As a girl growing up in San Bernadino, California, Kathy DÃaz, says she wasn’t one of those kids who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. Instead, she says, too many subjects interested her and she had trouble focusing on just one.
After majoring in Latin American studies at UCLA, she says she “stumbled into†journalism. She spent most of her career as an editor for national publications, including Hispanic and Mexico Events and Destinations magazines. Today, now 61, DÃaz has been co-hosting a salsa radio show in Los Angeles, every Saturday since 1986, and recently, she co-authored her first cookbook called Sabores Yucatecos: A Culinary Tour of the Yucatan.
“When I was a senior in high school, I was an exchange student in Brazil for a whole year,†says DÃaz, who learned Portuguese there. “When I went to Brazil, it really opened my horizons and showed me the world.â€
She says she enjoyed Latin America so much that she cashed her return ticket and traveled by land from Brazil through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and through Central America – all the way to Tijuana, Mexico. But it was somewhere between Ecuador and Colombia where she fell madly in love.
“We were invited to a party in Bogota, and when the doors opened there was salsa,†says DÃaz, as emphatically as if it were only yesterday. “It was like somebody had slapped me in the face. I had to learn everything about it. I had to learn how to dance.â€
When she finally got back to California, the former Beatles fan went scouting for salsa clubs and music, and while doing so, she says she happened to “stumble upon†her weekly radio show gig, “Canto Tropical,†on KPFK 90.7FM. DÃaz says she was approached by the public station, because they found out she loved salsa.
“I was really scared – on top of it all, it was in Spanish – not my first language,†she says. “But sometimes you have to do things that scare you, so I said, ‘Yes.’â€
There was a point where she was doing three shows on a single Saturday.
“All on salsa – that’s my love, my real passion,†says DÃaz.
Second to salsa, one of her next greatest interests is food. While she was the managing editor of Hispanic magazine, DÃaz would write an annual article featuring the “top 50 Hispanic restaurants in the U.S.†For six years, she would track down restaurants, and one day she stumbled across Chichen Itza Restaurant in Los Angeles.
“It is very rare to find Yucatan cuisine, and it was really good,†says DÃaz, whose parents were born in two different regions in Mexico. “I became really good friends with the owner, and he asked me one day if I had ever written a cookbook. It reminded me of the time at the radio station – I had never written a cookbook…I had that same moment of fear.â€
As she predicted, he was asking her because he wanted her to write his traditional family recipes in book form. Like her last similar surprise solicitation, she said “yes,†again.
The first version of Sabores Yucatecos (2011) was in English, and now the Spanish one is hitting shelves this month. The second English edition will also hit shelves later this year.
“Now I help Chef Cetina give cooking demonstrations and classes,†says DÃaz. “We are working on another book now on a different topic with a doctor concerned with diabetes and obesity. He has a diet plan that addresses those issues. We are working on a cookbook with him to present real traditional Mexican food, but healthier.â€
She says if she could give advice to her younger self now, she would remind herself to not be afraid to do the unknown.
“Just say ‘yes’ sometimes,†says DÃaz. “Do not be afraid to explore.â€