For more than 20 years, TV journalist Nancy Álvarez has been delivering the most important news to the Central Florida community. Although she has been featured in the English-language media, she has always stressed the importance of not forgetting those who do not speak the language.
“First I tell you that Nancy Álvarez is Cuban, born here [in the United States], but my parents were born in Cuba. But [I am] a Cuban converted to a Puerto Rican, because I’ve been here in Central Florida for so many years that my cousins and everyone says, ‘She thinks she is Puerto Rican,'” she said laughing during an interview with El Sentinel Orlando.
She began her career at Spectrum News 13, where she worked with another prominent Latina in the Sunshine State.
“I started on channel 13 with our friend Ybeth Bruzual, who I know that you and I have a lot of affection for. She has always been for me, everything, everything — a sister, but also an example of how to do journalism in this city, and as a mother and wife,” Álvarez said. “I started with her and I was 23 years old, so do the math. If I’ve been here for 20 years, you know how old I am.”
From there she went to WKMG Channel 6 and later started her news anchor career in Fort Myers.
“I came back and I’ve been on Channel 9 for 10 years now,” she said.
She begins her workday at 4:30 a.m. along with WFTV journalists Jamie Holmes and Brian Shields.
“It’s early, but I love it because it helps me to be here [at home] when my kids come home from school,” she said.
“It’s a great family,” Álvarez said of her coworkers. Holmes, for instance, supports her through social networks, whether in her projects on the channel, even if they are in Spanish, or just a simple tweet directed at Marc Anthony, of whom Álvarez is a super fan.
In fact, it was through Holmes congratulating Álvarez that El Sentinel Orlando learned about a new segment that started on May 19, called “Breve del 9”, which are daily news briefs from WFTV in Spanish.
“Imagine, it is very exciting to know that your employer supports you and that your coworkers celebrate not only your new opportunities, but they recognize that in Central Florida there is a growing Hispanic community, and that not everyone is fluent in Spanish immediately,” she said.
Achieving this has not been so simple, but little by little “by me pushing every day, saying come on, come on, come on, come on,” she said. “We have many resources on channel 9. We have many cameramen, reporters, we collect information every minute of the day. I am very proud to be part of this team and there is no reason that we cannot serve the Hispanic community.”
Breve del 9 briefs can be found through Álvarez’s social networks on Facebook and Twitter as well as the official WFTV pages and the website WFTV.com/español.
“These are going to be three or four things you should know to start your day” she said, including local events, vaccine information, COVID-19 testing, job fairs and more.
“Central Florida continues to grow in population, especially with Hispanics. As the market-leading news, weather and information provider, WFTV is honored to provide these viewers with the valuable information they need,” said Tina Commodore, WFTV News Director. “We’re extremely fortunate and proud to have an anchor like Nancy Álvarez to lead this charge. Nancy’s background, market experience and wealth of contacts with the Hispanic community position her to serve this ever-growing segment of our viewership.”
The directors, the editor, the producer and other people who are part of making “Breve del 9? come to life “are Americans. They do not speak a word of Spanish,” Álvarez said. “I am the only one who speaks Spanish at the channel in the morning — the only one. And they have supported me and are so happy and energized with this project. Everyone is 100% in this.”
Álvarez acknowledges that this struggle to have equal conditions for people who only speak English, Spanish or other languages is one that has improved over the years, but “there is still a long way to go.”
“Especially when the pandemic started … We were covering the press conferences they were doing in the county, and everywhere else, and it was all English, English, English and at the end a little bit like that in Spanish or if someone has a question, but we have already reached a population that demands this information at the same level that it is offered in English,” she said.
She now monitors not only the resources that local organizations and the government provide, but also the press releases they send in Spanish.
“We have already reached the history of this region that there are many of us. As we know, many Venezuelans have moved to Central Florida with the situation in Venezuela. We already know the Puerto Ricans, the beautiful community that there is here of Puerto Ricans — also many Cubans from South Florida who are coming here. The community is growing,” she said.
Álvarez stressed that, like her station’s effort to provide information in Spanish has risen in times of crisis, like when the Pulse massacre happened in 2016, affecting many in the Spanish-speaking community.
Álvarez remembers how “a few minutes after Pulse, I was on the air on my television station speaking in English asking for translators, people who can go to translate. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was trying to assist all these families who came because it was Noche Latina. It is one of the biggest things that has happened here in Central Florida and it was an event that greatly affected the Latino community. We are here and everyone has to realize it.”
She also notes the growing community has a significant economic impact on the area.
“We are here to invest, to contribute to our community and they have to respect us,” she said.
With her two children, Benjamin and Julia, Álvarez emphasizes that she too has a long way to go. On her social networks she posts how she teaches them words in Spanish using the rule of “while we are in the car, we speak Spanish.”
However, she said with a laugh that “that’s sad. I’m crazy for them to speak Spanish. My husband is American and we speak a lot of English at home, but when my mom and dad arrive we speak only Spanish.
One of the ways she tries to teach them Spanish is through music. “I put ‘La Bamba’ on the radio. You know, the one from ‘Para bailar la Bamba,’ and my son comes in and says, ‘What is she playing now?’ and my daughter says, ‘I don’t know, some song about the Obamas.’ So I have a lot of work to do,” she said.
In the same way, she teaches her co-workers Holmes and Shields words in Spanish that range from a good morning to ordering coffee and confessed that they are both trying to learn more Spanish, something they have learned to value after years working hand-in-hand with her.
“They are so supportive of me, it’s exciting,” Álvarez said before speaking about her recent battle with cancer.
Early detection saved her life
“This has been crazy, I don’t know. I have always gone to get my mammogram when it’s my turn,” she said. “Honestly because I have covered so many stories from so many women who have been through so much — women who have had to deal with cancer, breast cancer, or any other health issue, and for insurance reasons or for health reasons have had a difficult time.”
“I went. They found something,” she said of her normal visit this past February. “I went again, they did a biopsy, and there I had breast cancer. … They gave me some options and very quickly I decided to have a double mastectomy. It was a difficult decision, but it was an easy decision.”
“If I have to tell my children in 10 years that this came back because I did not do everything I could do … how am I going to explain that to my children?” she said. “It was all for my children — the decision and I made it and here I am.”
Her decision was made at the right time and she will not need chemotherapy or radiation, but still faces more reconstruction surgery.
“I had this ending with this case because I found it early. I went when I was supposed to go and because it didn’t go to my lymph nodes and other parts of the body,” she said.
In her struggle to highlight information and resources in Spanish, she calls on all Hispanic women to put themselves first, to take care of themselves so that they can take care of others.
“This message for Latin women is so important, because I know — because I have a husband, I have two children, I have two parents who are old. My father is 93 years old and my mother is 86. And I spend my life taking care of everyone but me. Because that’s how we are. This is how we are in this culture. This is how we are as mothers. This is how we are as wives, as daughters,” Álvarez said while admitting that “I was the last one, always. This is how we Latinas are. But it is time to realize that if we do not take care of ourselves, we cannot help anyone.”
Álvarez assures that this experience has led her to want to carry the message that early detection can help overcome cancer and that there are resources even for those who do not have health insurance.
“Using Spanish to help my community is the greatest blessing I have, and being able to be an example of life and use my experience to inform and help others makes me happy,” she said.
