum.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Look, but our girl contained multitudes.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
At just four, she took ballet and piano at the
National Conservatory of Music.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait wait, this sounds too good
to be true.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Are you about to hit me with a devastating tragedy
that up ended little Talia's sense of normalcy?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Oh yeah, I knew it. Thank God, this is the
last one, Joseph. Sorry, Demi Lovado, I gotta give my
heart a break. Oh wait, should we do Demian season three?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Wait?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Do we need to get approval for that? Anyway? Back
to Taaliam.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
When the future Raina that Bop was just six years old,
her father fell ill. He would stay at the hospital
days at a time.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yolanda and her four daughters visited him constantly, but each
hospital stay he got sicker and sicker.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
One day, Yolanda said to Talia, give your dad a
kiss so he gets better.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So she did, and as they were leaving the room,
Bealia suddenly heard beeping from the machines that were hooked
up to her father. Medical staff rushed past them and
into the room. Ernesto was gone.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And poor Talia was immediately convinced that her kiss had
sealed her father's fate. After that, Delia didn't speak for days, weeks, months.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Balia still went to her lessons at the National Conservatory,
still played baseball, still explored the streets, but she didn't
utter a single word.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yolanda took Dalia to a psychologist, believing something had broken
in her daughter.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The doctor told her it was a trauma response, but
that otherwise Dalia was fine. Unsatisfied, Yolanda did what a
lot of mothers would probably do, myself included, and took
her to see several other psychologists for additional opinions, but.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
They each told her the same thing.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And so Yolanda had spent a full year wondering if
she'd ever hear her daughter's voice again. And so one day,
Yolanda and Dhalia were sitting at dinner, and Dahlia turned
to her mother and asked, Mom, where's Dad.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I've got to imagine that time literally stopped for Yolanda.
That's a gun to your head moment as a parent,
like if I say the wrong thing, what will that
do to my child?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Like?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Will she not speak for another year?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Real Yolanda was shook, but she took her breath and said, well,
your dad's in heaven with God, so he's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
You won't see him again.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
D simply said, oh, okay. She kept on eating and
that was it. She went about her life and started
talking again.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Look, I get it. Vocalist is totally valid.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Tama respond better known as selective mudism, incidences of which
are super rare. After her year of grief, Falia grew
up healthy, happy, and inspired.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Dlia's first rush of inspiration came from watching the nineteen
seventy six Olympics, where Nadiya Kominici became the first gymnast
to earn a perfect ten.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
But she also had a role model closer to home,
her older sister, Laudasabata, a working theater and film actress.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Delia stayed on her best virgal behavior so that her
mom would let her come see her big sister on
stage and on screen, and watching her big sister shine
showed her that her own dreams could be made real.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Finally, in nineteen eighty two, Balia Yolanda took a mother
daughter girls.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Trip to New York City.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Their first stop Baby, they.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Took in show after show during a Broadway season that
included Cats and a musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Balia,
at ten years old, was dazzled by the shows.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Then came a trip to Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and like
everyone who visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral, like me, Dalia took
one look at the place and thought, I'm getting married here.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And we will check back in on that wish later,
but for now, Dalia was heading back to Mexico City
with a head full of dreams and a belly full
of fire Ballia's story connects a few dots across the
(08:49):
icons we've covered this season. One of the biggest dots
being te La Visa.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Are we about to pull a curtain and reveal the
mastermind behind the entire Latin pop industry.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
It's it's not that serious.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Although actually Televisa definitely has the makings.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Of Mexican succession in a way.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
It was and remains Mexico's single largest mass media company,
and ownership of tele Visa has been passed between three
generations of one family, the Escatagas.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Damn, where do I watch that telenovela? Honestly, tele Visa.
