¡Firme!

Cuento de my mom, and her experiences as a Latina artist in San Antonio during the early fifties. A short story with more to come as she finds support because she made ice cream floats.

To the people that feel they have to “challenge” the community of color to prove why it’s important to express... Don’t, just don’t. You’re it helping the community of color in any way. You see a challenge to be more, and we see continued oppression. After fighting for hundreds of years, to be challenged is not something that will help us develop. No, it only creates more of a division, and puts us further back in the community we share.

A little cuento on why I named my podcast ¡Firme! and what that word means to me. Pictured: Tío Rudy, Tia Florence (RIP) Dad, y Tia Josie. Andalé tío... be firme!

I see a trend in the divided community of Spokane, and it’s not just about art.

We’re making efforts to have the community we want. When you destroy our cultural expression, you are dismantling all we have built through the challenges we’ve faced. Respect our history. You don’t have to agree, you could just respect and let us be.

The independence of my Gente hasn’t come yet. What we experience East just in the past, but happens today. Mexican Americans have forefathers on both sides do history and we still honor our ancestors. This is an other confusion of being bicultural in the U.S. among single lens of history.

If given the chance, would you go back and change your art career? The shows, networking, collaborations, all the personal experiences that define you as an artist today? This was a question posed to me by the voice message on Anchor.

As a bigger community we’re divided by the labels that are imposed upon us. Along with these labels, we’re also further divided by our cultural pride. Among the Spanish speaking population outside of Spain, if we united as “gente” we’d have a collective voice. A stronger, louder, empowered voice. We’d still be able to show our micro and macro cultural pride. Nothing is erasing that because we have more in common than what sets us apart. ¡En solidaridad! We are simply gente, and have the right to unite.

The tools of the trade is new conversation on ¡Firme! Talking about the methods of how we make what we make, and what changes when we change our tools.