Didi Romero lived in this 2024 one of the most important moments of her career when she made her Broadway debut as part of the cast of the musical “Six”. However, for the Puerto Rican actress and singer, this year has not only been a dream fulfilled, but also a period of personal growth, marked by the focus on her physical and mental health, which led her to prioritize her self-care.
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With the spontaneity and sincerity that characterize her, she does not make up or romanticize how hard it is to perform eight shows a week, and all the physical and emotional challenges she has had to face.
“This job that many of us dream of doing is not an easy job at all. You say eight shows a week and it sounds hard, but it’s not until you do it that it really, really squeezes you. It’s very difficult and very complicated. Taking care of yourself, being consistent with your work. I think it’s even more difficult than doing the show itself,” Romero explained to Magacín in a virtual interview from New York, where she was also part of the traditional Puerto Rican National Day Parade, as one of the Puerto Rican figures honored last June.
A hemorrhage in her vocal cords caused her to have a big scare and to stop her journey as “Katherine Howard”, one of the six wives of Henry VIII of England, who gather on stage to sing and tell their love story with his majesty, as part of the show. Responsibility, as part of her distinguishing qualities, drove her on. However, a pause was necessary to rest, for the hemorrhage was a consequence of fatigue.
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“In my case, I had an operation on my vocal cords, which in my life I would have never thought would happen to me. Thank the universe everything was fine, it was a low risk surgery, absolutely nothing happened and it didn’t hurt at all. Basically, my doctor burned the first layer of skin on my vocal cords to create new skin. I was recovering for two months, during which I couldn’t do the show,” said the director and playwright, whose talent has led her to take part in projects such as the musical ‘In the Heights’ and star in the Disney + series ‘Gina Yei’.
She learned a great lesson from that event: “Don’t let a job or a stew consume your life, and know how to be consistent and how to take care of yourself”. And the fact is that, in the face of several episodes of getting sick, she explains that she entered a stage in the ‘show’ where her body was so and so used to it, that she was unconsciously forcing herself even more.
“That was really the biggest thing I highlight from my year: taking care of myself and being more aware of my mental health and my body. Now I’m drinking vitamins, I’m stretching and vocalizing to rest the cords, I’m living more of those little things to stay well and be able to last long because, what the artist doesn’t know too is that one job is not your whole career. You have a career full of jobs and you want to last for all those jobs”, highlighted the 25 year old artist, whose given name is Dieudonné Acevedo Romero, who was one of the celebrities who this year was part of the social initiative ‘Somos Más’, in which she invited to register to participate in the past elections.
Prior to this year on Broadway, Romero spent 65 weeks touring the United States in “Six”. Now, without overstepping her bounds or over-demanding herself, she reflects on what has been “a year of a lot of growth,” and also understanding that she needed to get to know herself better.
“I didn’t think I was going to give myself so much love. I don’t think I’ve ever given myself as much love as I do now. Not only to take care of myself, but also to say, ‘Look, I’m here. I’m here because I worked for it, because I did it, because I dreamed it, and because I sweated it out. I put a lot of pressure in my head that I have to do well, and you realize that the imperfect is what makes you stand out, that’s what makes you shine,” said the multifaceted artist, who finishes her contract with ‘Six’ in February 2025 and dreams of someday doing stand up comedy, in addition to being able to act with Tim Burton in Hollywood.
“You shine on your own, don’t overexert yourself. Do what you can with what you have. Do the best you can and you will shine. Whatever makes you special is what makes you shine alone ”
As she reflects on the path she has traced in the industry and in the Anglo-Saxon market, she points out the comparison as some of the challenges she has experienced and dealing with microaggressive comments, such as when they tell her that they read in her biography that she is from Puerto Rico, but that she has no accent. She states that she has also gotten a lot of “no’s” for an answer before realizing her dream, but she does not hesitate to say that it was definitely worth it.
“In my life I would have never thought they were going to give me this job. I mean, I saw ‘Six’ on my phone, the commercials and the songs, I saw what they did and the costumes, that one had pink hair, and I said, that’s not going to be something I’m going to do, I don’t see myself there. They danced, they had microphones, I mean, they were pop stars, they were like, hey, these are some girls, these are some Beyoncé, Britney Spears, I mean, this is a luxury, I am not this”, she said before what was a long process of auditions.
Impact on the Latino community
Far from pretensions and pretensions, this young woman born in Bayamón still does not assimilate how she has managed to impact with her work, not only to her compatriots, but to people from different parts of the world, who have taken advantage of a vacation time and choose to go to New York, with the intention of going to see her on stage.
“It is very difficult for me to understand how it is possible that a family that I had never met before, from Yauco, Arecibo or wherever, would go together to the airport, to travel to New York, to go see me in ‘Six’. I don’t know how that is a possibility, but I appreciate it and I am so grateful for all those families and all those people who came to see me, people who traveled alone, not only from Puerto Rico. I met people from Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador... People who tell me, ‘Didi, I love you’, ‘I follow you from Facebook’. I mean, it doesn’t enter my head, I don’t register it and there is no feeling more -not to say the word-, more powerful than a family or a group of Puerto Ricans with a big Puerto Rican flag in the audience in that theater. My God, I can’t believe it, this is impressive, this is incredible, it fills my heart. I feel like I add a year to my life every time I see something like this,” she said with a gleam of excitement in her eyes.
Three keys to a woman’s success
- “Fear, because fear causes you to be brave, and because brave people are afraid. No person defeats a monster without fear.”
- “Not to give second chances to those who try to turn off your talent, because it is already a historical moment in which women are fed up with giving chances. We have to take care of respect and our person”.
- “Being honest with yourself and being honest with others. Personally, I’m at a stage where I have no problem giving ‘block’ or ‘unfollow’ to anyone who doesn’t add me. We don’t have to be friends with everyone.”
There are figures she admires such as Puerto Rican actors Raul Juliá and Rita Moreno, but in addition to these two great figures, she adds two people for whom she feels deep pride and admiration, her mother, singer and presenter Deddie Romero and her grandmother, the late conguera Sonia López, whose artistic blood she undoubtedly carries. Likewise, she considers herself a faithful defender of her homeland.
“I have no problem saying it, I am from the ‘new homeland’ and I feel that I will be a good spokesperson for that message and every time they give me an opportunity, as in Jimmy Fallon, I will say that I am free because I will say it,” she said while advising Puerto Rican girls and young women to study hard, train and be patient, because sometimes ‘you have to take five steps forward and then it will take 20 steps back,’ but that they will reach the goal.
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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.
