Fit Check, Food Check: Alicia Menendez on Ropa Vieja and Practical Fashion

Alicia Menendez built a career out of defying expectations. She’s an award-winning broadcast journalist who earned her stripes on PBS’s Amanpour and Company and Univision’s Fusion network. Those roles led her to MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), where she became the first Latina to anchor one of its primetime shows. This June, she’ll take over a new timeslot from 12 to 2pm EST on weekdays. In the meantime, you’ll find her on MS NOW’s The Weeknight and on Latina to Latina, the podcast she’s somehow found time to host since 2018.

A proud Cuban American, Menendez invited us to lunch at Rumba Cubana, a go-to spot in her native New Jersey. A platter of perfectly seasoned lechón, ropa vieja, and croquetas de jamón set the stage for our chat, one full of chisme and wisdom you’ll want to write down and tape to your mirror. We anchored our conversation in the true meaning of “wellness,” beyond the buzzword that crowds our social media feeds and convinces us we’re projects in need of constant improvement. 

Keep reading for more about Menendez’s taste in food and fashion, her podcast, and what self-care means to her, as a journalist who confronts current events in real time.

Fit check: How has your Cuban-American, New Jersey upbringing informed your sense of style?

For my family, having come as immigrants and being poor, there was so much awareness of the way they self-presented being a reflection of themselves, of their family, but also of a broader community they felt a responsibility for. Television is a visual medium, and you can feel ambivalent about that, as I do, but you have to acknowledge that it’s a visual medium and that the way you put yourself together is a part of the work. 

Food check: Can you give me a rundown of what we’re eating right now?

Some of my favorites: Moros, maduros, lechón, ropa vieja, croquetas. Un poco de todo. Part of the way I lured my husband to moving to New Jersey was the food. He’s from Miami. I was like, the weather’s not as good, but the food is amazing.

You know International Day at school? Growing up, the vast majority of kids I went to school with were Latino, so on International Day, we needed to search for how to diversify the food we had. Everyone wanted to bring their version of habichuelas. 

What made you want to create Latina to Latina?

It came up post-Fusion. Fusion was imagined as this cable station for an English-speaking Latino who was still very associated with their culture. What would happen at Fusion, we would get so many amazing celebrities and newsmakers, but there’s this thing that happens when you’re on camera. There’s an affectation that comes with being on camera. You’re aware of how you hold your body and what you’re saying, and suddenly, when the camera turns off, the real conversation happens. The question was: How do you start there? 

It’s hard to develop a rapport that quickly, but the thing I found when I was having these conversations with women, in a pre Latina to Latina era, there was a lot of commonality. The challenges that we ran up against felt very much specific to being Latina — not just being women in the workplace, but being Latina. I wanted to figure out how to get to that, because when I was at the beginning of my career, I wanted a roadmap. I wanted someone who had close to my lived experience whose path I could replicate, where I could put my skis and go. It came from that spot, of, tell me what to do and I’ll do it, but I don't know where to start. 

What does “wellness” mean to you?

I think building a life you love is the ultimate in self-care. If you are lucky enough to love the work you do and feel that it has purpose and value, and if you are lucky enough to have good friends or a family that you have built and created for yourself, you won’t need to constantly be escaping from your own life. The question is when self-care is the only time you feel joy or relaxation. If that’s happening, something’s not working in the bigger picture.

Community care is also self-care. One of the best moments of this year for me was, I had a desk I was giving away because I decided I should no longer be doing work in my bedroom. I sent it out to a community list and asked if anyone needed a desk. Someone said, “I actually know some immigrants who recently arrived and are furnishing their apartment.” I was like, great, I’ll drive it to them. It was the best hour I spent loading up the car, meeting someone new, welcoming them to their new home. I didn’t do it for them. I did it for me, and I experienced so much joy doing it.