Hey!
I’m Alex Zaragoza, and this is the “about me” section of my newsletter Sick Daze (more on this later). Here’s some stuff about me:
I’m a culture journalist, TV writer, and producer based in Los Angeles, but born and raised on the border in San Diego and Tijuana. Right now I’m a contributing columnist for the LA Times’ De Los, where I cover Latinx culture and identity. I’ve also written on culture, health, and politics for HuffPost, Bloomberg Opinion, Teen Vogue, NPR, and other places, and previously was a senior culture editor and writer at VICE.
In 2021, I started writing for television. I worked on Amazon’s “Primo” and NBC’s “Lopez vs. Lopez.” Currently, I’m developing and (hopefully) selling a series based on my years as a punk teen crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every day. It’s being produced by Jon M. Chu. “Crazy, Rich Asians” hive, rise up! I’m repped by 3Arts and WME so if you’re a person who is interested in helping me maintain my WGA insurance in exchange for jokes and good story ideas, call them. Please.
In February of 2025, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This led me to launch this newsletter, Sick Daze, to share my experience, talk to others, and unpack things like why Katy Perry haunts every breast cancer playlists.
Ironically, I am also a Cancer (Taurus moon, Gemini rising).
Aside from that, if you subscribe to Sick Daze you’ll learn about me than you probably ever asked for or wanted. You can also follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
Oh also I am beautiful and bald.
Get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.
What is Sick Daze
Sick Daze is a newsletter about the bitch known as cancer. After I was diagnosed, every day became a sick day. That has a way of changing your perspective on a lot of things. The world suddenly changes around you. People start calling you “brave,” “inspirational,” “tough chica,” “badass,” and a “warrior.” And it wasn’t for wearing white shorts while on my period for once.
In Sick Daze, I share my experience with cancer, my treatment, talk to others who have been affected by cancer, and other observations. Because I have a lifelong commitment to embarrassing myself, I can assure you, possible reader, that it will be candid. Arguably too candid. But I gotta be me, and me is kinda gross.
I also have a regular series called Sick Watch, where I watch a cancer movie and write about it. Finally, an excuse to revisit the 2011 Kate Hudson-Gael Garcia Bernal cancer rom-com “A Little Bit of Heaven.” Spoiler alert: it’s BAD.
There may be other fun stuff in the pipeline but I haven’t come up with it yet. All the more reason to tuck in.
Why Read Sick Daze?
Not to pull the cancer card here but……. Aside from supporting a writer who is being rocked by the thing THAT KILLED HER DAD AND NOW WANTS TO KILL HER, this newsletter aims to share possibly valuable information on navigating cancer. Perhaps you’re curious about what cancer looks like on a day-to-day. Perhaps you’ve read my other work and would like to read me get ultra personal about my cancer on a regular basis. Perhaps you’re a patron of the confessional arts. Any reason is a good reason, in my opinion.
It’s long been my belief in the work I do and the way I move in the world that we look out for one another and talk to each other. This is one way I can do it regularly and without the approval of an editor constrained by a shrinking editorial budget. If five of you get something out of this, that’s amazing. And on a personal level, I need somewhere to pour out my thoughts and feelings as I’m going through one of the shittiest things I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.
And while it might be sad sometimes—sometimes I do get sad, I am a Cancer with cancer after all—it’s important to me to laugh through hard shit. It’s a deeply Mexican trait. Arguably my most Mexican trait aside from using Carmex lip balm with brown lip liner. It’s not my intention to make light of a serious disease, but to keep living and laughing through it.
Subscribe? Please???
Subscriptions to this newsletter are free to ensure as many of you can read it regularly. However, paid subscribers ($5/month or $50/year) get full access to private posts, little gifts in the mail from time to time, and the gratification of supporting a writer with cancer. I give you permission to tell anyone that you saved my life. Founding Members ($150/year) will receive a handmade ornament from Felt Something Studios, the craft project I launched before getting cancer and had to set aside because of it. Supplies are limited with those, and beholden to my ability to make them without getting an infection. But they, or another cool craft project, will come to you. There may be other perks to a paid subscription but I need to come up with them. Sorry!
Working in media and television is getting harder and harder. I hadn’t launched a newsletter because there’s already so many of them by a ton of cool, talented writers. And according to various book agents, I don’t have a huge following :/ But I’m here now. There aren’t enough places for me to write, let alone get paid to do so, and I have so much I want to share as I navigate a weird time in my life. Subscribing would be truly appreciated, whether or not you pay for it.
Lastly…
I love you :)
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