Notes From A Native Daughter

A good teacher can change you forever.

Like my 11th-grade math teacher Ana. Something about how she taught opened me to the magnificence of Algebra. My awakening made me yearn for homework. I asked for more of it, I couldn’t get enough. By the time my high school graduation came, I no longer felt like I didn’t have a brain for math, which really dented in my self-esteem for years. But I did have it, it just took me a while, the right teacher.

And that’s the thing with Lew Levine, professor of English. He’s taught English at Hostos Community College for years now, like 40. In broad terms, Lew’s an old-timer of the Bronx, New York City, multi-lingual immigrant populations, communities of color, The City University of New York, and education as a principle.

I’ve seen so many eyes light up when they mention the Professor. They all say more or less the same things, that he’s respectful, fun, serious, makes them feel important, and he’s a stand-up man.

This is a beautiful story of a life of service.

#Hostos50 #HCC #Education #power #access #Bronx #New York City #multilingual #English #Spanish #French #dialects #immigrant #populations #communitiesofcolor #CUNY

Comes in Rokia Diabi. A young woman and student with a promising future. The power of her promise nested in her dream of becoming a lawyer some day. She's so sincere. Goodness. Rokia has seen a lot, suffered a lot, but she overcomes. Here is a woman's story, a student's story, a snippet of an urban tale in globalized times.

#IamAnImmigrant #HumanRights #Education #NYC #Hostos50 #CUNY

I stand with the students and allies of the University of Puerto Rico.

For the next four weeks, I will share full episodes of the Hostos50 Oral Collective.

As the repulsive PROMESA proposes to slash funding from the UPR there is no better time than to share what I have been privileged enough to document for the past eight months. The antithesis of the long-term consequences of a city without a local and public educational institution.

My first love is arts and culture.

And so Episode 45 is Wally Edgecombe. He’s amazing. Just amazing. And as I see it, and at this juncture, Wally is a chapter of South Bronx history.

This is Part I of II. For those of you into deep dives, the various links will take you to the Soundcloud page where the rest of the vast collection, will be uploaded to for the rest of the year. And there, you will find Part II of Wally Edgecombe. The rest is history.

#Hostos50 #HCC #Bronx #SouthBronx #NYC #History #ArtsandCulture #CUNY #HostosCenter

If the legendary Puerto Rican educator, writer, and patriot Don Eugenio María de Hostos were alive today, I wonder what he’d think of the community college in the South Bronx named after him, that no one thought would make it. Alas.

Just this past Thursday, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College launched its 50th Anniversary Season.

I can't help but believe that Don Eugenio would be proud of what one of the most marginalized and disenfranchised communities to have ever been in United States history did for themselves.

The story of Hostos is deserving of a lot more attention than it has ever received. It truly is an amazing story. A story about the Bronx, New York City and a reveal of margnalized communities. My relationship with the College is long and now very profound. Life changing really. And I’ll share that story as the year unfolds.

But for part one, for the past 8 months, I’ve been coordinating, conducting, and editing an oral history project for and about Hostos Community College - Hostos50. To date, I have interviewed well over 100 people and counting for a grand goal of 200. From former College Presidents Cándido de León and Flora Mancuso Edwards, to Congressman José E. Serrano, and former Bronx Borough Presidents Fernando Ferrer and Adolfo Carrión, to young students with a promising future like Rokia Diabi.

Once a month, for the next year, I’ll share some of these testimonies if you will. The testimonies are moving, sincere, revealing, courageous, some devastating, others empowering, and the story of triumph over adversity. And more relevant than ever.

Which brings me to Tere Martínez. I wanted to start with her because I love her because she has been nothing but noble to me and because her purpose is beautiful and her testimony open and to the point.

Like the song says, I must have done something good, for the grace of God gave me the opportunity to work on this project when we have, arguably, the most despicable crew of racists, sexists, homophobic, fear mongering, science deniers, xenophobes and troglodytes leading the world order.

The point indeed is that the voices emerging from this Hostos Community College oral collective as I’ve heard it first hand, confirm to me yet again that the leaders have it all wrong.

Ignorance judges the so-called “moochers” for being good for nothings. The truth is you find moochers and good for nothings at every level and anywhere you go, is not an exclusive club of poor people of communities of color.

The bottom line is that the power of education is real and access is imperative.

#Hostos50 #Bronx #NYC #History #Education #access #communitiesofcolor

Julia Solomonoff rocks. She’s cool, serious, candid, and it appears like she glides from one great thing to another great thing. At it for many years, Julia has some really beautiful credits. As director, those include, The Last Summer of la Boyita (produced by Almodovar, winner of over twenty international awards) and Hermanas (participant of Sundance and Berlinale Talent Campus labs and premiered at Toronto). As producer, Alejandro Landes’ Cocalero (Sundance 2007), Julia Murat’s Found Memories (Venecia, Toronto, 2011), Ana Piterbarg’s Everybody Has a Plan starring Viggo Mortensen (Toronto 2012), Lucia Murat’s Memories they told me (FIPRESCI winner Moscow 2013) and Celina Murga’s The Third Bank of the River executive produced by Martin Scorsese (Berlin 2014). And, she was 1st AD to The Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles.

