Manny Pérez es un Tigre. At craft for 28-years, Manny is one of the few Latino actors in Hollywood who has etched a place for himself hard-earned consistently for twenty, kinda’ under-the-radar, but very much there. We all know he’s there. I’ve seen ten of his movies counting his latest one, VENENO | Primera Caída: El Relámpago de Jack, and I loved it. Es linda. 

Directed by Tabaré Blanchard VENENO is inspired by the life of Dominican wrestling champ and idol Jack Veneno. Distributed in the U.S. by Spanglish Films, VENENO opens in select cities: New York City; New Jersey; Providence, Rhode Island; Massachusetts: Lawrence, Boston; Pennsylvania: Reading, Philadelphia; Atlanta, Georgia; Florida: Orlando, Tampa, and, Miami on Friday 13 April. 

“Sounds from the City” I call this talk. We had connectivity issues. Holding weekly conversations has its challenges when it comes to adapting to weak remote recording situations. A strange bounce-off in cyber time sound or something made it so that he heard static, but I didn’t until edit time so you’ll hear this slight thing. At some point, just as he was getting to the crux of his story, a girl is heard crying in the background, and with a sense of humor he called out, “I’m in The Heights baby, I’m in The Heights.” But we carried on ‘cause it’s all good. I appreciate the talking time and his candidness, he's real, de la mata. 

See VENENO. Manny and the rest of the cast are fabulous. I for one, admire him immensely for his years of dedication, focus, and resolve to be a man of art.

Sol

Flora Mancuso Edwards. Photograph by Eduardo Hoepelman

Flora Mancuso Edwards, Former president Eugenio María de Hostos Community College (Hostos ) 1979-1987 

The short version. Earlier this week 45 revealed he didn’t understand the role community colleges played in the country. Alas. Scathing ignorance.

Here is former Eugenio María de Hostos Community College President, Flora Mancuso (1979 - 1987). A woman leader. I hadn’t played a woman’s voice in three weeks, so here it is. A woman leader sharing who was part of shaping and solidifying the course and impact of the institution, this month celebrating 50-years. More broadly this is also about community colleges, public-urban education, and minority-serving institutions in the United States.

The survival and growth of Hostos depended on the actions of a lot of noble people. The South Bronx community in general fought hard for their future on a lot of fronts, and Hostos was part of that ticket. Community colleges across the country are a necessity; they predominantly serve people who might otherwise not have a chance for an education.

Hostos delivered. It made a home on 149th Street and Grand Concourse transforming thousands of lives over the past half-century. That's the truth.

Sol

Coming in April 2018

Ari Maniel Cruz is presently one of Puerto Rico’s most sought-after filmmakers. He spoke to me from Mexico, where he is working on the massive Netflix-Telemundo-Caracol series project inspired by Reggaeton superstar, Nicky Jam. We go at in Spanish and in true Puerto Rican cadence.

Ari Maniel Cruz y yo hablamos sobre Under Your Feet, Antes que cante el gallo, la tribu, ¿Quien eres tu?, Mexico, Nicky Jam, y Puerto Rico.

Actualmente en Mexico, Ari es el show-runner del mega proyecto Netfilx-Telemundo-Caracol e inspirada en la vida de la super-estrella del reggaeton, Nicky Jam. A través de la historia de Nicky Jam, se cuenta una mini-segunda historia, el desarrollo del género.

Muchos personajes del reggaeton envueltos. Ari se llevó un grupo de actores de Puerto Rico a Mexico y no dice nada que no pueda decir sobre el proyecto pero sí comparte lo que considera un gran momento para contar esta historia donde la isla es una pieza clave.

Inspirado también por el trabajo del gran Reverendo Pedro Pietri, una trilogía sobre la diaspora puertorriqueña vendrá de camino.

Su película más reciente, Antes que cante el gallo es bella, y en abril sale, ¿Quien eres tu? Creada por la misma tribu, de la que hablamos en el episodio y que está compuesta por tremendos profesionales de cine y producción. De veras que si.

