From being a 19-year-old human trafficking victim to the triathlon world record holder, Norma Bastidas has endured some of life’s deepest valleys and climbed her way to the top of its highest mountains. Bastidas looks to share her story at EmpowerCon 2019 to let all those in attendance know they have the power to prevail over whatever life throws their way.

“I want the EmpowerCon audience to know they have everything in them to overcome whatever it is and pursue the life that they want,” declares Bastidas.

Born and raised in the land of the cartels, Sinaloa, Mexico, Norma Bastidas was born far from the life she wanted. At 11-years-old, her father’s death opened a door to the dangers of sexual assault within her own family, as a blind uncle, who she had been taking care of, began assaulting her. Between having to share a living space with the cartels and the sexual abuse, Bastidas had no choice but to leave her hometown.

“It was like Russian roulette between stabbings, shootings, being picked up by the cartel or the police,” explained Bastidas. “You didn’t know whether or not you would make it home.”

In an attempt to escape the dangers of Sinaloa, a 17-year-old Bastidas moved to Mexico City to further her education. However, just a few months after her arrival, she was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and nearly beaten to death. Living in Mexico was no longer an option for Bastidas.

“My next stop was to leave Mexico, because not only was my home scary because of the family member and not only was my hometown scary because of the cartels but now Mexico, as a whole, had become very dangerous in my mind,” says Bastidas.

Out of fear of what living in Mexico had proven to be, at 19-years-old, Bastidas accepted a modeling offer in Japan. The new land seemed like an opportunity for Bastidas to flip the script on her misfortune; instead, she had been led into even worse adversities.

Within two months of her arrival, she had been stripped of her passport, forced into debt and fell victim to human trafficking. Unable to speak the language and shackled by her branding as a prostitute, Bastidas’ cries to Japanese law enforcement fell on deaf ears, leaving her trapped thousands of miles away from her family.

“It’s never going to get better,” Bastidas recalls thinking. “But I will die trying.”

Over the course of several years, she managed to save enough tip money from the bar to take Japanese language classes and pay off the debt that had kept her trapped. Then, one night at the club, while waiting to meet a friend, Bastidas was drugged, sexually assaulted and, for the second time, beaten within an inch of her life.

“That is when I realized that it doesn’t end. You don’t just pay the dues and live happily ever after,” said Bastidas.

After being beaten to the point where facial surgery was required, Japan was no longer an option for Bastidas.

Meeting her first husband and moving across the globe allowed Bastidas to start over without the discrimination of being labeled a prostitute. Despite her marriage ultimately failing, operating under the safety net of her new life, Bastidas was able to raise two children, earn her Business Administration diploma and pick up English as her third language. However, the diagnosis of her 11-year-old son with cone-rod retinal dystrophy—a degenerative disease of the eye which leads to impaired vision—blew away the smoke screen of her new life.

“My oldest son starting to go blind is when everything came crashing, but in a great way,” explains Bastidas. “I used to get up and go for a run just so I can run off all the negative energy.”

Within eight months of using running as her way to cope, Bastidas ran her first marathon and qualified for one of the most prestigious races on the planet–the Boston Marathon. However, it was after her disqualification from the 68-mile Canadian Death Race when she realized running would serve as a staple of her life.

“Even though I felt like I was dying, I have never felt more alive,” recalls Bastidas. “For the first time, I had a choice. My body had not belonged to me. For as long as I remember, it was just grabbed and taken. This was my choice.”

Through her newfound love, Bastidas would go on to climb the seven highest peaks of each continent, in an attempt to raise money to help find a cure for childhood genetic blindness. Despite Bastidas’ efforts earning her the title ‘extraordinary mother’ from Oprah Winfrey, she still felt unfulfilled by not embracing her past.

“My son and his condition got awareness, but I felt empty,” says Bastidas. “So I took a leap of faith and was terrified.”

Bastidas’ leap of faith ended up carrying her 3,762 miles, as she ran, swam and cycled from Cancun to Washington DC in 65 days. The journey—which featured malfunctioning technology, wildlife attacks, and roadside accidents—would go on to triple the previous triathlon world record and was filmed as a feature-length documentary titled “Be Relentless”.

“[Speaking on sexual assault] still makes me cringe. It immediately takes me back to being in Japan in that room with that person,” says Bastidas. “But the only way to take the power back was to lean into that discomfort and say ‘I didn’t die, I’m still here’.”

Bastidas is currently looking forward to her next campaign, in which she will row across the Pacific Ocean and run across the Texas-Mexico border, as a call to action towards the country’s treatment of immigrants. In between her training, Bastidas will exclusively show her unreleased “Be Relentless” documentary and serve as a panelist for the Q&A section of EmpowerCon 2019.

Written By: Taj Mayfield