She co-wrote and directed the feature film Nobody’s Watching (nadie nos mira), world premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in the International Narrative Competition with screenings on the 22, 23, 26 and 27 of April.

Spoiler alert: In this episode 43 Julia and I talk film financing, Argentinian women directors, directing from the inside and about Guillermo Pfening, the film’s protagonist and hero. Mr. Pfening (Nico in the film) is a wonderful actor. He delivers a courageous performance that reaches a gamut of difficult emotions with such elegance. It was a pleasure to watch him go at innocence, love, grief, striving, desire, utter destitution and embracing self-reliance. Broke my heart. I’ve seen this story. Nobody’s Watching is a New York story and a world story. After 27-years and counting here in the City, I don’t know of anyone, who has not faced the sun at sunset when all seems lost. But not all is lost. Ja-ja! It ends well... In Spanish we have the verb tenses “ser y estar.” This is the crux of the foundation of the language in its most literal sense, in understanding that distinction of the state of the self. “I am” and “I am” in English is one state. But in Spanish, “ser” (I am) is a permanent state, and “estar” (I am), is transitional. Somewhere in there is the story of us.

#Argentinefilmdirectors #ArgenitneWomenFilmDirectors #ArgentineFilmProducers #ArgentineScreenwriters #JewishArgentine #NFAND #PanAmerican #MultiLingual #Bilingual #ArtsandCulture #LatinoFilm #LatinoFilmmaker #LatinAmerican #Cinema #CinemaTropical #Tribeca #TribecaFilmFest #TFF2017

Joseph and Gloria La Morte are a special husband-and-wife creative duo. They’ve etched a place for themselves in the creative economy. Combined, Joseph and Gloria have produced films, documentaries, web series, public service announcements, special segments, edited features, written screenplays, and acted; and are parents to Emile. Good people.

For years they’ve been part of my artistic and professional compass. How do they/we do it? When and how does the creative life begin? Make something out of it. And that they have. Joseph says something really true here towards the end. I’m paraphrasing, but it’s something like, yes we have to pay the mortgage, but we find ways to feel at peace with how we earn our money. The crux of the hunt. And it lives with the actions of us/them, the creative work. In their case, Details, Crush, Entre Nos, Free Like the Birds, Get Some, 11 Million Stories, and much more. See JoeynGloria.com.

Their son Emile will know all about producing and filmmaking for sure. I tried editing down to 30 minutes but it was almost impossible because of course, thoughts come in story form as told by creative workers. Also, the sound is not ideal, but I worked it and am proud of the editing to bring balance to the three voices. The talk stands because this conversation is really about making the quotidian matter.

#joeyngloria #filmmakers #latino #content #creators #producers #husbandandwife #getsome #11millionstories #colombia #newjersey

Javier started his career in communications way back when his parents built him a playhouse, that at one point he turned into a studio news station. He wrote scripts and broadcasted the news. I can picture him clearly, little, doing his thing. He read the papers everyday at 8:00 p.m. with his parents. His love for news is a way back thing. Good it is.

A consummate professional in the field of communications, Javier knows government, public affairs, culture, society, political campaigns, and a whole lot more. More like acting and performing. He combines his art and what he considers his civic duty, reporting on local news.

He and I have grown up together, professionally speaking. In this episode 41, we talk about that, the things we do, the new era of news and though he’s straight laced and I the bohemian one, we’re good colleagues, with nothing but mutual respect. Good, it is.

#NFAND #podcast #NotesFromANAtiveDaughter #PanAmerican #Latino #Arts #Culture #Conversations #Spanish #English #Spanglish #News #Journalism #Content #Artist #Multidiscipline #Leader #Actor #Puerto Rico

Episode 40. Towards the end of our conversation Daniel Maldonado says that “dealing with rejection is soul crushing and it never ends...it’s about managing expectations."

Daniel Maldonado is steady like that, like an oak, and owning his journey as a writer, director, and filmmaker. His movie H.O.M.E. is beautiful.

They went rogue. The director, cast, and crew, filming underground NY-MTA...

H.O.M.E. is on tour: Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara (market) - Festival Internacional Cine, Álamos Mágico (screening) - San Diego Latino Film Festival (screening) - North Hollywood CineFest (screening) - Phoenix Film Festival (screening) - Chicago Latino Film Festival (screening) - Bentonville Film Festival (screening).

Home is where the heart is…

#H.O.M.E. #HOMEthefilm #DanielMaldonado #Latino #filmmaker #NALIP #NFAND #PanAmerican #Multi-lingual #Conversations #Arts #Culture #Society #Resistance #FreeCulture #Stories #Immigrants #HumanRights

Maria taught herself how to write in formulas, that’s the Hollywood way, and she takes to it. She’s working on a couple of horror and Sci-Fi scripts. Maria has a whole lot of profound and sensible things to say about being, writing, surviving, the politics of the day, and she’s a good listener.

How we got to talking about loss and mourning I’m not sure, but we did, and I thank her for it. The dead live. What a paradox.

Indeed, that this should be the week the U.S. Gov in all its mighty might announced axing the arts from federal funding. They may or may not succeed, but one thing is for sure, art will never die. Art lives.

#MariaNieto #Latina #Writer #LatinoStories #Woman #ArtLives