Raquel Cepeda's Blog, page 8

Talks at the Schomburg: Rewind

It was an awesome evening in at the Schomburg in Harlem, my birthplace and former residence (I used to live in Lenox Terrace for a jaunt in the late ’90s). What was supposed to be a reading and conversation moderated by Maria Hinojosa between novelist Daniel Alarcon and I turned into something greater: a deep and honest dialogue between the audience members and us about identity, boxing, and checkboxes (or rather, how to bust out of them!). Although we could barely make out people’s faces because of the way the stage was lit, we could feel the crowd…and they wanted to engage. It was especially wonderful to see a row full of high school students in the house, and cool to give them the floor to ask questions and comment on what us old folks were talking about. I feel blessed each and every time I get to share my experiences with people who are willing to listen. And, after our respective book signings, I was left thinking about all the stories and experience the people I met entrusted me with. We are all interconnected, all responsible for each other. Thank you all: it was kismet.

Hispanic/Latino History Month. Maybe Not.

But if you don’t feel the same way, it’s cool, too. I was thinking about Hispanic/Latino History Month on the train ride back Uptown this morning from my boxing gym (Allow me one tangent: So, a couple weeks ago I sparred with a couple of women from our sister gym. One of them surprised me—this is New York City and 2013—by stating as we were warming up on the floor: “Oh, so you’re a Dominican? I guess that must mean you’re tough,” she said with a sort of concerned look on her mug. I wanted to reply, “Oh yeah, crazy tough. I’m not even going to wear a mouthpiece today. I’m just going to hide a razor blade in my mouth.” Instead, I smiled. I was proud of myself for not taking it out on her in the ring. If the Dalai Lama were in the house, I think he may have said I grew a little. We cannot learn tolerance from a guru or friend, after all, but that’s another story for another time).

I rushed back home and, with the quickness, got ready for an event sponsored by Simon & Schuster’s Diversity Council in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month (They were awesome and engaged, by the way!). There’s so much I wanted to say but with only about a half-hour slot to read a few passages from my book and talk before opening up the floor to comments and questions, I decided to jot a few things down. Here’s a sample:

Good afternoon, folks. I had planned on giving you at least ten reasons why I think we should dead Hispanic/Latino History Month aside from the fact that I keep forgetting to send myself reminders signaling its arrival every September 15th.

It’s saccharine. Every year it plays out the same way; a non-Latino/Hispanic friend or acquaintance will ask me: “Isn’t this when they celebrate Spanish culture?” to which I roll my eyes and don’t bother explaining that we’re not Spanish. Or an institution will scramble to find someone, anyone—me (yes, por favor!)—to inject inspiration into a room full of indifferent suits who would much rather spend the hour at SoulCycle than sensitivity training. Or, my daughter will bring home a stack of homework assignments all involving mariachi music, Mexican food and salsa dancing.

I won’t bore you all with a list, I promise. But I will say that cramming Hispanic/Latino History month into a checkbox has a negative ripple effect. It encourages us to approach one another in the way the folks over at Fox 5 intended: with clenched fists, with closed hearts, and with fear.

Until then, let’s deal with the present. Storytelling, in my case, through documentary filmmaking, journalism, and what brings me here today—through memoir and nonfiction writing—is a sure-fire tool we can use to break down the invisible yet palpable barriers that exist between “us” Hispanic or Latino-Americans and “them”: everybody else. Ted Lange, the actor many of us know and loved as Isaac Washington on The Love Boat said it best: “Artists should always think of themselves as cosmic instruments of storytelling.” Cosmic, I love that word. It has no boundaries. We are cosmic beings. We were not meant to be confined to a box or other peoples definitions of our selves.

My own life, a transcultural experience filled with a cast of saints and sinners, magic and kismet, ’80s hip-hop and family dysfunction, and the popular tool of ancestral DNA and travel, is the prism I chose to explore racial, ethnic and national identity in Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina. It’s in these universal themes that we  humans can all find a parts of our selves.

Before embarking on the journey with me, I encourage you to do what I did, abandon convention and ideology, and open yourselves up to focus on the telling. When we share our life’s stories from a place of truth, whether you dig or hate the lyrics within the pages, this is what ultimately draws us together. This truth is what breaks the invisible walls down within ourselves and allows for an awakening.