If you owned a television set in Mexico in the eighties,
you were watching Televisa, and the actors on that telenovela
would have been trained by Televisa's own drama school, El
Centro de Educispeka.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
So let me get this straight.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's like, instead of going to theater school and then
swepping out to Hollywood t audition for a network show,
the network itself ran a drama school.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Home Grown Baby, and in the eighties Bella Visa's drama
school founded a children's division and began airing Jugemo Sacanta,
a yearly singing and dancing competition show for kids.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Mmm.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So this is where Dalio's story starts to sound a
little bit like Christina's in.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
More ways than one.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
So in nineteen eighty three, an eleven year old Talia
makes her second appearance on national TV.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
A decade after showing up in a soda commercial as
a baby.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
This time she's singing and dancing in a purple satin jumper.
The song Mina moderna de rock modern rocker Girl is
about being a little different from other girls.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Oh does she sing about going quiet for a full year?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
No, she is not the original Billie Eilish. That doesn't happen.
Baala's debut performance earns her second place, meaning she just
missed out on the grand Prize, a professional recording session
with major record label Moussart Records, and three appearances on
ci Mfreno Mingo shows.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Do you remember the show? It's the Mexican Dick Van
Dyke Show, Mexican Dick Clark.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's what I said.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Are you being cute?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Aren't I? Always?
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yes? You are, in fact always so cute.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
But sire and the Mingle, if you guys remember, is
the same show where Los Digres performed after the runaway
success of Contrabandocidalia would go on to make a number
of appearances on that show.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Bye Dick Van Dyke and Talia would have to wait,
I Hate You.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Disappointed, but not discouraged, Thalia kept working on her craft
and kept an eye out for opportunities.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Sometimes opportunities come knocking, and sometimes you got to bang
down that door yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
That's actually more my style, which brings us to nineteen
eighty five. Talia and her mother would take another trip
to the theater, this time in Mexico City, where Talia's
favorite children's pop group Bi maric Is performing in an
adaptation of Greece.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Dimniccio was like a boy band and girl band group
were coed like Spice Girls crossed with in Sync, Nediott
degrees crossed with throughout w when d meets New Genes'.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
They were basically Mexico's response to a Spanish group, Batichies,
that had captured the hearts and ears of Mexican tweens
a couple of years earlier. And I should add they
were another product of the Televisa machine. Yo, can I
get some stock in Televisa. I'm not doing a good
job invested like and.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
They did musical theater, and like any kid watching Greece
for the first time, Daliah wanted to be Sandy.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
And just as Sandy makes her transformation.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
From shy girl too thick and me, Talia's mother leans
over to her.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
And sets so help me, God, you are going to
wear that kantast other jacket or my name isn't Yolanda
Miranda Manche.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Remember listeners, not all of Joseph's quotes are direct quotes. Anyway,
Felia laughs it off, but agrees to go backstage with
her mom to meet the producer.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Of the show You knock that door down, Yolanda.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
The producer just so happens to recognize Talia from her
time on Hugemo Sakantar and offers a role in the course.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
She's in the back line, barely visible. Oh God, I
hope I get it. And then one day, just a
month later, she.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Does the female lead ends her run as Sandy, and
Dalia puts on the leather jacket.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Her mama was right, Okay, now this, Yulanda, I can
get behind, not seldomar.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And it turns out when you bang down that first door,
door after door will open for you, because months after
her run, ends in Grease, Dalia gets a dream offer
to join them Verche itself.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Dahalia's about to join the big leagues, but not everyone
is going to be happy about it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
The year is nineteen eighty six and thin Verce is
riding a high.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Dahlia is the undisputed it chrome. Her looks, her stage presence,
and her moves single handedly saved the band. Without her,
you're going to go from les dardom to major cringe.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I also want to talk about the looks from Theme Betica,
because if I had a mood board to represent this
