1. If you could be a historical character from actual life or from a book, who would you be and why? What would you do as this person?
This one was a difficult one to answer. My mind began spinning like a Ghandian charka weaving an endless homespun garment. I thought of giants like Martin Luther King, Harvey Milk, Abraham Lincoln,the Buddha, Christ, Dame Judi Dench (OK, OK, I had to mention her, she is so good!!!). I admire many different people in history for their sacrifice and heroism but one rather little character came running back to me every time I pursued and answer: Frodo, the hobbit from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy. He was not fearless; he did not possess the physical prowess to endure such gargantuan travail as to destroy evil in the form of monsters, sorcerers and deceitful creatures (Not that different from our normal mortal lives.) Yet his love, tenacity and sense of duty made him a transcendental figure in his world. If I had his committed faith and determination I would champion the fight against injustice and inequality.
2. What is the most important decision you've made in your life and why?
I did not know it at the time but the most significant decision I have ever made was to go to college in upstate New York. It literally opened my eyes. I not only developed intellectually but also was exposed to different people from all over the world. My insatiable quest for knowledge and understanding began right there in the inclement winter weather of Syracuse. I remember one very cold December evening in Neo-Romanesque Crouse College Auditorium. I went to see I Musici perform The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). I had a mystical experience then. I saw the banquet of life unfold itself before my eyes. I found my sun far away from the tropics where I was born. I found my sun in the winter of a northern latitude and it has been a wondrous journey ever since...
3. Select two photographs that have made a significant impact on you and explain what their importance is in your life.
3. Select two photographs that have made a significant impact on you and explain what their importance is in your life.
Martha Graham: Letter to the World (Kick), 1940
Barbara Morgan, photographer
Dance is the transformation of the human form into the plausible. In this photo Martha Graham exemplify such notion. She becomes a half-moon, an unfolding white rosebud, an avatar of human motion, a determined love arrow thrown by a forceful and intrepid cupid.
Bathing Suits for Izod,
George Hoyningen-Huene, photographer
An understated elegance in a heroic pose. Looking beyond the context of their own time and place into the vast unknown. Adam and Eve full of expectation and desire, happy to be out of that drab and boring Eden.
4. You have lived in at least two different cultures; explain how this experience influences how you see the world, both personally and politically?
4. You have lived in at least two different cultures; explain how this experience influences how you see the world, both personally and politically?
I am a Blue-eyed Caribbean Latin American of European ancestry who is a citizen of the United States of America. At home in Puerto Rico I was considered a blanquito or americanito (white or American- like boy) a totally different species from the rest. Back in college I was regarded as a foreigner. So I suppose I always felt like an outsider; more romantically put, an émigré. A person that does not belongs fully anywhere. I had the rare opportunity to go inside both cultures because at the end of the day I could pass for either nationality. That made me notice and contrast both cultures. We are not that different at all. Right now I feel very comfortable with my background, in fact I think is an asset to be multicultural.
5. A hundred (plus) years from now, someone finds something of significance that you left behind. What is it and why is it significant?
I hope that anything I did, said, or depicted in music and photography moved anyone to embrace the reality that Love is our true nature.
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