Photos of Adriana Macias that show her at work make her accomplishments seem natural, even though most of her skills—writing, public speaking, painting and playing the cello—required an unusual level of determination, considering she is a woman born without arms.
But in her fourth book, the English version of which will debut in this year’s Feria Internacional del Libro (FIL), she focuses less on inspiring accomplishment, and more on the spiritual and mental forces she had to summon as a woman, wife, mother and divorcee during dark times.
Of course, her disability formed an integral part of what she describes as her new path, starting around 2019, to transcend her former world. Yet this “beginning from zero,” as she puts it, has a great deal of relevance for people without disabilities. Macias’s work as an inspirational speaker had always appealed to businesspeople, many of them men, as well as other types of professionals and students, often women. The disabled also find her inspiring too, yet her determination to achieve despite a significant disability is a big part of what inspires the non-disabled.
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