time in my life, they're showing up a lot on
that vision board.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think that these looks can be used. Now.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
I feel like my hair looks like that right now.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Okay, I'm rocking my natural wave pattern and I look
like I am a defunct, rejected It's not true.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Former member of Theme Betche. It's so good.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
The often By the way, why did teens in the
eighties and nineties need to look like they were forty seven?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It was a thing.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Why do we want to Carl Lagerfeld, He was very
that and you know Latinos love their chanel honey.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Oh wait, it's just.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
All I just can't understand why we all wanted to
look thirty years older when we were teens.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
The hair, I'm not worth skipping this, okay.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
And besides the herself, no one was happier about this
than her manager, I mean her mamager, Dina Lohan aka Yolanya.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
After helping her daughter break down a door into an
industry neither of them knew anything about Mama your last,
stepped in to make sure her daughter had someone trustworthy
by her side.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yolanda was one of the very first female managers for
a pop artist in Mexico. To say that the field
was a man's world is an understatement ow gross. But
amid the Machismo, Balia and Yolanda were a tight knit,
dynamic duo.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
But there was one person who did not stand.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That was a Chica Dorada aka Mia Moore Paulina Rubio.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Now, for those of you that do not go deep
in the history with the Miricee, Paulina had been with
the group from the very beginning.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Fans knew her as.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
A bit of a princess, a bit spoiled, a little cocky,
and kind of a brat.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And here in Brat summer twenty twenty four, we can
say we are.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Here for it, and so were many of them Bettica's
original fans, so much so that the fandom was split.
Were you them Faulina or team Thalia.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
This is Brittany versus Christina, but with perms, high rise
jeans and velvet tops.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Where do you think the wardrobe went archives?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah, for sure, Elisa call me. And like Brittany and Christina,
things didn't start off hostel. They shared dressing rooms and
help each other get ready.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Talia had three elder sisters, so she knew how to
hang and they had each other's.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Back, but fans began to notice each girl shooting dirty
looks at the other during interviews. Rumors swirled that Ballina
threw shade on Thalia behind her back and vice versa,
but nothing could be confirmed until the infamous concert at
the Luca.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Tic takes the stage and Balina, taking a page from
Kristen Bell in Burlesque, peaks behind Dalia's back and unpugs her.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Microphone so she did not and when Talia notices that
her mic isn't working, she immediately puts two and two together,
marches George Baulina and snatches her microphone out of her hands.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Within seconds, the two girls are literally in a tug
of war match over the microphone.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
The rest of the band. Okay, sorry, I had to
go back to my normal serious self. Okay, I'm having
too much fun with this because the fact that I
don't see a video of this playing in YouTube right
now is making me so angry, Like where were the cameras.
Cameras up, cameras up, I wish. The rest of the
band freezes, unsure of what to do, and from there
it escalates quickly. Paulina accidentally hits Falia in the mouth accidentally.
(17:48):
I mean, all we have is her word, so we
are taking it. Then of course comes the permed hair pulling.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh my god, not the perms.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
And the crowd is ampt deem. Paulina and Team Talia
chant the names of their faves like it's a TNA
wrestling match, and they pre ordered those tickets.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But the rest of Mexico wouldn't need no pay per
view to keep up.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
With Ballina versus Dahlia.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
The magazines and TV gossip shows were all over this.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
A week after the infamous show at Do Luca, the
two girls sat down for an interview with actress Rodonica Castro.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
I mean it's like she made this shit up, right.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
They denied having ever fought or having held any grudges,
but the concertgoers knew exactly what they saw today.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That shit would be all over TikTok.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I mean, it would literally fill up your entire FYP
and I would be in.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
A deep pull back in there, so deep in there.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I mean, by the way, life was just easier before smartphones.
