What happens when the life you carefully built — the city, the career, the plan — gets taken away?

And what if every redirection, every closed door, every forced departure turned out to be exactly what you needed?

In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Julia Villaseñor. Julia has spent years working at the intersection of art, culture and communication, including at Kurimanzutto, one of Latin America's most influential contemporary art galleries.

Julia's story moves across Mexico, Paris, India and back — not by design, but through a series of unexpected turns. A visa rejected after nine years in France. A move to India she never planned. A decision to return home that allowed her to spend her father's final years by his side. A family restaurant closing after seven years.

And through all of it, a growing willingness to trust paths she never planned to take.

This is a conversation about loss, reinvention, identity, and what it means to build a life around trust rather than certainty. And about why art — at its best — is one of the most human things we do.

🎙️ In this episode, we explore:

• What it actually feels like when a carefully built life plan collapses — and what you do next
• How living between cultures — Mexico, Paris and India — shaped who she became
• What India taught her about letting go of control and trusting the unexpected
• Why the most painful redirections often open the most important doors
• What it means to make art accessible without making it shallow
• The difference between curating and communicating — and why she's done both
• How to trust a process you can't see or predict
• How to embrace a future you never planned for

🔗 Check out Julia's work:

Instagram: @julibertad

Kurimanzutto: https://www.kurimanzutto.com/

⏱️ Chapters:

00:00 Trailer

00:30 Episode Starts

01:17 Meet Julia Villaseñor

06:02 Living Between Two Completely Different Worlds

10:16 When a Chapter of Your Life Comes to an End

12:14 Searching for Home Across Three Continents

17:06 The Country That Changed Me Forever

18:14 Why You Sometimes Need to Let Go of Control

20:13 The Opportunity of a Lifetime

22:55 The Turning Points That Changed Everything

24:23 The Visa Rejection That Changed My Life

26:36 Why I Chose to Leave India

27:37 The Decision I'll Never Regret

29:13 Losing My Father and Returning to My Roots

30:17 When Life Keeps Closing Doors

31:14 Learning to Trust the Process

32:40 Do Things Really Happen for a Reason?

38:14 Why Art Shouldn't Be Exclusive

46:42 What Makes Us Human?

48:53 How to Embrace a Future You Never Planned For

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Catch The Upswing is a podcast for people building meaningful things in difficult times. Honest conversations with leaders, founders, investors, and changemakers about what it actually takes to keep going, lead well, and stay hopeful about the future.

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