Galia Moss – First Latin American woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo

[Music] For me, it was never a questi

on of I'm going to cross the Atlantic

Ocean, I'm a woman, do I do it or no

t. I was curious about two things: on

e, being in the middle of an ocean al

one, and whether I could do it. So I

started training for 7 years. I train

ed everywhere. During my training, my

self-esteem would sometimes drop whe

n I saw how men did it, because there

were more men than I trained with. I

wondered if I could do it, if not. S

o what I did was read more books abou

t women who had done it and focus on

those few women who had done it. And

after 7 years, well, I crossed the At

lantic Ocean as the first Mexican and

Latin American woman to cross the oc

ean solo. It was 41 days alone, and i

t helped me a lot that it came from m

y heart to have a social cause, and I

think that also gave them a little b

it of this feminine side to the whole

project and made them want to get in

volved. So I think that the companies

that ended up helping me the first t

ime didn't So, getting on board, as I

say, it must have been a lot out of

curiosity, not knowing how a woman wo

uld do it. It was this question of, s

ince you're a woman, do I believe you

or not? That you can do it? There's

no man who's done it so far. A Mexica

n man, I went looking for foundations

and came across a very important, ve

ry transparent foundation that helped

me. And we decided that for every 8

miles I was going to sail on the ocea

n, a house would be built for a Mexic

an family. At sea, there are very dif

ficult days, much more difficult than

what one might imagine on land. And

I would count how many miles I'd cove

red, how many houses we'd built, and

how many we could build if I kept goi

ng. And that's what helped me; it was

like the daily push to keep going. A

nd so far, there have been three voya

ges, and this last one, which was aro

und Latin America, meant sponsoring a

child in school for every 8 miles. T

here were 18 children sponsored, and

for every 18 miles traveled, a school

was rebuilt. So, so far, my greatest

contribution to Mexican society is b

reaking down barriers. Yes, I think w

e still operate within many framework

s of what women do and what men do. T

he message I always give, and I think

I always will, is: Fulfill your drea

ms. And what does that mean? If you h

ave something in mind, don't leave it

in your mind. So, it's this message

of never, ever letting your dreams st

ay in your mind

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