Live long and propser,

Sol

Episode 96 is a Spanish episode.

Jean Carlos Rivera, a systems engineer by day, is also serving as Executive Director of Diaspora X Puerto Rico (DXPR), a volunteer-led group of four who are doing all they can to help newly arrived Puerto Ricans in the United States.

Junto a ellos, y como parte de la Coalición del Bronx apoyando a los damnificados del Huracán María, estamos trabajando juntos y organizando una feria de recursos a darse el próximo sábado 24 de marzo en el gimnasio de Eugenio María de Hostos Community College en el Bronx, Nueva York.

Cientos de familias puertorriqueñas están en limbo aquí en Nueva York. Los casos de muchas de estas familias se han estancado en burocracia. DXPR es una de las organizaciones que trabaja buscando e identificando servicios y vias de consejería y conectar a estas familias con los mismos.

Alongside them, and as part of The Bronx Coalition Supporting Hurricane Maria Evacuees, we are working together and organizing a resource fair taking place next Saturday, March 24, at the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College in the Bronx.

Hundreds of families are in limbo here in New York. Many of the cases have stalled in the system. DXPR is one of the organizations working to find and identify proper guidance channels and other services and connect these families with them.

Good people. Gente buena. Write to me for more info.

Soldanela

Jean-Marc Berne has a mission - The Heart-Voice Connection. His new book is about just that, connecting to our hearts and our voice, and by extension our empathy. His travails are heavy, but his road to self-healing is the stuff of outer-time. But also, art and healing go hand-in-hand.

A working voice over artist and coach, Jean-Marc writes. Poems are coming out of him almost daily, and for it, on a whim, he launched a private Facebook group called, Poetry for the Soul. He composes songs - It’s My Time_Leave the Past Behind, and does a great deal more - Berne Media Enterprises. Woven into his reason is to speak on behalf of sexually abused victims, on vulnerability and men, about disconnection, and communicating from a place of Love.

Lindo. Lindo.

Sol

Some of George's event IDs. Glassed. His house LES. Feb. 2018

George Nenadich has been around for a while. I know him since way back when I started out in 1990. Always cool and good to me. A big brother. Versatile and real, George is a natural conversationalist and a match for my raw style. I have over two hours of talk, and the best I could do was edit down to two parts. George’s spiel on life as a Puerto Rican in New York is fascinating. I had to let him talk. He takes on the Puerto Rican identity crisis and delves into its complexity like a Sous Chef removing a shank’s extra fat. He’s respectful, insightful, measured and sincere without losing his spark. You learn that his professional diversity is an expression of his childhood. A time lived within a Pan-American context out in New Jersey alongside kids from families from all over the Caribbean and the Central and Southern American Continent. That is what he knew, “we were all Latinos.”

George is not necessarily an optimist. He’s grateful and young at heart but not convinced that the Latino diaspora will ever come together. Neither am I. But we must work towards that end for rest of our lives, no matter what.

For thirty-years George has been in arts & entertainment with a particular spot for music, specifically classic Salsa. He’s earned two shows on Sirius XM - La Jungla de Rumbón (Fridays 7-10 p.m.) and La Vieja Escuela (Saturdays 9-12 p.m.) - and he gets to tells stories about his life off-and-on the road with legendary figures of Latin music. For him, no one like Roberto Roena. He has dissenters, and he fights them back with gusto. But, for George, Roberto Roena y Su Apollo Sound is the greatest salsa orchestra there ever was.

Here’s real talk about life in the big city. The takeaways, “dress your age,” “don’t be a know-it-all,” “ keep abreast of tech,” and a friend of his, on his deathbed, told him, “as long as you can breathe, you can change.” Sounds good.

