“But I saw our world
and your world
and another.”
— ("Malinche" by Carmen Tafolla)
Esta entrevista fue realizada el pasado diciembre de 2020, para el programa digital Transborder, conducido por Benjamín Anaya. Escúchala aquí mismo, en su versión completa.
Interpreting Old California
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Genealogies
How do we trace our roots? Can we envision our long stretch into the heights? Our traveling nature turns us into those desert tumbleweeds, catching up earth and debris while spreading their seeds and blooming, aimlessly, after those rare desert storms. To trace our ascending lines, from this continent, carrying the name that points to our (dis)affinities is already an impossible task. Whether we take on towards the boats, in our maritime paths -to Cantabria and Guipúzcoa-, or to the millenary antiquity of our Toltec and Mexica genesis. ¿En dónde echamos raíces? ¿Hacia qué cielos se extienden nuestras ramas? Nuestra naturaleza viajera nos vuelve más como esas rodadoras del desierto que amasan hojas, tierra, desecho y ruedan y ruedan, sin rumbo, repartiendo sus semillas y floreciendo, en las de por sí escasas lluvias del desierto. Buscar nuestras líneas ascendentes, desde este continente en cuyo nombre ya inician las (des)afinidades, es una tarea casi imposible. Ya sea que tiremos hacia los barcos y nuestras rutas marinas -hasta Cantabria y Guipúzcoa-, o hacia las entrañas y antigüedad milenaria de nuestra génesis Tolteca y Mexica.
Interpreting
Reunir, mezclar, fusionar, aglutinar, balancear, combinar, transformar, proyectar, armonizar, acopiar. Pensarás que preparo un guiso o que me dispongo a hornear y no. Interpretar es juntar gente, de distintas culturas e idiomas. Es como cocinar, pero más difícil; es como negociar, pero con más retos; parece fácil, pero es lidiar con la resiliencia, la resistencia, la objeción./ Blend, mix, fuse, merge, balance, combine, transform, project, compose, bring together. I am not about to cook or bake! To interpret is to bring together people from different cultures and languages. It is like cooking but harder; it is like negotiating yet all the more challenging; it seems easy, yet it meets resilience, resistance, objection.
Life after the Pandemic
El tiempo quedó paralizado, convertido en una rutina sin dimensiones, tan solo un montón de pensamientos y preguntas… cerraba marzo de 2020. Solo se me ocurrió comprar una hamaca y algunas plantas para empezar a aventurarme a salir a la terraza, sentir el sol y respirar algo de aire fresco, allí, a cielo abierto. / Time came to a halt. Suddenly, we found ourselves trapped inside, nowhere to go, a boundless reality, tied to a bunch of random thoughts and questions…. right as March of 2020 was closing. In the meantime I’ve bought a hammock and some plants to take a few steps out into our deck, to feel the sun, and to breathe some fresh air, out in the open.
Local Travels
Viajar, a pie, llevados por el aliento que guía nuestros pasos del diario, como si cada aguacero antecediera a siete años de sequía./ How a rained street became the subject of this picture is a story in and of itself. Look at the wet pavement, the Eucalyptus bark, the sparkling surface. Now close your eyes and imagine the smells, the breezy sense of humidity that the rain leaves behind.
Book Arts
Hay una parte del cerebro que se conecta directamente con nuestras manos. Si las dejas hacer ellas trazan, cortan, tallan, moldean, imprimen./ Book Arts. Making books with your hands is the most therapeutic of arts. Books are the medium to tell stories. The minute you put the pages together and select the design, the binding style, the covers it is because you already have a story to tell.
The Interview/Entrevistas
Mis entrevistas con él son mi tesoro, el recuerdo de encuentros destinados a perdurar./ The year 2000 I was working as a journalist, writing an average of 1200 words per day. I was able to interview artists, writers, intellectuals. This is the year to harvest. Many of those friends I had the fortune to meet are gone. The Pandemic took many of them. My cue to build this site.