It was, it was nicer, but the chief Mosa and
me digging cameras up investigative journalists always now. It not
be long after that that Talia would ultimately walk away
from Tinice entirely. Her shift away from the band starts
(19:08):
in nineteen eighty seven, when a producer approaches her for
something similarly dramatico, a role in a telenovela.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
It's a small guest role in Bobre senor Tali Mantour,
but Jessic with Grease, Dalia's short appearance would lead to
something much bigger, a co starring role in the first
ever teen oriented telenovela, King Seneta.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Put some respect on the name.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
For those of you that don't know, King Signea was
a cultural phenomena youth. It's in that Degrassi euphoria skins
mold of teen drama. We are talking provocative, topical, and
ultimately so relatable.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It touched on teen pregnancy, substance abuse, prejudice, and discrimination.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It was it was juice uh huh, and it spoke
to a generation that had never experienced a show that
was this confrontational and reflective of the world they were
growing up in.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And the theme song was a bob and sung by
Timbiriche where Dalia was still a member.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
This teen telenovela was a sensation, and today it is
actually considered to be one of the greatest and most
influential Felen novellas ever made.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Night after Night, Talia was there on screen in the
role of Vietris, one of a pair of besties excitedly
planning their keenses.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
But the two realized that womanhood is more complicated than
just a party.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Spoiler alert, Viatrins gets pregnant.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Jim Sigea would sweep the theve Novellas Awards that year,
and Talia would win an award for Breakout Performance for
an Actress.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
All of this would have been enough to cement Dalia's
place in the hearts and minds of millions of Mexicanos
as a teen icon. But that wasn't enough for our girl.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And so in nineteen eighty eight, after kin Signena goes
off the air, Dalia approaches Emilio Ascaraga, the president of Telavisa,
and tells him.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Sata s getway, I want to be famous, world famous.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Not a direct quote. Not a direct quote.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
At that point, Thalia has more than proven her star power.
She has been the it girl in Mexico. She was
like an it girl before it girls were on TikTok
okay got it all right?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Anyway?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
She was the it girl in Mexico's leading team band
and the co star of a groundbreaking TV drama, but
still the spold.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
And yet Dalia stands her ground and says that she
wants to be like Veronica Castro, the very same actress
who interviewed her and Ballina Rubo, and.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Emilio matches Balia's bet and sends her to Ali Wood
to further study singing, theater and of course English. Dalia
leaves Binberiche and begins her solo career.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
That's next time on becoming an Icon.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
On the next Becoming an Icon, Balia makes her solo
debut with the Sanderdine moment of her own.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
Yaoa esperta la more canis mea.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael
Duda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast
Dalia has got it all.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Decades of hits and eras that have touched multiple generations,
fashion lines, iconic music videos, and a meme worthy telenovela.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Scenes, and her story touches on so much of what
we've talked about this season. You've got child stardom, media industry,
power brokers, salacious rumors, behind the scenes, drama, and unstoppable talent.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Her story is telenovela worthy.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
There's fights, scandalous romance, a ransom, and a fairy tale wedding.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's also a perfect study in playing the fame game,
building an audience and staying connected with it no matter what.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But D'alia's story would be nothing if not for Dalia herself. Confident, impulsive,
unapologetically herself, and forever in touch with her inner child.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Her story might share much in common with other icons
from this season, but Talia herself, well, there is no
one else like her, and that was clear from day one.
I'm your host Liliana Oosquez.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
And I'm Joseph Carrio and This is Becoming an Icon.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on
how today's most famous LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Because we are going in.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
The only way we know how, with whenas, unassas and
a lot of opinions, as we relive their greatest achievements
on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic.
(01:56):
Our story begins into that de Mexico, where on August
twenty sixth, nineteen seventy two, Ernesto sod Payas and Yolanda
Miranda Mankee welcome their fourth daughter into the world.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Little Ariadna Talia Sodi Miranda will show herself to be
hard working, mindful, keeps her pencils in a row, virgo
big straight, a student, vibes at her best. She's down
to earth, but perfectionism and high expectations can lead to
disappointment with the people around her.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
If you already know what goes down with Timrice, you
might be nod in your head.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Here.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
She's going to take care of herself, but she might
miss the big picture. Luckily, the moon in Areas will
keep her in check with a self starting, adventurous energy aka.
