For three decades, Fernando González Parra ran one of Mexico’s most widely read sports newspapers. Since selling it in the early 1990s, he has stayed almost entirely out of public view, while the women he was with and the children he fathered went on to become some of the most written-about names in Mexican entertainment.
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Who Is Fernando González Parra?
Fernando González Parra is a Mexican journalist, media businessman, and UNAM graduate who served as director of periódico Ovaciones from the early 1960s until 1993, when Televisa completed its acquisition of the paper. He is the former partner of writer Ernestina Sodi and actress Nailea Norvind, and the father of actress Camila Sodi, among at least nine confirmed children. Multiple credible Mexican outlets, including Infobae and Univision, describe him as both a journalist and a lawyer, though he has never practiced law in any public capacity.
The Newspaper His Father Built and He Ran for Thirty Years
The story of Fernando González Parra does not start with him.
In 1950, his father, Fernando González D.L., purchased the rights to Ovaciones, a Mexico City daily that had launched in 1926 as a weekly bullfighting publication. Under the González family, it grew into a full-scale sports newspaper, publishing two daily editions with a staff of nearly 500 people and competing directly with Mexico’s biggest publications.
When the second daily edition launched in 1962, the elder González passed the Dirección General directly to his son, Fernando González Parra, naming another family member, Ramón González Parra, as Gerente. It was a complete generational transfer of a media institution the family had built from scratch.
González Parra ran Ovaciones through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The paper remained a staple of Mexican sports journalism throughout that entire period.
That era closed on July 27, 1992, when Televisa purchased the majority of shares from the González Parra family. Fernando stayed on as Director briefly. By December 10, 1993, Televisa had acquired the remaining shares, installing Jacobo Zabludowsky as President and Director General. The González Parra chapter at Ovaciones was finished after roughly 30 years.
The paper later passed to Alejandro Burillo Azcárraga in 2000, then to Organización Editorial Mexicana in 2005, and is now published under NTR. It still operates today, approaching its 100th anniversary as Mexico’s leading sports daily.
Worth noting: During his years running Ovaciones, González Parra held press credentials connected to the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS), Mexico’s federal intelligence agency, which was dissolved in 1985 after being implicated in serious human rights abuses and links to the Guadalajara cartel. Holding DFS-linked credentials was not unusual for prominent media figures of that era. It reflects the deeply political relationship between the Mexican press establishment and state power during the decades González Parra was at the height of his influence.
Ernestina Sodi: A Short Marriage and Two Daughters
In the mid-1980s, Fernando González Parra was in a relationship with Ernestina Sodi Miranda, a historian, journalist, and sister of singer Thalía and actress Laura Zapata. Their marriage lasted approximately two years before ending.
Ernestina Sodi later stated publicly that she left the relationship after experiencing physical and psychological violence by González Parra. This is documented in her Spanish-language Wikipedia entry and in reporting from Univision and Infobae. Fernando González Parra has never addressed these accounts publicly.
Their two daughters:
- Camila González Sodi (born May 14, 1986), known professionally as Camila Sodi, is one of Mexico’s most recognized actresses and singers. Her credits include the telenovelas Inocente de Ti and Rubí, the Netflix series Luis Miguel: The Series, and films including Niñas Mal and Arráncame la Vida. She married actor Diego Luna in 2008, and together they have two children, Jerónimo (born August 2008) and Fiona (born July 2010), before divorcing in 2013. Through Camila, González Parra is the grandfather of Diego Luna’s children.
- Marina González Sodi, a visual artist and painter who keeps a private life and lives in Mérida, Yucatán.
Ernestina Sodi died on November 8, 2024, at age 64, after complications from two heart attacks. Her death brought renewed attention to her family and the relationships that had defined her personal life decades earlier.
Nailea Norvind: Nine Years Together, Years of Legal Fallout After
Shortly after separating from Ernestina Sodi, Fernando González Parra married actress Nailea Norvind (born February 16, 1970), best known for her role as Leonor in the telenovela Quinceañera. They married in 1988, when Nailea was 17 years old. After nine years together, they separated in 1997.
What followed played out in public.
Roughly two and a half years after their separation, Nailea spoke to El Universal stating that González Parra had still not paid child support for their daughters. She also appeared on the TV program “Cosas de la Vida”, hosted by Rocío Sánchez Azuara, to speak about the case. A judicial record between Nailea Norvind and Fernando González Parra exists on PoderJudicialVirtual.com. In 2020, she went public again on the same program, repeating the same complaint. Nailea has also spoken about physical abuse during the relationship. González Parra has never publicly responded to any of it.
Their two daughters:
- Naian González Norvind, actress, photographer, and audiovisual director. She appeared in Michel Franco’s Nuevo Orden, which won the Silver Lion at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, and has also worked on American productions including the series Gotham. Of all his children, Naian maintains the most visible connection to her father, occasionally sharing photographs of him through her social media.
- Tessa Ía González Norvind, actress and singer. She made her film debut in Michel Franco’s Después de Lucía (2012) at age 17 and went on to appear in the Netflix series Rebelde.
How Many Children Does Fernando González Parra Have?
Most published profiles list four daughters. The actual number is significantly higher.
Based on reporting from Hola, UnoTV, Milenio, TV Notas, and a widely shared Instagram post from Camila Sodi herself, Fernando González Parra is the father of at least nine children: seven confirmed living, and two who have passed away.
| Child | Mother | Career / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Camila González Sodi | Ernestina Sodi | Actress and singer; ex-wife of Diego Luna |
| Marina González Sodi | Ernestina Sodi | Visual artist; lives in Mérida |
| Naian González Norvind | Nailea Norvind | Actress, photographer; Venice Film Festival |
| Tessa Ía González Norvind | Nailea Norvind | Actress, singer; Netflix’s Rebelde |
| Fernanda González | Not publicly known | Appeared in 2022 family gathering |
| Margaux González | Not publicly known | Keeps a private life |
| Louis Charles | Not publicly known | Fernando’s only known son; lives in Europe |
| Two unnamed children | Not publicly known | Confirmed deceased |
Camila Sodi addressed the full picture in an Instagram post that circulated widely: “Todos ellos son mis hermanos. Y no en sentido figurado, literalmente son mis hermanos (falta uno en la foto y dos en la tierra) y los amo mucho. Les presento a los González.”
The mothers of Fernanda, Margaux, Louis Charles, and the two deceased children have never been publicly identified. The family has not spoken about the circumstances of those who passed, and that privacy has been respected across coverage.
The Bond That Formed on Their Own Terms
Despite everything behind them, Fernando González Parra’s children have built a genuinely close relationship with each other.
Tessa Ía posted a group photograph of the siblings in 2020 with the caption: “El mejor regalo que nuestros padres nos dieron fue el uno al otro.” They refer to themselves collectively as “Los González”, the surname their father gave all of them across different mothers, different decades, and different circumstances.
When Ernestina Sodi died in November 2024, Naian González Norvind spoke at the premiere of her film Corina about how the siblings had supported each other through the loss. In an interview with Hola, she said: “Nos apoyamos todas. Camila es espectacular, es un mujerón.”
These are people who chose each other when they had no obligation to.
Fernando González Parra built something his father started, ran it for thirty years, sold it when Televisa came calling, and has not said a word in public since. The man who once controlled one of Mexico’s biggest newsrooms now leaves all the talking to his children. And they have been writing the story ever since.