Sol

Mónica Félix is living life to the fullest. Young at heart, thoughtful, daring, she launches forward. There’s a certainty about her that I can’t put in words, but she has it. A hold of the whole. Blonde and green-eyed she’s often told she doesn’t look Puerto Rican, but she is, from Cayey. Mónica shares about being puertorriqueña now and living for her love of photography.

An intimate portrait with a free spirit. Dignity is all over the place.

A Puerto Rico Women’s Shelter Provides a Post-Storm Lifeline by Ivelisse Rivera Quiñones and Mónica Félix for the Village Voice.

Be with the day,

Sol

Sita Chay is the only Korean to ever win a Latin Grammy. Fancy that…

Since I started this podcast project and on the website, you’ll see that Pan-American voices or Pan-Americanism is what I seek out. Who are we people of color? What is a person of color? Where do we come from? What makes an individual Pan-American? These questions sometimes have clear-cut answers, but as time passes I tend to feel the answers are not so simple. My concerns, interests, and various answers have been informed and are intertwined with W.E.B. Dubois’ Pan-Africanism, The Antillean Confederation of Ramon Emeterio Betances, Bolivar’s Dream, The American Dream, Pan-American Airlines, and Bernardo Ruiz’s La Quinta Raza. When I think of the “America” that I live and experience, hundreds of faces come to mind and heart. How pure blood are we really? And does blood matter? I’m still against the fence on that one but I can honestly say, that in my 28-years of living in North America, Pan-American has come to signify people from all over the world open and willing to be a part of the whole - accepting, creative, curious, interested, willing, empathetic - and for whatever reasons they mostly come in the form of artists or creatives.

Sita Chay is a bright example of this very diluted sea of people that make up Pan-Americanism, to me. Before we recorded she asked me, “What does Pan-American mean?” And we talked. And then we recorded, and a poetic answer revealed itself.

When she was little Sita wanted to be a princess. In a way she is, she’s a princess of the violin.

She’s also a member of the all-woman Mariachi band Flor de Toloache, who won a 2017 Latin Grammy for Best Ranchero Album - Las Caras Lindas. Sita has played folk music from all over the world and she gets into it in this intimate talk.

Sita holds that artists have a responsibility to be political and to use their medium to bring people together. Her latest musical project, the Cosmopolis Collective, which means a citizen of everywhere, weaves everything that matters to her.  

Social duty with her responsibility as an artist to connect with others through music, marching together. “Together we are big.” Her words. I agree. Tears of gratitude. Thank you, Sita Chay.

Carry on.

Sol

GIG ALERT: 2/21 9 p.m.

Cosmopolis Collective

New World Stages Green Room

A PRIME Latino Media event

Episode 90 is dedicated to all the hard working creatives.

Fabian and I recorded last fall shortly before Hurricane María hit. I had several weeks of pre-recorded shows, but when the storm hit everything changed. I owed him.

Fabian is so poised. So nice. So full of valor. He is indeed a hard-working creative. A Colombian man through and through, Fabian knows history, legends, and folktales. His mother had an artistic incline but was not allowed to go-for-it because she was a girl. Though no one in his family took the “legit” artistic path, the family had it in them, and he absorbed it. He describes how you could see kids with rifles, kids alone at night at midnight, harsh things we know happen, but he explains that the circumstances his country endured led to a flushed underground creative realm and an instinctual bent in favor of humanity.

Fabian found mentors in elderly artists who actively work or worked on projects well into their 90s. For him, that is the goal. And I agree. Artists don’t retire. They evolve with time because there is always something do. Creativity is a way of life.

Live long and prosper,

Sol

The big writers of the world always say to write about what you know. I know that Dr. Lloydine Jacobs’ story moved me to the core of me. She is so young, so strong, so prepared it is unusual one gets to meet someone like her. At five-years-old Lloydine witnessed acts of such tenacity that shaped her determination and her professional calling. She wants to heal people. She wants to make people feel better. Almost prodigious, this young woman graduated high school at fifteen and went on to the highly competitive Sophie Davis Biomedical Education Program at The City College of New York.