She won't be stuck in her head, but trust her instincts.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Unlike many of our icons from this season and some
from last. Dalia was born into a pretty well off family.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Daddy was getting that coin. Ernesto was a scientist, medical pathologist,
criminologist and right.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I guess having four jobs was maybe a good thing
back in the seventies. In any case, Thalia's mother, Yolanda,
was a dedicated homemaker for eleven years. Yolanda was busy
with three daughters, and then along came Talia.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Dalia was an accident.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yolanda says by the time her youngest daughter was born,
she and Ernesto felt like they could have been her grandparents.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Now that's some brutal honesty.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Aware from what we can tell, this didn't make for
an unhappy childhood though. Falia grew up in Santa Maria
La Ribera, a colorful and famous neighborhood in Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And she had that kind of childhood people only dream
about now. She roamed free and explored the streets on
her bike.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Falia has fond memories of eating vanilla raisin balletas and
having picnics at the Kiosko Morisco, a big, colorful pavilion
that looks like it was time warped out of medieval Spain, but.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Before our girl could even walk. She was on TV.
She was just a year old when she appeared in
a soda commercial. Some girls are just born to be
on screen.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Fun fact.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
She also grew up in one of the neighborhood's most
famous buildings, the House of Dogs, a building guarded by
twenty seven dog statues.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
God, my neighborhood growing up had a house like that,
But the dots are real now.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Once Talia was able to get around, she became a
bit of a tomboy. She played baseball and made mischief
with a slink shot it's giving.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
It now, and then the backwards baseball cap pink bubblegum.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Look, but our girl contained multitudes.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
At just four, she took ballet and piano at the
National Conservatory of Music.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Wait wait, wait, wait, wait wait, this sounds too good
to be true.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Are you about to hit me with a devastating tragedy
that up ended little Talia's sense of normalcy?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Oh yeah, I knew it. Thank God, this is the
last one, Joseph. Sorry, Demi Lovado, I gotta give my
heart a break. Oh wait, should we do Demian season three?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Wait?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Do we need to get approval for that? Anyway? Back
to Taaliam.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
When the future Raina that Bop was just six years old,
her father fell ill. He would stay at the hospital
days at a time.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yolanda and her four daughters visited him constantly, but each
hospital stay he got sicker and sicker.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
One day, Yolanda said to Talia, give your dad a
kiss so he gets better.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
So she did, and as they were leaving the room,
Bealia suddenly heard beeping from the machines that were hooked
up to her father. Medical staff rushed past them and
into the room. Ernesto was gone.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And poor Talia was immediately convinced that her kiss had
sealed her father's fate. After that, Delia didn't speak for days, weeks, months.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Balia still went to her lessons at the National Conservatory,
still played baseball, still explored the streets, but she didn't
utter a single word.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yolanda took Dalia to a psychologist, believing something had broken
in her daughter.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The doctor told her it was a trauma response, but
that otherwise Dalia was fine. Unsatisfied, Yolanda did what a
lot of mothers would probably do, myself included, and took
her to see several other psychologists for additional opinions, but.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
They each told her the same thing.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And so Yolanda had spent a full year wondering if
she'd ever hear her daughter's voice again. And so one day,
Yolanda and Dhalia were sitting at dinner, and Dahlia turned
to her mother and asked, Mom, where's Dad.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I've got to imagine that time literally stopped for Yolanda.
