NFND-CODA XXVI | Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez (Take Two) The Ethics of Work
It’s been a minute, but I’ve been busy. This talk is super Spanglish and raw. I have no music, I used REV to record, but the heart is there...
Time and again via this sharing project I’ve presented people and stories that speak about the incredible history of Hostos Community College, where I work full-time, right in the heart of the South Bronx. The events of the past 11 days have reminded me of what happened in the South Bronx 50 years ago. Not that I ever forget, but it stings, because the College’s history and purpose is still relevant, it is happening now again, only different.
Black Lives Matter and Brown Lives Matter. The intermix of history is so painful and so interwoven with the consequences of the “Discovery of America” that it seems almost impossible to catch up to it. Such a vast genocidal conquest and so little has been really taught right.I often think of my friend Bernardo Ruiz, the awesome documentary filmmaker who called his first production company La Quinta Raza. ¡Que bingo! I’m brown because pops is black and mom is white. Luckily for me both of my parents have always been humanists and realists and aware of the injustice of racism and its structural inequities, and they never sugar coated anything for my siblings and I. It was pops who first taught me that Black is Beautiful. And never has he stopped speaking against the terrible and savage consequences colonialism has brought to Puerto Rico. It’s all in the news for your reference.
In the very walls of the Hostos A-Building there are posters from years of Hostos Center for Arts and Culture programming, and one of dad’s concerts hangs among them. Prior to COVID, I could say I see dad every day when I go to work. Inevitably when I pass the poster I think of him and of his stories of when he first started to play in New york City and specifically The Bronx.
This past month, for commencement season, I spoke and interviewed a lot of Hostos students and alumni. All of them brown and black African Americans, Africans, and Latinos both documented and undocumnted. Each story rooted in blood, sweat, and tears with journeys so painfully inspiring I often just cried after hanging up with them. Overall, I have spoken with nearly 300 people that in some way shape and form have been a part of the Hostos legacy. Some of these stories are so heavy they’ve made me feel sick to my stomach.
What black and brown people go through to strive for a better life is for the books of champions.
Which brings me to Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez, another champion from The Bronx.
His story is moving and filled with a type of God sent blessing is hard to explain. But it is, the skinny is that here’s a kid that took to comics back in the day when the Bronx was burnt and is known today far-and-wide for his comic La Borinqueña. Though Edgardo is a man of many talents. The focus of our talk in this podcast we recorded a month ago is about what it takes to make a comic like La Borinqueña. I titled this share “the ethics of work” because one of the reasons I admire him, is for his ethics of work. Just like all the kids I’ve spoken with this past month, Edgardo did something with the hand he was dealt. And, to his credit and honor, La Borinqueña is precisely about pride and honor. Edgardo brought a heroine to life with Marisol Rios De La Luz to in some way, his way, contribute to Puerto Rican pride. But to me, the real story is what goes behind the scenes and the process of creating this super hero now the face of Masks for America.
It takes not just Edgardo but a crew of Latinx and Puerto Rican women artists to put the work together. Today more than ever, any effort to advance Puerto Rican history and identity have a soft spot in my heart.
So. This gesture is a shout-out for you to pre-order La Borinqueña #3. You’ll be helping Edgardo employ artists that are desperate to show their ethics of work.
In solidarity and with love,
Sol