Although she remains a familiar face, Eva Mendes has not been in front of a camera for a decade. But that is only half true. Because the actress, born in Miami to Cuban parents 50 years ago, may not be making films anymore, but that does not keep her out of the public eye. In addition to having 6.5 million followers on her Instagram profile, Instagramwhere she is very active and frequently answers her followers, talks about her daily life or uploads videos of former movie stars—, she has her duties as a mother, on which she is focused: her center is her daughters Esmeralda, 10 years old and Amada, eight (fruit of her long relationship with the actor Ryan Gosling). She is also immersed in different facets of the business world: she is a partner in a well-known brand of dishwashing sponges that have become an unexpected viral success; she is the image of different brands —she has just become the protagonist of Stella McCartney’s winter campaign—; for seven years she was a designer for a fashion firm, New York & Company, and now, she has launched herself into the publishing world as the author of a book.

The interpreter debuts in this new facet of her life with Desi, Mommy and the Endless Worries (Feiwel&Friends Publishing), a story released on Tuesday, September 17 about little Desi, whose brain betrays her at bedtime, painting non-existent monsters that are difficult to get rid of. Her mother will be the one to help her deal with and understand that she is not her thoughts. Written and published in both Spanish and English and with illustrations by Abbey Bryant, it is one of the most exciting projects for the actress, who admits to feeling happy. “Yes, I am, and I am very proud of this book,” she says in an interview with EL PAÍS on the same day of the launch. “I feel very excited about this. It is not like a job… I don’t know, it is something so personal and so intimate that I feel very proud.”

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Why did you decide to launch yourself as a children’s book writer? “I love what are called picture books [libros ilustrados]“That’s what I read with my girls. The youngest is eight years old and the oldest just turned 10 a few days ago, but they still love it when I read to them, you know, when they go to sleep, at night,” Mendes reveals in Spanish, with her Miami Cuban accent mixed in with a few words of English. “I like that connection. They calm down a little and then we talk, because in my family we talk about everything, and with my girls I talk about everything, everything, everything…”

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes in a scene from the drama ‘Crossroads’, where they met.Focus Features

It’s not often you hear Mendes talk about her family life. Thirteen years ago, the actress met Ryan Gosling while filming the movie Crossroad (The Place Beyond The Pinesin English), which both starred alongside Bradley Cooper and Ray Liotta. At the time they played a couple, a waitress and a bank robber, who had just had a baby. The love story went beyond the screen and since then they have remained together, although with very few public appearances; in fact, only one on the red carpet at the Toronto festival in 2012 to present said film. In 2014 Gosling wrote and directed Lost Riverwhich she also starred in, again alongside Mendes, in what was her last film work. In September of that year they had their first daughter, and in April 2016, their second. Since then, apart from a few moments captured by the paparazzi, they have not been seen together again, although from time to time they give each other a nod in their speeches or on their social networks.

Mendes stresses that her daughters are also very jealous of their private lives. Her book revolves around fear as something created by the brain. The mother in the book explains to Desi, the protagonist, that we are not our brains, she gives her tools to understand and confront them. The idea comes precisely from her eldest daughter. “The thing was that my daughter, Esperanza, told me when she was five years old, that she had a name for her brain. And the dad and I, Ryan and I, it was like… What!?”, explains the interpreter with her eternal smile. “I don’t want to say the name [que la niña le había puesto a su cerebro] Because she is very private, she doesn’t like anything, Oh my God! She is very conservative”, he laughs in his spanglish usual. “I told him: ‘I promise you that I will not say the name. But please, I have to tell this because this you know‘That started it all, I didn’t know it at the time, five years ago. But that did something to me, because when she had a little problem or something, some worries, I would talk to her and say: ‘Look, Esmeralda, that’s not you, that’s your brain, those messages have nothing to do with you’. And that’s where it started, she started it.”

Eva Mendes arrives at the ‘Good Morning America’ show in New York, on September 17, 2024.Gotham (GC Images)

Mendes is thrilled to be promoting her book, and insists she has never stopped working. On Tuesday she strolled around the television studios of Good Morning America and presented his work in a New York bookstore, but he assures that it is not a comeback. “Because I have worked all the time, I did not stop working, I only stopped working on the films,” he reflects. “You know, I have a sponge to wash the dishes,” he laughs, “and I really do not like it.” [hacer] “Advertising is the strangest thing because you either like it or you don’t,” she smiles, making it clear that it’s easier to promote a story inspired by your children than a dishcloth. Will she write more books? “I don’t know, because today is the first day, I’m still excited, I don’t know what’s going to happen, or if people will like this one, but I hope so.”

40 films

After spending more than half of her life in Hollywood and appearing in around 40 films, Mendes has seen how the landscape has changed. Along with Salma Hayek and Eva Longoria, she was one of the first Latinas of her generation to make a strong statement and ask for changes, a different business model that would allow them to develop without being pigeonholed. She is clear that the industry has changed a lot and for the better since the late nineties: “When I started, I was 24 years old, and there was almost nothing if you weren’t a professional.” [papeles] for a drug addict or a cleaning lady. The roles of Latina women… My God, horrible.”

“I love it because I I swaddled [trabajé] a lot for some roles that were not for Latinas, because I thought: ‘If I want to change this a little, on my part little oneI have to dawn’. I was always like, ‘I want to meet that director, that director, you knowI want this.’ But no, ‘it’s not for Latinas, they don’t want a Latina,’ they told me. And sometimes they gave me the job and other times they didn’t, but I tried and tried,” she admits. She also explains the moment when she decided that such an effort was over: “When I had a family I didn’t want to dawn more. I still had ambition, but the ambition was at home. But I always work, I love to work.”

As a woman and as a Latina — a community that represents one in five people in the United States and around 36 million voters — and with barely a month and a half left until the elections that will decide whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump occupies the White House, it is inevitable to ask if she believes that the vote of women, and especially of Latinas, is important in view of the elections of November 5. “I believe that the vote of everyone is important, of all. Of course“He answers, without losing his smile, but firm.