Marcela Del Sol is a best seller author who lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder. She is a feminist and an advocate for women’s and children’s rights.
Her books are “Kaleidoscope: my life’s multiple reflections” (Amazon best seller) and “Caleidoscopio” launched in Chile in Spanish in Dec 2016.
We recently got an opportunity to interview her for our magazine.
Pro Media Mag : First of all tell us about the start of your professional career?
Marcela Del Sol : It was a convergence between need and opportunity for which I am deeply grateful. I have always written, since very early in my life but it wasn’t until I crossed paths with someone who needed something I was writing back then. Later on, I had an accident that progressively triggered my DID symptoms and I was dismissed from my work. This provided the platform to immerse myself in writing, which to a great extent has saved my life.
Pro Media Mag : What is your favorite part about being an author?
Marcela Del Sol: Being able to mold an idea into a whole scenario. I write in a language that is accessible to all social sectors. I don’t aim to create pretentious writings but to communicate stories to as many people as possible. Meeting extraordinary people and somehow become a witness to their lives but most importantly, being able to exorcise my own demons and to speak about things that people prefer to ignore. I choose to write about the uncomfortable as a way to raise activism towards a better world.
Pro Media Mag : Tell us about your recently released book ‘Kaleidoscope’
Marcela Del Sol : “Kaleidoscope: my life’s multiple reflections” is a fictional novel based on my experience living with D.I.D. It is fictional but it demonstrates the processes that some people like me go through. It tells the story of a beautiful and powerful woman who has suffered extensive trauma in her life and it shows how a woman can become a whole universe; it speaks of love and pain and female sexual empowerment: It shows us how resilient women are and how mistaken us, as a society, are to avoid speaking about certain patriarchal behaviors that damage the core of a woman’s spirit.
The Spanish version (Caleidoscope) was launched in Chile in December 2016 and it is an amazing experience to observe the different cultural appreciations about the book as it contains large sexual content, which has been the most talked about aspect of the book over there, much more so than the “peculiar” mental disorder.
Pro Media Mag : What was the inspiration behind writing this book ?
Marcela Del Sol : My living with Dissociative identity Disorder as I lead a rather reclusive life. I have more or less withdrawn from the world because society obliges me to fit in their square but my shape is a changing one. Kaleidoscope was a way to ask for inclusion, to invite people to understand beyond the visible, to educate themselves. Not to continue dwelling in the ideas they have created about people living alternatively to them but regrettably the world is still enslaved to paradigms and preconceptions. I guess, in a sense, Kaleidoscope seeks to be the key to a societal closed door.
Pro Media Mag : When did you realize that you need to stand up for the women’s and children’s rights?
Marcela Del Sol : As soon as I realized I risked vulnerability just by existing. Observing the different treatment, the greater liberties my brother and other male peers enjoyed. Hearing derogative comments about women displaying behaviors and manners that were otherwise acceptable for men. I realized very early on that this world was mine too and the level of responsibility being placed upon me wasn’t balanced to the rights that I was allowed to exercise. The violence so regularly pointed at women and girls and the fear instilled upon them is a pattern that you still see ocuring quite often: The fear to stand up to men, just because we have been programmed to believe they are stronger, the leader, the head and the decision maker is something that disgusted me since I was a child. You still hear about sexual violence on the press daily, this is unacceptable!
I guess I noticed very early on how society permitted (and still does) the victimization of our gender by not appropriately addressing this issue so I decided to voice my opinion. The loudest we scream, the strongest we act, the more response governments will have to implement.
Pro Media Mag : What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Marcela Del Sol : Write. One step at the time. Flow. Lose the fear.
My son once told me “love is the strongest force” and “don’t worry about what people think of you or you’ll be always a slave to them.” He was only five years old or so and I think he had read it somewhere and he gifted me something that I always remember and is so encouraging, especially when I am going through a crisis or very bad D.I.D. “active seasons.”
Pro Media Mag : What proved to be the main factor behind development of your writing skills? Education or its all your skills and natural abilities?
Marcela Del Sol : I am not an “educated” author. I write from my heart and my gut, not in an educated manner. I have no formal literature qualifications. Therefore, I prefer to call myself a “writer”, not an author (which has a more “elevated” connotation, according to me). I write with passion; with all of me so it is a cocktail of innate talent and what makes me feel alive and an impending need to connect with others.
Pro Media Mag : What do you do in your off days or free time?
Marcela Del Sol : It is hard to tell you as living with D.I.D. means every one of your days is unpredictable. Unfortunately, I can’t commit to anything that requires to comply with schedules or routine so my “off days” as you call them, are played by ear, just like every one of my days. My time with my children is the only period where I experience some degree of regularity. But if I could organize it, my free time would be spent writing, learning and finding ways to contribute to a better, safer and fairer society.
Pro Media Mag : Have you set some goals to achieve?
Marcela Del Sol : My only goal is to be the best mother I can be to my children and not to have any set objectives at all as I don’t want to race through life with tunnel vision and overlook opportunities that may appear on the way. Living each day is a great adventure. I want to continue creating, empowering and convincing myself to keep on wanting this.