And what an awakening I had in the living and, specifically, on the genetic adventure I embarked on. I came to the realization that I don’t enjoy writing about what I already know, but rather, what I’d like to discover and learn. And since it is a celebration of Latino/Hispanic culture in the Americas that brought us here today, I’ll leave you with two nuggets the universe gifted me with when I abandoned my own ideological self and dived in headlong into the experience; For one, race is in the eye of the beholder. And secondly, everyone is Dominican. I’m kidding. Sort of. I’ll tell you why. It’s not because modern day Santo Domingo is the seat of this so-called New World, a place where the Indigenous discovered Columbus, and where Africa and Europe clashed with the former to create a blueprint for our own modern society. It’s because like you all, I am an example, as are other Hispanic or Latino-Americans of the Columbus Effect on our bodies. We are the physical embodiment of what it means to be American, to be global citizens. And so I think we need to invest more time exploring what that means and how we are truly banded to one other for more than four weeks out of the year.

 

This Saturday, October 5: Two Panels, Two Festivals, One Borough

This Saturday, October 5, I’ll be heading straight from an early morning sparring session—I’m gearing up for this year’s Haymakers for Hope charity fight—to my first of two panels in Brooklyn.

The first is the COMADRES & COMPADRES Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. I’ll be sitting on a nonfiction panel at 2:00PM sharp with the writer and fellow New York native—we’re a dying breed—Carlos Andrés Gómez  discussing our motivations for writing books based on real life and what it takes to make those writings compelling enough to print. For more information, directions, and to check out the other panels and fabulous participating authors, check out the program HERE.

After the panel, I’m heading over to PAGE TURNER, the Asian-Americans Writers’ Workshop food and book festival. I’ll be sitting on the Culturestrike: Hidden Immigration Stories  panel with authors Gaiutra Bahadur, Vivek Bald and scholar-producer-journo-homegirl Carolina Gonzalez. The panel starts at 6PM at the Roulette Ballroom. I’m trying my best to get there at least an hour earlier to sample all the food! 

I was on The Bobbito Garcia Radio Show on East Village Radio today!

I love Bobbito Garcia for too many reasons to list here. He’s smart, talented, confident, and doesn’t sit quietly in anybody’s checkbox. So when he asked me to be on his show today, at the suggestion of (my new homegirl) Nati Linares, I jumped at the chance. I stayed to chill, catch up and listen to The Cucumber do what he does best, curate a spiritual and funky set of Yoruba incantations and classic salsa. And, I had a chance to talk to Isaiah Washington about ancestral DNA and my interview with actor Michael K. Williams for a minute. #fresh. LISTEN TO IT HERE.

Lit Crawl NYC: Radical Latinas: Words of Strength, Truth & Change

If you’re in town this Saturday, this is going to be a fresh event.

BookMarks 2013 Festival

The BookMarks festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina was fabulous: well organized, promoted and attended. My reading and talk took place Saturday yesterday, September 7, at the stifling hot gorgeous Artworks Gallery. About ten minutes into my introduction, the room was full of curious, open-minded folks, many of whom were either ancestral DNA aficionados like me, curious about embarking on their own genetic adventures, or memoir lovers. My only complaint is that I wish I had more time to engage with the audience. I really, really, really had a blast.

The icing on the cake was stumbling upon a stack of the free weekly paper, Relish, also a supplement of the Winston-Salem Journal’s Thursday edition, featuring me on its over. I was also featured on the cover of the Spanish language free weekly paper—it’s the only one that caters to the Latino/Hispanic demographic in the surrounding areas—Qué Pasa.

Actor Michael K. Williams Discovers His Ancestry

One of the highlights of my summer was being invited by okayafrica. to reveal ancestral DNA results for one of the most talented mofos in America, actor Michael K. Williams. Check it out, below.

Great News! Simon & Schuster + Barnes & Noble, and the Paperback release!

Woo-hoo!!! I received an email from my editor stating that the paperback of my book Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina, will be released in February 2014. I was stoked because the my book will be more affordable, especially for high school and college students. And, coming out right before Women’s History Month is killer.

