Liliana Espejel: Who Are You When the Life That Defined You Changes?

Midwest Mujeres

Oct 9

4 min read

Meet 2026 Voices and Dreams Academy participant Liliana Espejel

2026 VOICES AND DREAMS ACADEMY PARTICIPANT SPOTLIGHT

“Sometimes you find your voice while your hands are still shaking.”

For years, Liliana Espejel knew how to answer the question, “Who are you?”

She was a robotics engineer. A commercial leader. A woman who had built a successful career in Mexico, including work with academic programs connected to NASA and Space Camp.

She knew how to work hard, achieve, solve problems, and keep moving forward.

Then life changed.

A marriage ended. The career she loved disappeared. What was supposed to be a six-month stay in the United States unexpectedly became the beginning of an entirely different life.

What Liliana did not anticipate was that losing the life she knew would also make her question the identity she had built within it.

Join Me for Voices & Dreams and witness my story!

When achievement is no longer enough

Like many high-performing people, Liliana initially tried to rebuild herself using the same tools that had helped her succeed professionally. She worked harder, adapted faster, stayed productive, and tried to figure everything out.

But some transitions cannot be solved by becoming more productive.

Immigration placed Liliana in roles and circumstances very different from the professional life she had known in Mexico. Her titles disappeared. Her familiar environment was gone. Even expressing herself in English could sometimes make her feel like a 'different" version of the woman she knew herself to be.

Underneath those external changes, a much more personal reconstruction was taking place.

Who are you when the career, relationship, language, and life that once defined you suddenly change?

That question became central to Liliana’s journey.

Finding a different kind of success

Over time, Liliana began exploring identity, emotional awareness, personal beliefs, relationships, and the ways our experiences shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us.

The questions she asked in her own life slowly became the foundation of the work she develops today.

Now an Identity and Emotional Clarity Specialist, storyteller, and advocate for conscious reinvention, Liliana works with people navigating major life transitions. They may appear capable, successful, and functional on the outside while privately feeling lost, disconnected, or uncertain about who they are becoming.

Her work begins with a different understanding of growth.

Growth is not always about becoming a “better version” of yourself.

Sometimes it begins by recognizing the person you learned to become to belong, succeed, protect yourself, or survive—and consciously deciding what you want to carry into your next chapter.

For Liliana, reinvention is not about rejecting the woman she once was. Her analytical mind, leadership experience, curiosity, and determination remain part of her. They simply no longer have to be the only measures of who she is or what makes her life meaningful.

Finding her voice—literally

At 40, Liliana discovered another unexpected part of herself: theater.

Stepping onto a stage gave her a new way to explore identity, presence, creativity, expression, and voice. It invited her to move beyond solving problems intellectually and experience what it meant to inhabit a story with her whole self.

That makes participating in the 2026 Voices and Dreams Academy especially meaningful.

For Liliana, finding your voice doesn't necessarily mean you feel ready to use it right away.

Sometimes you find your voice while your hands are still shaking.

Sometimes you begin to understand who you are while your life is still changing.

Sometimes courage looks like speaking before you feel completely certain of what you want to say.

Through storytelling, Liliana is learning to bring together parts of herself that once appeared separate: the engineer and the artist, the analytical thinker and the emotional guide, the accomplished professional and the woman willing to begin again.

Redefining the American Dream

Liliana’s journey offers another way of considering the American Dream.

People often describe the American Dream through visible accomplishments: a career, a home, financial stability, or professional recognition.

Those achievements matter, but they don't tell the whole story.

For someone rebuilding her life in a new country, the American Dream can also mean reclaiming her identity, finding the courage to express herself in another language, and creating a definition of success that feels honest.

It can mean discovering who you are when the life you believed defined you no longer does.

Liliana is not coming to the Voices and Dreams stage as a woman who has everything figured out.

She comes as a woman who has learned that losing the answer to “Who am I?” can begin a much more honest conversation.

Her journey reminds us that reinvention does not erase who we have been. It gives us an opportunity to decide—consciously and courageously—who we are becoming.

Hear Liliana’s story

Liliana will share more of her journey at Voices & Dreams Live | Voces y Sueños en Vivo on Sunday, November 1, 2026, at the Goodman Community Center in Madison.

The Community Altar begins at 3:00 p.m., followed by dinner and the live storytelling program at 5:00 p.m.

Come witness stories of identity, courage, new beginnings, and the American Dream through the eyes of women from the Americas.

About Liliana Espejel

Liliana Espejel is an Identity and Emotional Clarity Specialist, storyteller, and advocate for conscious reinvention. Originally from Mexico, she began her professional career as a robotics engineer and commercial leader, including work with NASA-connected academic programs and Space Camp. After rebuilding her life in the United States, Liliana began exploring emotional awareness, identity, and the beliefs that influence how people experience themselves and their relationships. At 40, she also discovered theater as a new form of expression. She participates in the 2026 Voices and Dreams Academy.