From the first generation of La Academia: Estrella Veloz’s journey

More than twenty years have passed since La Academia presented fourteen young people who sought to emerge from anonymity and become the next star singer from Mexico. Of this first generation, however, none has established itself as the vocal artist that the reality show on TV Azteca promised us, although we did discover privileged voices like Yahir’s, with well-known participation in musical theater; Víctor García in some soap operas and movies; Miriam Montemayor, also with a beautiful voice, often wasted in constant lawsuits with her ex-partner Toñita.

Among them also stood out a young woman from Monterrey, Nuevo León, who with her curly hair, her bandanas, guitar, and voice became one of the favorites. It was about Estrella Veloz. Although she was not one of the winners of the program, that did not prevent the public from continuing to remember and support her when she released five albums, dabbled in some soap operas, became the image of brands like Panasonic and joined Las queens, the trio made up of Érika Alcocer, winner of the second generation of La Academia, and the singer Aranza, interpreter of the main theme of the telenovela Mirada de mujer.

However, there was a time when such immediate fame, ignorance about how to manage his finances and even visualize that singing could be ephemeral, made him make hasty decisions with very bad results at first.

“Life smiles at me through La Academia, I am chosen to be part of a project that started very hard in 2002 and I began to earn money, which at that time made me a lot of money! I never imagined that I would earn that money, but (due to) a lack of financial education, also because my parents were not there, when you have Two parents are the same and they tell you ‘hey, mijita, do this, buy this’, whatever, no, I’ll waste the money,” said Estrella on the program Historias hechos canciones de Nayo Escobar.

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“I felt that money I earned it for being an artist, it would go away, that was my logic; I had to be a businesswoman, that’s what I thought. For many years I have carried investment hand in hand with my singing, but I dedicated myself to this: I sing-collect-invest-I lose; I sing-collect-invest, that’s how I spent years.”

Estrella Veloz’s inexperience led her to get involved in fraud and investment instruments that she now understands were companies that speculated with the market.

“People want to get rich overnight and the truth is that you have to follow a path and there is a process (…), if you don’t know how to handle a hundred pesos, you’re not going to know how to handle a million, and it’s what was happening to me, I didn’t understand how to manage money”.

Abandoning the dream

After her bad experiences as an “investor”, supporting “promising” entrepreneurs and businesswoman of at least five projects, motherhood also made her rethink whether the anonymity from which he wanted to leave in 2002 was still viable with his new lifestyle, that of stability.

“When I decided to stop singing it was really putting a wall in the middle: I’m not going to sing, I’m not going to any interview, I am not going to any program, very interesting invitations came to me, but I had made the decision and I respected it (…) and the main reason is that I became a mother”, by Lenna.

Little Lenna was not far from her mother, accompanied her on several of her trips and concerts, many of which, Veloz acknowledged, were not five-star shows like Alejandro Sanz, Arjona; and other types of artists that are not at that level (but) that you get to those stages, but you also go to other types of shows that are the theaters of the town, the palenques and other types of places that are later dangerous. The truth is that this environment is very dangerous, traveling at dawn, singing at night,” he added.

Although nothing serious ever happened, they did spend quite pleasant moments while he had to subject the girl to sleepless nights, the wear and tear of getting up early to take flights at five in the morning and the harassment of the press.

“I realized that and I said ‘no, I don’t want to continue like this, I want to be a mother more than 100%.'”

Her decision began to gain strength after the 2017 earthquake in Mexico City.

“I did not imagine leaving my daughter with another person for a second because I was working”, and after a viral illness at Lenna’s school, she chose to leave her artistic career.

“I was the only mother who arrived very quickly, thanks to the fact that I was always there, I said ‘I’m from here, I’m staying here, I want to be with my daughter, I want to be there ten minutes after they talk to me about school and I’m going to drop everything'”.

Whether she will step on stage again, it is something that time will decide, not only for her daughter but also for the commitment she feels to the people who work for her.

“Today I have a business and a project that requires me a lot of time and has grown a lot, I have a commitment there with the company team.”

Now, she dedicates her days to promoting financial education to prevent people from making the mistakes of their youth.