{"id":38148,"date":"2026-04-10T06:29:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/?p=38148"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:59:09","slug":"tom-llamas-on-faith-fatherhood-and-telling-the-worlds-hardest-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/tom-llamas-on-faith-fatherhood-and-telling-the-worlds-hardest-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Llamas on Faith, Fatherhood and Telling the World\u2019s Hardest Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife, Jen, and I were expecting our first child<\/a> in 2013. Every reporter, every producer, every camera operator I worked with told me, \u201cTom, you\u2019re going to see the world in a different way now.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was 33 and thought I understood quite a bit about the world. And it wasn\u2019t just because I\u2019d been working in newsrooms since the age of 15, when I was an intern at the local Telemundo station. I\u2019d grown up in a tight-knit Cuban American<\/a> family in Miami. My parents were immigrants, and they wanted my younger brother and me to understand what was going on back in Cuba and around the world.<\/p>\n

The news was always on our TV\u2014we watched broadcasts in English and Spanish. I\u2019d wake up in the morning to caf\u00e9 Cubano (strong, sweet Cuban coffee) and see my dad and mom reading the Miami Herald<\/em> and the Spanish version, El Nuevo Herald<\/em>, cover to cover before work. We would then talk about the issues of the day at the dinner table.<\/p>\n

Though I was born in the United States, I was keenly aware that members of my family lived in another country. My parents had come to America with nothing. They\u2019d learned English and met in high school in Miami. My dad became a dentist, and my mom, who\u2019d studied accounting, managed his practice. I had everything I needed, but our relatives in Cuba had very little. We used to send them medicine and packets of Kool-Aid. There were often food shortages under the regime, and our relatives could mix the Kool-Aid with water and have something caloric to drink. That taught me what many children of immigrants<\/a> learn: Don\u2019t take anything for granted.<\/p>\n

Not even something as fundamental as being able to practice your faith<\/a>. My mom is from Havana, the capital, and my dad is from Banes, a small city in the east. Not long after the revolution in 1959, when Fidel Castro took over, my mom\u2019s family fled Cuba. My dad\u2019s family stuck it out in Banes for another six years.<\/p>\n

Castro was transforming Cuba into a one-party Communist state that denounced religion. My dad remembers being taught in school that if you wanted to believe in something, you had to believe in the revolution. My grandparents pulled him out of school. They didn\u2019t want him worshiping a government figure, especially a Communist. They wanted him and his sister to live in a country where people have freedom of religion, of speech, of the press<\/a> and all of the other freedoms that make the United States such a special and beautiful place. They decided to flee Cuba.<\/p>\n

When my parents married and started a family of their own, faith was woven into our lives even more deeply than the news. I went to a parochial school called Epiphany from first through sixth grade. Then from seventh grade to senior year, I went to Belen Jesuit, which has an interesting history.<\/p>\n

The school was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba. Fidel Castro himself was a graduate. In 1961, he kicked the Jesuits out of Cuba. They came to Miami and successfully reestablished the school in Little Havana. I went on to a Jesuit college, Loyola University in New Orleans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tom's
Tom\u2019s parents, Luis and Lisette Llamas, taught him the importance of staying on top of current events.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are two mottoes that the Jesuits instill in their students. One is \u201cmen for others.\u201d The other is ad majorem dei gloriam<\/em>, or \u201cfor the greater glory of God.\u201d \u201cMen for others\u201d goes back to the Jesuit educational philosophy of creating better citizens\u2014people who are informed so they can have better cities, better states, better countries. You\u2019re taught to think not just as an individual but also as someone who is part of a larger group. You think of others before yourself<\/a>. You do as God would do for you.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the greater glory of God\u201d means that in everything, you are inspired by God. Whatever you do, you do it in a profound way, with your heart and mind and soul.<\/p>\n

I saw that imperative in Leo Williams, who taught public speaking and drama and coached the speech and debate team at Belen. Leo taught me how to speak in public<\/a>. He devoted time after school and on weekends preparing our team for speech and debate tournaments. I developed confidence as a speaker and learned how to handle a complex subject and deliver it to an audience. Maybe God was preparing me for what he would call me to do as a career.<\/p>\n

Mom and Dad worked incredibly hard to provide for my brother and me, and they held us to the same standard. I was expected to give my best in everything I did, but one summer morning in high school, I decided to skip work. I\u2019d stayed out late with my friends the night before and was tired, so I told my mom I was going to call out sick.<\/p>\n

