Linda Candelo and husband , Joseph Rossini , bought the old Vise building in downtown Meridian a few years ago . It ’ s now home to a four-story Jimmie Rodgers Mural , painted by members of the Meridian Museum Art Collective , that greets downtown visitors .
in private security . Staying for a little more than a year , she then headed to Miami , where she continued to find work with Univision .
She lived and worked in Miami for almost two years before she moved to California in 2014 after getting engaged .
“ That was the first time , I guess , that I moved for something that was not me . It was … now two ,” she said . “ When you are career-oriented , those are the hardest changes … one ’ s easy because you ’ re just following your passion . The other one , when you do ( move ) for the other person , you ’ re just concerned . Okay , now what ’ s gonna happen ?”
During the transition , she started her own YouTube channel , “ Por el Mundo con Linda ,” or “ Around the World with Linda ,” which has received more than 9.6 million views and has more than 20,000 subscribers . The channel focused on stories about wellness , beauty and health .
She also started knocking on doors
Linda Candelo holds the Emmy Award she won for a human interest piece on a Mexican migrant worker turned land owner she did for a Telemundo station in the San Francisco Bay area .
and was hired by KSTS Channel 48 , a television station serving as the San Francisco Bay Area outlet for Telemundo . It was while working for KSTS in 2019 that she captured her first Emmy Award from the Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences . She won the Emmy for a human interest feature story on a Mexican migrant worker turned land owner .
“ This one was an amazing story about this lady with Mexican roots and she used to travel with her parents from Mexico to California to Washington to work in agriculture . They work seasons picking our food . One day , when she was something between 10 and 13 years old , she was working in Napa Sonomo in the Bay Area … where the wine is being produced . And she told her father that one day she was going to own that land where they were working ,” Candelo said . The little girl grew up to realize her dream . “ When I met her , she owned her own winery and she owned a lot of land in Sonoma and Napa , her own farm , where she grows her own grapes and they have a ranch where the family lives and they all work from there ,” she said .
“ It was a very amazing story of how when you set your mind to something and it ’ s so clear for you , even what is impossible for somebody else , it ’ s possible for you , She worked for it . She made it happen .”
Altogether , Candelo , a naturalized citizen , worked as a TV journalist for almost 16 years before moving to Meridian , where neither she or her husband had ever lived . Rossini , however , has family ties to the city . His grandfather , Frank L . Jacobs , was a former mayor , serving from 1945 to 1949 , and his mother , Jan Sue Jacobs-Rossini , grew up locally . The couple had been to Meridian on several occasions to visit family still living in the community .
“ We came here a few times … to visit his other family here , and , at some point , we were like , okay , we can contemplate the idea to move to Meridian ,” Candelo said .
Together for 13 years , the couple officially tied the knot in fall 2022 after moving .
After leaving her demanding career , the industrious and determined Candelo is finding new ways to refocus her energy in Meridian . Shortly after the move , the couple decided to purchase the old Vise building located downtown at the corner of Fourth Street and 22nd Avenue . Originally constructed between 1902 and 1906 , the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places .
Many older Meridian residents remember it as the building housing the medical offices of Dr . Guy T . Vise Sr ., who purchased the property and had
20 • MERIDIAN LIFE