That's a gun to your head moment as a parent,
like if I say the wrong thing, what will that
do to my child?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Like?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Will she not speak for another year?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Real Yolanda was shook, but she took her breath and said, well,
your dad's in heaven with God, so he's not coming back.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
You won't see him again.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
D simply said, oh, okay. She kept on eating and
that was it. She went about her life and started
talking again.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Look, I get it. Vocalist is totally valid.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Tama respond better known as selective mudism, incidences of which
are super rare. After her year of grief, Falia grew
up healthy, happy, and inspired.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Dlia's first rush of inspiration came from watching the nineteen
seventy six Olympics, where Nadiya Kominici became the first gymnast
to earn a perfect ten.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
But she also had a role model closer to home,
her older sister, Laudasabata, a working theater and film actress.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Delia stayed on her best virgal behavior so that her
mom would let her come see her big sister on
stage and on screen, and watching her big sister shine
showed her that her own dreams could be made real.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Finally, in nineteen eighty two, Balia Yolanda took a mother
daughter girls.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Trip to New York City.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Their first stop Baby, they.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Took in show after show during a Broadway season that
included Cats and a musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Balia,
at ten years old, was dazzled by the shows.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Then came a trip to Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and like
everyone who visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral, like me, Dalia took
one look at the place and thought, I'm getting married here.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And we will check back in on that wish later,
but for now, Dalia was heading back to Mexico City
with a head full of dreams and a belly full
of fire Ballia's story connects a few dots across the
(08:49):
icons we've covered this season. One of the biggest dots
being te La Visa.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Are we about to pull a curtain and reveal the
mastermind behind the entire Latin pop industry.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
It's it's not that serious.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Although actually Televisa definitely has the makings.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Of Mexican succession in a way.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
It was and remains Mexico's single largest mass media company,
and ownership of tele Visa has been passed between three
generations of one family, the Escatagas.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Damn, where do I watch that telenovela? Honestly, tele Visa.
If you owned a television set in Mexico in the eighties,
you were watching Televisa, and the actors on that telenovela
would have been trained by Televisa's own drama school, El
Centro de Educispeka.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
So let me get this straight.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's like, instead of going to theater school and then
swepping out to Hollywood t audition for a network show,
the network itself ran a drama school.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Home Grown Baby, and in the eighties Bella Visa's drama
school founded a children's division and began airing Jugemo Sacanta,
a yearly singing and dancing competition show for kids.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Mmm.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So this is where Dalio's story starts to sound a
little bit like Christina's in.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
More ways than one.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
So in nineteen eighty three, an eleven year old Talia
makes her second appearance on national TV.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
A decade after showing up in a soda commercial as
a baby.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
This time she's singing and dancing in a purple satin jumper.
The song Mina moderna de rock modern rocker Girl is
about being a little different from other girls.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Oh does she sing about going quiet for a full year?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
No, she is not the original Billie Eilish. That doesn't happen.
Baala's debut performance earns her second place, meaning she just
missed out on the grand Prize, a professional recording session
with major record label Moussart Records, and three appearances on
ci Mfreno Mingo shows.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Do you remember the show? It's the Mexican Dick Van
Dyke Show, Mexican Dick Clark.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's what I said.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Are you being cute?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Aren't I? Always?
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yes? You are, in fact always so cute.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
But sire and the Mingle, if you guys remember, is
the same show where Los Digres performed after the runaway
success of Contrabandocidalia would go on to make a number
of appearances on that show.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Bye Dick Van Dyke and Talia would have to wait,
I Hate You.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Disappointed, but not discouraged, Thalia kept working on her craft
and kept an eye out for opportunities.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Sometimes opportunities come knocking, and sometimes you got to bang
down that door yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
That's actually more my style, which brings us to nineteen
eighty five. Talia and her mother would take another trip
to the theater, this time in Mexico City, where Talia's
favorite children's pop group Bi maric Is performing in an
adaptation of Greece.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Dimniccio was like a boy band and girl band group
were coed like Spice Girls crossed with in Sync, Nediott
degrees crossed with throughout w when d meets New Genes'.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
