Gaudelia Díaz Romero (born in 1964) is a Mexican former

paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

who competed mainly in category B1 distance events. She is also a singer, pianist and actress who has performed under the pseudonym Crystal since the 1980s. Among her hits are "Suavemente" and "No Me Pregunten Por Él". In the 1990s, Díaz was part of the Mexican team that traveled to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain for the

1992 Summer Paralympics )( es, Deporte Sin Límites) , nations = 82 (BCN)75 (MAD) , athletes = 3,020 (BCN)1,600 (MAD) , opened_by = Queen Sofía , opening = 3 September (BCN)15 September (MAD) , closing = 14 September (BCN)22 September (MAD) , even ...

. There she competed in the 800 meters (ended fourth), 1500m (ended fourth) and 3000m, the last one earned her a bronze medal.

Early life and musical career

Gaudelia Díaz Romero was born in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

, in 1964. Díaz was born blind in a poor family, with her brothers harassing her as she was growing up. She learned to play the piano by ear. She began practicing various sports as a child, including skating, soccer and gymnastics, but gave up the last one because of the need to see the parallel bars. Instead, a friend invited her to go running and she became interested in running. Around 1981, Díaz met , a Mexican record producer, and both composed "Suavemente", which was selected for the 1982

OTI Festival OTI Festival ( es, Festival OTI de la Canción, pt, Festival OTI da Canção), often known simply as La OTI, was an international song competition, organised annually between 1972 and 2000 by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) ...

and made it to the finals. Díaz and Andrade started dating and he became her manager. After this, their relationship became violent as Andrade constantly threatened to physically attack her. According to an interview given to Mara Patricia Castañeda, Díaz said that Andrade psychologically humiliated her when she made mistakes in her singing or piano playing, including one occasion at the

World Popular Song Festival The , also known as Yamaha Music Festival and unofficially as the "Oriental Eurovision", was an international song contest held from 1970 until 1989. It was organised by the Yamaha Music Foundation in Tokyo, Japan from 1970 until 1989. The first ed ...

in Japan where he threatened to break her arm to justify why she could not play the piano on that occasion. Their relationship lasted three years until she realized that she was not living in a normal situation. Mexican singer

Juan Gabriel Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; January 7, 1950 – August 28, 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer, songwriter and actor. Colloquially nicknamed as Juanga () and El Divo de Juárez, Juan Gabriel was known for his f ...

helped her leave Andrade after asking him for advice. Because of that, Andrade did not let her perform at the 1984 OTI Festival the song "

Tiempos Mejores ''Tiempos Mejores'' is a 45" LP (single) by Mexican pop singer Yuri Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given ...

", a song about a blind person expecting better times, which ultimately ended up being sung by

Yuri Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...

and that would win the national contest.

Sports career

Díaz participated in the 1991

Parapan American Games The Parapan American Games is an international multi-sport event for athletes with physical disabilities held every four years after every Pan American Games. The first Games were held in 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico. The 2003 Parapan American Ga ...

, held in Puerto Rico—at the time the games had no official recognition—where she won gold in the 400, 800 and 1500 meters events. The next year, she participated in the 1992 Summer Paralympics in

, at the

800 __NOTOC__ Year 800 ( DCCC) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was around this time that the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years, so ...

1500 Year 1500 (Roman numerals, MD) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The year 1500 was not a leap year in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. The year was seen as being especially important by many Christians in Europe, ...

and

3000 3000 or ''variation'', may refer to: * 3000 (number), the number three thousand * A.D. 3000, the last year of the 30th century and the 3rd millennium CE * 3000 BCE, a year in the 3rd millennium BC * 3000s AD, a decade, century, millennium in the 4 ...

meters events. She ended third in the last one and fourth in the others, earning her a bronze medal. She left her career in athletics due to a lack of support.

Post-Paralympics and personal life

After her return from Barcelona,

Emilio Azcárraga Milmo Emilio Azcárraga Milmo or Emilio Azcárraga Jr. (September 6, 1930 in San Antonio, Texas - April 16, 1997 outside Miami, Florida) was a Mexican-American businessman and the son of Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta and Laura Milmo Hickman. He was educa ...

, then-CEO of

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

, asked her to join the company. She acted in the

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

Lazos de Amor ''Lazos de amor'' (English title: ''Τies of love'') is a Mexican telenovela produced by Carla Estrada for Televisa in 1995. It stars Lucero (entertainer), Lucero and Luis José Santander. Plot The series centers around María Guadalupe, María ...

''. At some point, she met Miguel Ángel Huerta, whom she married. Both were in charge of the Sports Federation for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Huerta is also visually impaired but to a lesser degree), and Huerta was director of the Mexican Paralympic Committee. As of 2021, Díaz has stated that she is single and living in Acapulco, where she aids visually impaired children with musical education.

Discography

Adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

and

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. * ''Suavemente'' (1982) * ''Eso No Se Hace'' (1983) * ''Acaríciame el Alma'' (1985) * ''Noche Mágica'' (1986) * ''Mis Secretos'' (2001) * ''Las Canciones de Mi Vida'' (2002) * ''Sentimientos de México'' (2003) * ''Homenaje a Juan Gabriel'' (2008) * ''De una Vez por Todas'' (2011)

Filmography

*''

'' – Soledad Jiménez *''

Desde Gayola ''Desde Gayola'' (en english "From Armchairs") was a Mexican late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Horacio Villalobos. The show premiered on the music video network Telehit in February 2002 as a sketch into the var ...

'' – Mirosnada

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Gaudelia 1964 births Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Blind actors Blind musicians Living people Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Mexican actresses Mexican female middle-distance runners Mexican women pianists Mexican women singers Paralympic athletes for Mexico Paralympic bronze medalists for Mexico Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic middle-distance runners Sportspeople from Acapulco Visually impaired middle-distance runners