But then I sighed and was again, as I have been since March, saddened by the thought of being caught up in the drama between my parent company Simon & Schuster and Barnes & Noble. It totally monkey-wrenched my original dreams of making my book accessible to the millions of readers interested in memoirs, Latino-American identity and race, current events, New York City, hip-hop culture, first-and-second generation American stories, and the truth about New World history, that peruse the bookstores. I’ve discovered many books I didn’t know existed by browsing through interesting titles and covers, as many people still do today.

So I said a prayer that these two publishing giants would make up before February and put it out there in the universe (and asked my friends on Facebook to send me good vibes).

Not even a minute later, I received a mass email with the subject heading: A MESSAGE FROM CAROLYN REIDY‏, the President and CEO of Simon & Schuster. Weird, I thought. Then, I opened it.

I am very glad to announce that Barnes & Noble and Simon & Schuster have resolved their outstanding business issues, and look forward to working together on promoting your great books.

I keep pinching myself. For the first time since the release of my book, I feel hopeful that Bird of Paradise will have a smoother flight finding her audience.

 

The White Mandingos Added to the AFROPUNK 2013 Lineup!

If you’re in New York City over the weekend of August 24-25th, check out afropunk. The White Mandingos are playing on August 25th @ 3PM.

ABC’S The Bachelor, Inspired by the Catholic Church, Plays The Raza Card

Remember when the Catholic Church pulled a sly move by acceding the mafia’s first “Latino” pope to the throne? Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whose rap name as the new Catholic leader became Pope Francis I, was born in Argentina to Italian parents. The man, like many Argentinians, is of European descent but he was technically born in the South American country and is the first dude from Latin America and the New World to reign over the religious illuminati. The moment he ascended, the first question many of us asked to ourselves was, Ummm, is this guy really Latino? And then, we thought, Smart move: he’s technically a Latino by birth but Father Bergoglio is phenotypically European and will maintain the imperial face of colonialism in tact while attracting more Spanish-speaking heads to the church. Bravo. Well played. At any rate, Pope Francis I’s race quickly became media fodder for several weeks until we let it go. It was too damn confusing and not soundbite-friendly enough for Sunday morning tele-tooby shows.

Fast forward to this morning. I was watching, like I often do, NY1 News’ In The Papers segment. I was stopped in my tracks by a story reported by non other than the New York Post, a paper I only flip through at my boxing gym if my coach brings in a copy. The piece, written by Dana Schuster, is about the next Bachelor, who’s being billed as the shows first “non-Caucasian” and “Latino” star to look for love in the franchise’s 11 year history. The dude, 32 year-old Juan Pablo Galavis, is from Venezuela.

Props to Ms. Schuster for somehow dropping this nugget in an otherwise distasteful, fear-mongering, Murdoch owned newspaper. In the article, she writes:

But considering the homogenous array of men (and women) ABC has paraded out season after white-washed season, you’d think show execs would have had the guts to make a stronger statement with their first “non-Caucasian” “Bachelor” than an all-American-looking South American.

She’s right. But, well, hear me out: it’s not fair—not even in the case of Papa Francis I—to challenge someone’s identity because of their phenotype. Galavis may be proud of his heritage, of the diversity in our global community. It’s not his fault he was born a blond. We have a tendency, including my own friends and family, to say things like, “You’re too white to be Dominican,” or “You’re too dark to be Puerto Rican,” or some other ridiculous variation of the aforementioned. Latinos/Hispanics/Latino-Americans are the embodiment of New World history. We are the genetic result of the Columbus Effect. We are the first Americans in what we call the New World, here evolving and mixing hundreds of years before the first illegal European immigrants stepped foot in modern-day North American and terrorized the Indigenous peoples already living here. Our phenotypes range from alabaster to opal, from European to Indigenous and African, and everything—and I mean every freaking combination—in between.

BUT still, come oooooooonnnnn.

We need, and I mean desperately, more biological, gender, economic and phenotypical diversity on television and in the media. It’s not enough that your news anchor, Bachelor, starlet, weather girl, or whatever-what-have-you, has a Latino/Hispanic last name. It’s just not enough.