FROM LOWER WEST SIDE TO CENTER STAGE

As I’m celebrating the first year as a columnist with the Buffalo Latino Village, I’ve begun seeing some positive news from the documentary project that introduced me to the publisher of this monthly publication, Mr. Alberto Cappas.

A year ago, I went back home to Buffalo to film some interviews and footage for my project, “Boricua Soy Yo.” My main goal for this series is to capture what does it mean to be “Boricua”, and how is it defined. Although I conducted a few interviews in Central Florida during the late summer in 2019 for the piece, I could not have thought of a better place to really get footage rolling than my hometown, the lower West Side of Buffalo, NY. Although this project is trying to capture what it means to be “Boricua,” because of its personal nature to me, I wanted to capture when I grew up and how the West Side may have influenced my life as a Boricua moving forward. This documentary project has introduced me to many people from all walks of life who have that one connection; a Puerto Rican identity as it relates to our history and even our future. In early October, I was made aware of an Arts & Cultural Festival that would be hosted by The University of Central Florida (UCF) in downtown Orlando, at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Arts, in April of 2022.

One of my past interview subjects recommended that I submit my (still to be completed) project for a showing, and after some thought, I went ahead and started the process. To my surprise, the documentary project was selected to screen on April 9th, 2022 at 8pm, but also, I was asked, if I would be interested in having a panel discussion!  To say that I’m not proud of this achievement would be an ultimate lie, as I’ve always been a little critical of my own productions, and honestly, always felt embarrassed when others watched my work. However hearing the excitement from the event organizers and how well they thought this project fit into their event, left me with a good feeling of accomplishment, even if I still have some edits to complete.

Saturday April 9th, for better or worse will be the culmination of an almost two year journey that started during the early summer of 2019, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when masks where a daily thing and vaccines felt like a lifetime away. As it stands, the film project, which is going to be broken into multi-episode pieces of 25 – 30 minutes in length, is still in production, however much of the theme is already set in stone. In fact, two of the episodes I plan on screening during the event at Dr. Phillips Center for the Arts, are already pretty much completed, save for a few more interviews I’m doing, centered on Puerto Rican arts and culture.

Although the screening will take place in downtown Orlando in April of next year, I’ll carry with me a little piece of the lower West Side. West and Maryland to be exact. Where my family was raised, where I rode my bike as a child and where the sights and sounds of my youth shaped me into the man I am today. 

 Until Next time…