They were basically Mexico's response to a Spanish group, Batichies,
that had captured the hearts and ears of Mexican tweens
a couple of years earlier. And I should add they
were another product of the Televisa machine. Yo, can I
get some stock in Televisa. I'm not doing a good
job invested like and.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
They did musical theater, and like any kid watching Greece
for the first time, Daliah wanted to be Sandy.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
And just as Sandy makes her transformation.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
From shy girl too thick and me, Talia's mother leans
over to her.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
And sets so help me, God, you are going to
wear that kantast other jacket or my name isn't Yolanda
Miranda Manche.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Remember listeners, not all of Joseph's quotes are direct quotes. Anyway,
Felia laughs it off, but agrees to go backstage with
her mom to meet the producer.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Of the show You knock that door down, Yolanda.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
The producer just so happens to recognize Talia from her
time on Hugemo Sakantar and offers a role in the course.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
She's in the back line, barely visible. Oh God, I
hope I get it. And then one day, just a
month later, she.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Does the female lead ends her run as Sandy, and
Dalia puts on the leather jacket.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Her mama was right, Okay, now this, Yulanda, I can
get behind, not seldomar.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And it turns out when you bang down that first door,
door after door will open for you, because months after
her run, ends in Grease, Dalia gets a dream offer
to join them Verche itself.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Dahalia's about to join the big leagues, but not everyone
is going to be happy about it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
The year is nineteen eighty six and thin Verce is
riding a high.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Dahlia is the undisputed it chrome. Her looks, her stage presence,
and her moves single handedly saved the band. Without her,
you're going to go from les dardom to major cringe.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I also want to talk about the looks from Theme Betica,
because if I had a mood board to represent this
time in my life, they're showing up a lot on
that vision board.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think that these looks can be used. Now.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
I feel like my hair looks like that right now.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Okay, I'm rocking my natural wave pattern and I look
like I am a defunct, rejected It's not true.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Former member of Theme Betche. It's so good.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
The often By the way, why did teens in the
eighties and nineties need to look like they were forty seven?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It was a thing.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Why do we want to Carl Lagerfeld, He was very
that and you know Latinos love their chanel honey.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Oh wait, it's just.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
All I just can't understand why we all wanted to
look thirty years older when we were teens.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
The hair, I'm not worth skipping this, okay.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
And besides the herself, no one was happier about this
than her manager, I mean her mamager, Dina Lohan aka Yolanya.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
After helping her daughter break down a door into an
industry neither of them knew anything about Mama your last,
stepped in to make sure her daughter had someone trustworthy
by her side.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yolanda was one of the very first female managers for
a pop artist in Mexico. To say that the field
was a man's world is an understatement ow gross. But
amid the Machismo, Balia and Yolanda were a tight knit,
dynamic duo.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
But there was one person who did not stand.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
That was a Chica Dorada aka Mia Moore Paulina Rubio.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Now, for those of you that do not go deep
in the history with the Miricee, Paulina had been with
the group from the very beginning.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Fans knew her as.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
A bit of a princess, a bit spoiled, a little cocky,
and kind of a brat.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And here in Brat summer twenty twenty four, we can
say we are.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Here for it, and so were many of them Bettica's
original fans, so much so that the fandom was split.
Were you them Faulina or team Thalia.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
This is Brittany versus Christina, but with perms, high rise
jeans and velvet tops.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Where do you think the wardrobe went archives?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah, for sure, Elisa call me. And like Brittany and Christina,
things didn't start off hostel. They shared dressing rooms and
help each other get ready.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Talia had three elder sisters, so she knew how to
hang and they had each other's.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Back, but fans began to notice each girl shooting dirty
looks at the other during interviews. Rumors swirled that Ballina
threw shade on Thalia behind her back and vice versa,
but nothing could be confirmed until the infamous concert at
the Luca.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Tic takes the stage and Balina, taking a page from
Kristen Bell in Burlesque, peaks behind Dalia's back and unpugs her.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Microphone so she did not and when Talia notices that
her mic isn't working, she immediately puts two and two together,
marches George Baulina and snatches her microphone out of her hands.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Within seconds, the two girls are literally in a tug
of war match over the microphone.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
The rest of the band. Okay, sorry, I had to
go back to my normal serious self. Okay, I'm having
too much fun with this because the fact that I
don't see a video of this playing in YouTube right
now is making me so angry, Like where were the cameras.
