Elisenda Carod: "I have worked cleaning toilets"

--- Is it easy to find you having breakfast at a bar?

--- I almost always do it at home, but one of my pleasures on the weekend is going down to the bar and having them make it for you.

--- Is life better since you don't wake up early?

--- Absolutely better!

--- How many years waking up at 4 in the morning?

--- About 4 or 5, which isn't that many compared to other people, but when your alarm clock rings you think: it's me, Catalunya Informació and my car.

--- You edit and present La Tarda on Catalunya Ràdio, you collaborate on the program Està passant on TV3, you do commercials, you host events, you are interviewed. Is Elisenda Carod in fashion?

--- I think so! And I have to take advantage of the vein a bit because this profession of ours is sometimes a bit ungrateful, it rewards constancy little. When they signed me for Està Passant, I think I became fashionable and everyone saw me more associated with humor. Now I think people are discovering the professional with a long career behind me. I would like to think that it is not a fashion because that would mean that ladies are always in fashion, but in my case, it would be something like the artist who releases their second album. I want to think that I am consolidating my career.

--- Why do women have to justify it more when it happens to us?

--- Because women must justify EVERYTHING more. What happens to us, the decisions we make, the attitudes we have, especially if our reactions are similar to those that men applaud. We live in a patriarchal system. Everyone. And we must understand this especially when criticizing it. Because women also have these patriarchal attitudes. We are not blaming men. We are blaming the system. And we ourselves often find ourselves asking women for more explanations than we ask men. The first step is to be aware of this to deactivate this prejudice.

--- Is justifying ourselves a mistake or a necessity?

--- It is a necessity because the system demands it, but it is a mistake to fall into it.

--- What do you do when you don't work?

--- Damn, I only work! (laughs)

--- Do you know that this eventually takes its toll?

--- I really like my job. I am a workaholic because I have done so many jobs that I have detested so much and that involved an exercise of voluntary constancy that now, when I leave the live broadcast and I am already thinking about the next day's program, I look at the schedule and think how many things I will learn. I am very fortunate!

--- What jobs have you done that we wouldn't imagine?

--- I've cleaned toilets.

--- ¿?

--- I lived for a while in England, in northeast Wales, and I lived in a caravan. I worked in a restaurant and also cleaned the toilets. And you know what?

--- What?

--- At first you say: "damn, how disgusting!" But when you've been on your feet for twelve hours, in the end what you want is to clean toilets because you can sit on the bowl for a while. This is the most thankless job I've ever had, yes.

--- Living in a caravan sounds very hippie

--- Because I worked in a resort like the one in Dirty Dancing but for caravans, below the Upper, to understand each other. It was a tough experience but since you know they are finite experiences, they are very enriching. The problem is the people who are forced to always live in these conditions.

--- How old were you?

--- 23 years old, imagine. I had a blast! And since I learned a lot of English, I was promoted and made manager of a pub. And I've also worked at the Blanco y Negro record label selling Max Mix and I've handed out flyers at theater entrances,

--- Let's go back to where we left off. What do you do when you have some free time?

--- Few things during the week. Now I've signed up for Fitboxing 3 or 4 days.

--- So, you dedicate yourself to punching!

--- A bag. Never put a person in front of me because I would be incapable of hitting anyone. For 40 minutes I'm fighting for my survival and that makes me not think about anything else. I also walk the dog.

--- And on weekends?

--- My hobby is my friends and my family. I am absolutely social. I have a very cluster family and I need to see them. Getaways with friends, without dogs, children or husbands are like bubbles of air.

"My hobby is my friends and my family. I am absolutely social", Elisenda Carod

--- What or who led you at 14 to Radio Santa Coloma de Gramenet?

--- Well, I talked a lot at school (laughs)

--- I would never have said that...

--- Surprising, right? In the end, I've profited from never being quiet! My Spanish literature teacher always punished me because he said I was a focus of inattention. You'd put me next to the best student in the class and I'd end up making them get bad grades. And then he told me: we have to do something about this. And he asked me if I would like to do radio. And I said yes.

--- But as a teenager, did you already like radio?

---Of course! I have tapes recorded when I was 9 years old where I was already playing at hosting shows. So when the professor proposed this option, I convinced 25 classmates and we put together a pilot program. We went to sell it to all the radio stations and no one bought it except the "crazy ones" at Santa Coloma Radio 99.0 FM. And that's where it all began. I did news, shows, summers, morning shows... and I won audience awards! Which made me very excited!

