A decade after being treated for cancer, Wendy Solorio returned to Cerritos College for a book presentation on the book she penned titled “Mexicancer” on Monday, Oct. 12.
Solorio recounted her journey and the effects cancer had on her life.
Monica Lopez, Cerritos College librarian organized the event for Hispanic Heritage Month with the help of the committee.
She was able to request funds to give Solorio an honorarium and give away a free copy of “Mexicancer,” which details her experience as a young cancer patient.
At age 19, Solorio was diagnosed with bone cancer, which abruptly changed the way she went about her every day.
One of the changes the author described was having to changer her major.
She went from majoring in journalism to changing over to communication.
Solorio said, “It kind of sucked, because I love journalism and I got pretty far out there, my last gig was at TMZ, a lot of people don’t it consider journalism but the way they gather news is top-notch.
“I realized it was going to be too hard for me to finish or to even continue doing it, so I mean I’m still able to write, so after a while I got over it, so switching to communications ended up being the best thing for me.”
In her journey, Solorio had her leg amputated, a process she describes in her book.
Lopez expressed that she appreciated Solorio’s honesty.
“I think she’s really honest and I even told her that is what I appreciated from her. I said ‘you know if you feel the way you feel, you feel it, so you have to appreciate her honesty,” Lopez said.
Lopez had Bernice Watson, media production specialist, record the event in order to have the people who couldn’t attend watch it at a later time.
“I know a lot of times people they’re not here in the evening or they have conflicts, so they’ll be able to go back to it. There are a lot of students able-bodied or not that will appreciate her story, especially some of the things she went through, Lopez noted.
“I think people really need to hear it.”
Of her raw honesty, Solorio expressed “I’m one of those people that is tired of the way the media presents cancer they pull at people’s heart-strings to get money and it’s getting old to me.”
Solorio added, “I think it is important for people to start showing the really ugly side of it, the raw side of it, because I think you help people more that way instead of ‘no, you have to be inspirational…mmm no I don’t. I don’t want to be little ms. inspirational quote for people all of the time.’”
“With this book hopefully I can inspire people to be more real about their experiences. If it is not cancer it is other stuff,” she said.
