A conversational interview about authoritarianism in Latin America and its impact on artists and everyday life. The speaker connects regional patterns—dictatorships, disappearances, political violence—with personal family histories (mother experienced Castro’s rise in Cuba; father’s family lived under Dominican Republic dictatorship mid-20th century), discusses repression of dissent (job loss, exile, disappearances), and reflects on how these histories shape behavior and self-censorship.
Chapters
Latin America has sort of the shared history of struggles with dictatorship, with colonialism, with political violence. And those are things I gravitate to as far as, like, stories I'm interested in. And, you know, there's a version of this that could be written in Chile and Brazil and. Dr. As far as, like, we've had our dictatorship, we've had our disappearances, we've had our autocratic, autocratic.
Authoritarian governments that use torture.
To get results, I guess. So it feels like there's this common story there between Latin America and I am really attracted to those.
What are your views on that? What are your views on power like that in the sense of authoritarian power at all costs?
Well, you know, power corrupts and it always seems to be beneficial. The beneficiaries seem to be sort of this elite group, 1%. So at the end of the day, it doesn't really become about the, the people of the country. And then a lot of these governments, their way to sort of silence the, the opposition is just straight up murder, disappearance, kidnapping. And a lot of that is kid disappearing, murdering young people, young people in the arts, young people that are trying to have a different point of view. And I think maybe as someone that works in the arts, I think that always sort of resonates with me as far as, like, expressing yourself through art and putting it all, like, putting your life on the line. My parents both experience or in their childhood, dictatorship. Like, my mom was around 10 when Castro came to power, and then in the Dominican Republic is a dictator for 30 years, from 1930 to 1960s. So by the time he is assassinated, my dad is around 10, 11. So they have grown up in this, in these systems, and I think it very much affects them to this day as far as, like, how they behave. Like, my, my mom and dad are always, like, they're always like, they don't want to share secrets with a bunch of. If they don't know you, they won't tell you. Like, there's always like, you know, you know, who's listening kind of thing. And I think that all comes from that. And I think there's always.
Because you gotta believe in the cult 100%. Yeah. Any defectors or anybody who is challenging it is called out and reported. And yeah, part of the cult is turning each other in too. Right?
Yeah. And I have an uncle in Cuba who had to leave because he was talking about Castro and the government in a way that was, it was at a coffee shop. So it wasn't like he's rallying the troops against him, but it was definitely a dissenting voice, if you will. He ended up losing his job. He was a teacher at university, which was, like, his favorite job. Like, he was just like, he. He really loved teaching. So he has to leave in, like, a matter of days with his wife and his young son, and they had to go to Spain. So that is my mom's oldest brother. So that is. You know, you're growing up with that kind of thing that happens to you. I think there's a hesitance to, like, may express yourself fully in public.