She gave me a look. The<\/em> look. \u201cYou\u2019re not sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m there or not,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m just an intern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do that in this house,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen people give you a job, you show up<\/a>.\u201d You bet I went to work that morning.<\/p>\n

When I landed that first news internship, I was only 15 and couldn\u2019t drive yet, so my mom took me to the Telemundo station every day. My parents have watched every broadcast I\u2019ve ever done, from my reporting on local politics for Miami\u2019s NBC affiliate, WTVJ, to when I started anchoring Top Story<\/em> and NBC Nightly News<\/em><\/a>. I usually call them on my way home from work, and I\u2019ll get the lowdown on what they thought of that night\u2019s broadcast. I joke that they\u2019re my built-in Nielsen ratings group. I want to make them proud of everything I do.<\/p>\n

The magnitude of my parents\u2019 love for me\u2026 I didn\u2019t truly understand it until Jen and I had our first child, our daughter Malena, in the spring of 2013. I felt a selfless, all-encompassing love<\/a> that I hadn\u2019t known was possible. I knew I would do everything in my power to give my daughter the best life and help her become the person the Lord meant for her to be. This must have been what my parents felt, and my grandparents before them, giving up everything they knew in Cuba to come to a country where they didn\u2019t speak the language, all to give their children a chance at a better, brighter future.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Llamas family (clockwise
\nfrom bottom center): Tomas,
\nJuliette, Malena, Jen and Tom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the father of three children\u2014Malena, Juliette and Tomas\u2014I now look at the world much differently, with a deeper sense of responsibility professionally and personally. My colleagues were right. Every tough news story affects me, but anytime there\u2019s a story in which children are suffering\u2014because of a war or a natural disaster, for example\u2014I can\u2019t help but imagine how parents in those situations feel.<\/p>\n

Jen is a former news executive producer, and so as my parents did with me and my brother, we try our best to discuss current events with our kids, including when I might be called away on assignment. This can mean missing family events<\/a> like Malena\u2019s school play, Juliette\u2019s gymnastics meet or Tomas\u2019s birthday, which happened in October 2023 and again last October, when a ceasefire agreement was reached in Gaza after two years of war between Israel and Hamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast time I was away for your birthday because of a war,\u201d I told Tomas. \u201cThis time, it\u2019s better news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, because there\u2019s a chance at peace,\u201d I said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big deal, and my job is to help tell people\u2019s stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomas stopped crying and nodded slowly. I gave him a hug and prayed this would stick with him the way sending medicine and Kool-Aid to relatives in Cuba had stuck with me, engendering empathy for those in need.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I often meet people on the worst day of their lives. I\u2019ve interviewed kids who have lost their parents and parents who have lost their children. Part of my job is to help tell their stories so they aren\u2019t forgotten. But I get to come home to my family. Many of the people I\u2019ve interviewed don\u2019t have such a good option, and that can haunt me long after I\u2019ve gone on to the next story.<\/p>\n

It is one of the reasons I go to God, to pray for those I\u2019ve met. I pray throughout the day. I wake up with a prayer. I go to bed with a prayer. I pray with my kids. I pray for the people whose stories I\u2019ve told<\/a>. If I can take a break, I\u2019ll read the daily devotional Streams in the Desert<\/em>. Sometimes I\u2019ll go to lunchtime Mass at St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral, right across the street from the NBC studios at 30 Rock.<\/p>\n

I\"\"f I\u2019m far away from my family covering a story, especially something that could be dangerous, I\u2019ll remind myself of one of my favorite Scriptures<\/a>: \u201cAnd he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reminding myself that God\u2019s love is with me, I stay hopeful, anchored in my faith. I believe that no matter what the day brings, God is with us. Nowhere in Scripture or in any religion that I know of does it say that things are always going to be easy. Quite the opposite. But as my parents showed me, life is about facing adversity with optimism and strength, doing all that I can do for the love of others and for the greater glory of God.<\/p>\n

For more inspiring stories, subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife, Jen, and I were expecting our first child in 2013. Every reporter, every producer, every camera operator I worked with told me, \u201cTom, you\u2019re going to see the world in a different way now.\u201d I was 33 and thought I understood quite a bit about the world. And it wasn\u2019t just because I\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":38149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,185],"tags":[33,15,25,51,30],"ppma_author":[2511],"class_list":["post-38148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-stories","category-stories-of-faith-and-hope","tag-celebrities","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-prayer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTom Llamas on Faith, Fatherhood and Telling the World\u2019s Hardest Stories - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Llamas on Faith, Fatherhood and Telling the World\u2019s Hardest Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My wife, Jen, and I were expecting our first child in 2013. 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