What I do know is, that Dr. Jacobs talks about perseverance like few I’ve ever heard these past 19 months, and I hear these are the stories that debunk the rhetoric of evilness about immigrants families destroying the nation. Xenophobia will sink us. The layers of us are endless. Education is imperative.

Find yourself somewhere in her story. She is both young and fortifying, and her steadfastness contagious. I felt better about life in general after I said goodbye to her. It is privileged to hear how this Afro-Caribbean woman became her own, shaped by circumstance, trained in discipline, guided by faith.

Sol

I know Mia García as Marirosa first since childhood. Her sister is my sister.

Watching a person become their own is a beautiful thing. I acknowledge then, a young Puerto Rican author writing for young audiences, Mia García. As pre-teen girls do, she had a diary but discovered journaling and writing pen to paper first. Her grandfather believed her when she told him about the monsters in the closet.

Rave and respect for her debut novel Even If The Sky Falls from Katherine Tegen (Harper Collins), about a girl who goes to New Orleans and her life, changes forever. Mia is one of a handful of published Latina writers out there and for young audiences. We had a lovely conversation about her journey and the business. Her next book The Resolutions is out this fall.

Onward.

Sol

Photo by Sabina Rivera

“Brick x Brick is a public art performance that builds human “walls” against misogyny.”

Last year we marched in D.C., here's last year’s post.

This year, Brick X Brick held simultaneous walls against misogyny beginning at 1:00 p.m. EST, in 12 cities across the nation: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, St. Louis, Nashville, New Orleans, Greensboro, Columbus, Providence, Boston, Montpelier, and New York City.

Facing 6th Avenue, about 60 of us stood in silence holding hands, for well over two hours. I think I lasted 2:15 minutes. The initial intention was 1 hour. We began our silent stand before the marchers passed. It was quiet. People were walking up and down and taking pictures, but it was mostly quiet. When you know you have at least an hour to go in silence, you start thinking. To my left was a beautiful woman named Solange and to my right another beautiful woman named Carolyn. I kept thinking of them. I wondered about their lives, their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters. I wondered where they came from, the root of us. I thought about my two sisters, Sabina at the wall site taking pictures and Ariana in Mexico. I thought about Mom, who’s in the hospital, hating it, and insisted Sabina and I go to the march for all the woman nurses and doctors that work in New York Presbyterian. I thought about Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, and the faces and hearts of so many people I love who are living a new existence on the island and abroad. Hurricane María changed the tide forever, and tears just flowed. And in the absolute concentrated state, I suddenly noticed the men and women in wheelchairs and walkers with signs of protest and I wanted to cry harder. My heart gripped with sadness and pride for their vulnerability and invincibility.

The frail dignity of us all hanging on a string. I practiced breathing. I looked at a capital letter “A” across the avenue on the window display and began thinking of affirmative words - Access, Almighty, Amorous, Action, Accomplishment, Awesome, Adventurous, Amiable, Accepting, Adoring, Adorable, Astounding, Assemble. Then came the drums and the thunder of the people. For two hours I stood in silent and watched as the marchers passed. And they saw us, the wall of love, assembled, accepting, accomplished, astounding, and adoring the almighty people coming together.

I loved many of the signs, some great new ones. I could not take pictures, but two stand out for me:

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

“When Voldemort is President, we need a lot of Hermiones.”

Amen.

Thank you, Brick X Brick (NYC) Sarah Sandman, Andrea Lauer, Katy Kirby, Jeannette Subero

In Solidarity,

Sol

Shadia’s eyes glow when she talks about her life-long journey as an artist. A Syrian-Puerto Rican hybrid child of love, Shadia is a natural bohemian, a woman musician, and a practiced professional. Here is a young woman who took music earnestly seriously as a kid. She learned how to read music before she learned how to read. She started singing on the latish side for a children’s choir, at the age of eight. When everyone else was out during the summertime, Shadia was playing Debussy at home, by choice, because she loved to practice. She went on to earn two different bachelor degrees (at the same time), one in music and another in communications. And then, after all that work she came to New York City and had to start again.