Cameras up, cameras up, I wish. The rest of the
band freezes, unsure of what to do, and from there
it escalates quickly. Paulina accidentally hits Falia in the mouth accidentally.
(17:48):
I mean, all we have is her word, so we
are taking it. Then of course comes the permed hair pulling.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh my god, not the perms.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
And the crowd is ampt deem. Paulina and Team Talia
chant the names of their faves like it's a TNA
wrestling match, and they pre ordered those tickets.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
But the rest of Mexico wouldn't need no pay per
view to keep up.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
With Ballina versus Dahlia.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
The magazines and TV gossip shows were all over this.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
A week after the infamous show at Do Luca, the
two girls sat down for an interview with actress Rodonica Castro.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
I mean it's like she made this shit up, right.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
They denied having ever fought or having held any grudges,
but the concertgoers knew exactly what they saw today.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That shit would be all over TikTok.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I mean, it would literally fill up your entire FYP
and I would be in.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
A deep pull back in there, so deep in there.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I mean, by the way, life was just easier before smartphones.
It was, it was nicer, but the chief Mosa and
me digging cameras up investigative journalists always now. It not
be long after that that Talia would ultimately walk away
from Tinice entirely. Her shift away from the band starts
(19:08):
in nineteen eighty seven, when a producer approaches her for
something similarly dramatico, a role in a telenovela.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
It's a small guest role in Bobre senor Tali Mantour,
but Jessic with Grease, Dalia's short appearance would lead to
something much bigger, a co starring role in the first
ever teen oriented telenovela, King Seneta.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Put some respect on the name.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
For those of you that don't know, King Signea was
a cultural phenomena youth. It's in that Degrassi euphoria skins
mold of teen drama. We are talking provocative, topical, and
ultimately so relatable.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
It touched on teen pregnancy, substance abuse, prejudice, and discrimination.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
It was it was juice uh huh, and it spoke
to a generation that had never experienced a show that
was this confrontational and reflective of the world they were
growing up in.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And the theme song was a bob and sung by
Timbiriche where Dalia was still a member.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
This teen telenovela was a sensation, and today it is
actually considered to be one of the greatest and most
influential Felen novellas ever made.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Night after Night, Talia was there on screen in the
role of Vietris, one of a pair of besties excitedly
planning their keenses.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
But the two realized that womanhood is more complicated than
just a party.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Spoiler alert, Viatrins gets pregnant.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Jim Sigea would sweep the theve Novellas Awards that year,
and Talia would win an award for Breakout Performance for
an Actress.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
All of this would have been enough to cement Dalia's
place in the hearts and minds of millions of Mexicanos
as a teen icon. But that wasn't enough for our girl.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And so in nineteen eighty eight, after kin Signena goes
off the air, Dalia approaches Emilio Ascaraga, the president of Telavisa,
and tells him.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Sata s getway, I want to be famous, world famous.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Not a direct quote. Not a direct quote.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
At that point, Thalia has more than proven her star power.
She has been the it girl in Mexico. She was
like an it girl before it girls were on TikTok
okay got it all right?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Anyway?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
She was the it girl in Mexico's leading team band
and the co star of a groundbreaking TV drama, but
still the spold.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
And yet Dalia stands her ground and says that she
wants to be like Veronica Castro, the very same actress
who interviewed her and Ballina Rubo, and.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Emilio matches Balia's bet and sends her to Ali Wood
to further study singing, theater and of course English. Dalia
leaves Binberiche and begins her solo career.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
That's next time on becoming an Icon.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
On the next Becoming an Icon, Balia makes her solo
debut with the Sanderdine moment of her own.
Speaker 6 (22:16):
Yaoa esperta la more canis mea.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael
Duda podcast Network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast
Hosts And Creators
Lilliana Vazquez
Joseph Carrillo
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