As I rode, with my beautiful soulmate and her son, to a Storytellers Festival, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, I had no idea that we would end up taking a picture with Luiz Valdez, who just happens to be a hero of mine ever since I sat in a movie theatre a little while back in time, watching Zoot Suit, in which he gave us a look at life in a barrio in L.A., in hopes that there might be a more loving world someday. And, of course, a long time before the launching of that screenplay Luis, calling on his life growing up in a family of fieldhands, gave birth to El Teatro Campesino as a way to utilize the art of acting to rally the spirits of the farm workers and allies that brother Cesar Chavez had organized. Needless to say, Luiz was one of the speakers on this day and he had us mesmerized, looking sharp dressed in black, with narratives of the happenings in his life that inspired him, starting at a very young age, to want to create ideas for movie screens and the stage, productions designed to help humanity appreciate the diversity in its midst so that we might build bridges between us as opposed to building walls that divide us. And other speakers were also aligned with such thinking, sharing their journeys as Latinos, of the things in their upbringing that enabled them to conceive and give chase to hopes and dreams in a spirit wherein their intent was not only to be successful in a career they would hold dear but to also do good in the world as active contributors to the social and political wellbeing of their communities and society as a whole. I literally sat at this occasion feeling nothing but goodwill, if you will, and I was thrilled that there are more stories that are being told, that the Latino Legacy Foundation, the organizers of this celebration, has a multi-media-project online, “San Diego Latino Legacy, Timeline-Milestones-Stories,” that’s ripe with first-person accounts of people’s lives, how they’ve overcome and survived, all the while keeping the Chicano Movement alive. Oh, I so agree with the Latino Legacy Foundation’s belief that the more we tell our stories the more knowledgeable and understanding of each other we become, as well, no matter our skin color or ethnicity, or creed. This storytelling festival will be tucked away in the place in my soul where I store and hold precious memories and taking a picture with Luis, the man, Valdez, will be uppermost among these. Put simply I had an incredibly beautiful day.
Ernie McCray is an activist for love and peace who acts and sings and writes both poetry and prose, a man who rises each day to do whatever he can, no matter how small or grand, to make the world better in some way.
Unapologetically.