Over a decade has passed and Shadia today dedicates herself to acting, singing, musical theater, teaching piano, solfeo, voice, choir and maybe even a few other things related to music.

Theater credits include U.S. premiere of Spanish In The Heights, which garnered her a Best Actress nomination by Broadway World; In the Heights at D.C.’s Gala Theater; I Like It Like That at Pregones/PRTT; and a whole lot more. She’s not afraid to start from the beginning each time she’s off a great gig. What happens in downtown time is as important or more, than what happens at the height of busy. She’s clear it’s all about the journey and her lifelong commitment to artistic expression and discipline. Amen. Practice makes perfect.

Carry on.

Sol

Probably few people out there like Carlos. Twenty-years of Latin American cinema under his eyes, inside his heart and intellect. Nothing succinct can explain the entire “movement,” because people are not aware of the magnitude of the region’s relentless production work these past two decades. 

Latin American cinema is speaking to us loud and clear. The list of male and female directors make up a lengthy roster of active, daring, intelligent, industrious, and fabulous artists. For the most part, productions get made with meager budgets, but, "the limitation freed the filmmakers," Carlos says, and the wealth of material has not stopped coming and is beyond what anyone imagines it is. 

Public Relations and promotion are one of the most significant challenges facing the film industry, and especially, for the niche that is Latin American cinema. This very topic is subject to further discussion. More to come.

Cinema Tropical is now going on 18-years of championing filmmakers from all over the northern and southern American Continent and celebrating the 8th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards. Here is the 2017 Short List of films.  A new approach did away with the fiction and non-fiction category, listen to the talk to hear why.  Carlos rocks for a lot of reasons, but he is unique in his ability to contextualize the cultural voice of the Latin American and Latino filmmaking industry against the present cultural and political landscape. We don't go into that so much in this talk, but perhaps he will write about it for Cinema's 20th Anniversary. 

Last but not least, this was the year for Dominican cinema, check out Cocote. And, Daniela Vega is on the cover of W Magazine.

I sincerely wish everyone a blessed year 2018. Live long and prosper,

Sol

Thank you for your time and consideration throughout this open dress rehearsal process of the project notes from a native daughter. It carries on and slowly growing at the right pace and evolving as I do with it. This was a self-imposed exercise that gave me industry at a time when I needed to strive for a purpose. I was a broken lady then, a year and a half ago. And it worked, and the work, the time, the listening, the writing, the research, the people and their stories have made me a better woman and a better person. 

Today, at year end and eighty-something weeks and episodes later I can sincerely say that NFAND is a "must do" for me, every week, from the bottom of my heart. It's raw and one-on-one, and it is that intimacy that I stand by. And, I stand by all these talks. These people are thoroughbred people. Noble. Tall order. Our stories. 

In gratitude:

Adriana Teresa Letorney

Alex Rodríguez

Alfonso Díaz

Angel Manuel Soto

Aris Mejias

Arnaldo J. López

Bill Aguado

Bobby Sanabria

Bronislaw Czarnocha

Carlos Gutiérrez

Charlie Vázquez

Claudia Norman

Daniel Maldonado

Danny Rivera

Fernando Guzzoni

Fran’ Ferrer

George Emilio Sánchez

Honorable Congressman José Serrano

Honorable Fernando Ferrer

Howard Jordan

Jane Gabriels

Javier Gómez

Jorge Merced

José Morales

Joseph and Gloria La Morte

Judy Mam

Julia Solomonoff

Kim Sanabria

Lew Levine

Liz Guerra and Hector Gerardo* 

Luis Fernando Coss

Malín Falú

Manny Vega

Maria Nieto

Maria Torres

Marlena Fitzpatrick

Melissa Rendler-García

Native Nations March

Paola Mendoza

Pete “Bariman” Miranda

Rhina Valentín

Rokia Diabi

Rosalba Rolón

Rosary Solimanto

Rosie Berrido

Sarah Sandman

Tere Martínez

Veronica Sánchis Bencomo

Wallace “Waly” Edgecombe

Willie Perdomo

Yaraní Del Valle

End of Year repost of Episode 37 #ADayWithoutAWoman. 