--- On Instagram you have a section dedicated to sizes. On Twitter you have said ENOUGH to those who occasionally tell you that you should lose weight. Is this where we are?

--- It's very subtle. Since I've been in the first division in the world of television, I can tell you that I've been very lucky because I haven't suffered a direct attack on my physique. And to call it luck is sad. Perhaps because since I'm dedicated to humor, there are things that can be more criticized, like my discourse.

--- Why do you say that in your case it's very subtle?

--- Because it's not that they tell me "you have to lose weight" directly, but things like, "How beautiful your face is, we have to highlight it," "What if we buy you a girdle?" or things like "That when you lose weight...", as if the goal were thinness, as if being thin were synonymous with happiness and being healthy. And it's exhausting.

--- And do you think you should justify yourself?

--- I get so angry when I do it! I have a thyroid problem and I tell it as if to justify that if I've gained weight it's not because I wanted to or because I didn't give a damn (you can say it as is, she tells me) but because I'm sick. But it could be totally legitimate for me not to give a damn about gaining weight!

"Since I've been in the first division in the world of television, I can tell you that I've been very lucky because I haven't suffered a direct attack on my physique"

--- Absolutely!

--- I can give you more examples of subtlety,

--- Please

--- Phrases like "I got you an M because this brand runs large." It's okay! I wear a large size, so what? I would like to disassociate the fact that wearing a large size is a bad thing.

--- It is necessary to educate society that one can be non-normative and be successful

--- But the judgment exists. Because in the end, when I make a tweet saying ENOUGH, the supportive responses I received (and now no one should get angry with me) were like: "you are very beautiful!" or "I find you wonderful." It's not about judging positively again. I would like judgment to be avoided and no pressure to be put on others.

--- Do you feel like you've become a reference?

--- I think I have opened doors and that makes me very happy. Because my career has been seemingly calm from the outside, but I have had to fight many micro battles in all the programs I have been on.

--- Breaking stereotypes

--- Before, a woman with a size 44 was not on TV. The proof is that in the TV3 wardrobe there is nothing for me.

--- Seriously?

--- Now there are starting to be things and I celebrate that those who follow me can have clothes because I have made them buy them. If you get used to seeing people like me on TV, the next one will seem more obvious to you. You have to accustom your eyes to diversity.

--- Have you ever been rejected for a job because of your size?

--- I'm going to tell you something. I went through a very successful selection process to do a TV show and when we thought they were going to hire me, you would never guess what explanation they gave me and the worst of all, that I bought into it.

--- Which one?

--- That they weren't hiring me because they didn't want to expose me, careful paternalism!, to being called the fat girl on TV.

--- I can't believe it!

--- I'm not naming the channel because it's not necessary. They already know. And they made this comment when I was a size 40.

"My career has been seemingly calm from the outside, but I have had to fight many micro battles in all the programs I have been on"

--- All my life I've wanted to have your hair color, but I've never dared.

---Since 2009 like this.

--- Do you feel that the day you change your hair color, you will stop being Elisenda Carod?

--- I will stop being the public Elisenda Carod. It's the ace I keep up my sleeve when I want to disappear completely. Change my hair color, my glasses, and stop painting my lips red.

--- I can't imagine you angry

--- Well, I get pissed off many times, huh. But it doesn't last long. I think people don't imagine me sad. And I am many times. Being vitalistic like me doesn't mean having different pantones of emotions.

--- To haters, block them, answer them, ignore them. What to do?

--- Silence them! If they are polite and criticize something they have heard and don't like, I answer them briefly. If there is bad manners, I don't respond. I never block. What I love to do is silence because I think there's someone on the other side wearing themselves out and I'm not seeing it. Silencing gives me the pleasure of elegance.

--- Tell me about Lola

--- She's my dog, she's three years old. She's extraordinary. I know everyone says that about their dog, but I've had others and Lola is. Yesterday I started crying thinking about the day I'll have to say goodbye to her.

--- Deciding whether a dog enters the house or not has ended many marriages...

--- I couldn't be married to someone who doesn't adore animals. I adore and respect them as fellow inhabitants of the planet. It's silly to have a dog without knowing what it means to have a dog. And it doesn't depend on whether you have a small apartment or not. A dog doesn't want space. A dog wants a family, a walk, to socialize.

---Have you made good resolutions for this 2023?

--- Only one. To get up earlier.

--- What time do you get up?

--- At half past eight

--- I'm done. Cola Cao, cold or hot?

--- Cold always and with lots of lumps!