Blessings and providence for 2018.

I look forward to January 20, 2018. I'll be marching with BrickXBrick. Sign up. 

Thank you again. 

Be safe. Be good to you. And stand against Neo-Facisim.

Sol

NFAND

* Correction: Last week, in the share for Episode 84, Liz Guerra was erroneously presented as Liz Torres for 1Freedom. Since corrected on the platform.

Tis' the season we bless the north star and the highest. Here then are Hector Gerardo and Liz Guerra, two bright leaders committed to making a difference.

Hector and Liz are community organizers working at the crossroads of arts, education, door-to-door canvassing, and the creation of workshops and safe spaces for poor young people in the South Bronx.

They share themselves open, fresh, excited, and true. A benefit concert at Taino Towers to raise funds for a water filter initiative they support in Puerto Rico is scheduled for 27 January 2018.

Sit. Reflect. Repent. Embrace the invisible spirit. Don’t believe the lies, stand for humanity. That’s the spirit.

Luis Fernando Coss, Peri, is a writer, a journalist, a published author, a professor of journalism at the University of Puerto Rico, and has been editor and co-founder of countless journals, and newspapers throughout his 25+ year career, Peri, is co-founder of one of the most important independent news platforms in the recent history of the island, 80grados Prensa sin prisa (press in no haste). Also, a published and recognized author, his latest book De El Nuevo Día al periodismo digital: trayectorias y desafíos (Ediciones Callejón) is about reinvention.

Read Marcia Rivera’s presentation to Dr. Philip Alston U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights who visited Puerto Rico on Sunday 10 December.  

This is a Spanish talk.

Calmed and poised Peri talks. He caught on early that digital would change how the word would survive. With an initial investment of $79.00, he launched 80grados alongside a numerous collective of cultural and creative workers. To date, the news site has published over 500 writers and creative professionals. And, they have published every Friday since they went live in 2010, hurricane season included.

Aquí Peri habla un poquito de todo. En general sale la descripción de como el periodismo independiente en Puerto Rico cobra una nueva fuerza cuando nace la plataforma digital. Pese a las desafios de la incierta estructura financiera que se le presenta a todo el mercado por igual, las iniciativas independientes de colectivos en el campo del periodismo en Puerto Rico han sido claves en estos pasados tres meses. El trabajo continuo, sacrificado y digno de muchos brilla hoy por esa misma constancia profesional y moral. Gracias a todos ustedes.

Sol

Teófilo Torres performs in New York City | 28 December 2017 | Loisaida Center

This episode 82, is a conversation/interview with the great Howard Jordan and Alex Rodríguez, and it was recorded as part of the Hostos50 Oral Collective. I’m still editing and re-editing interviews. The more time passes the more I realize the project is more profound than I ever imagined, with more to show than I ever thought. I’ve heard so many incredible stories from people who thought they stood no chance, but alas, the little college that everyone thought would flounder, that so many look down upon for being a community college in the South Bronx, has defied adversity and time in every single way.

Testimonies from people coming from some of the most vulnerable communities here in the U.S. and countries abroad, prove wrong the notion pushed by inhumane conservative pundits, that the poor are stealing the resources of the nation. So much repugnant chatter I am dismayed. But I seek inspiration. I seek purpose.

So, from where do you draw strength? Have you ever gone around asking and listening to the dreams of young students? Try it. Listen to Alex. He’s going to be a music producer and a sound engineer. He’s from the South Bronx and he feels free working at the studio. Making music and living are one and the same thing for him.

It boils down to this, “I believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.”

Sol