Efrain’s Corner

Efrain Ortiz Jr.
http://efrainortizjr.blogspot.com/

Efrain’s Corner is my view on Latino/Puerto Rican life standing with my back to a corner wall in a room, that room being the world, where I can get a full view of what is going on. With that corner view, I can share comments, thoughts, opinions, memories, and culture in relation to Latinos and the Puerto Rican diaspora. My intent being that if even one person reads something on my blog and it inspires that person to want to learn more about the culture then I have helped in preserving the same.


I did not begin blogging with the intention of writing, I only began blogging after a conversation with now fellow blogger, Phil Velez of Velez’s View. That conversation led me to curiously read his blog, and after doing so, I became inspired enough to give it a try. Initially, I didn’t think much about it and didn’t think anyone would even read any of the short posts I had written. Within several weeks of blogging, and finally, receiving a few comments, I realized the opportunity that was before me. An opportunity to share and learn more about my culture. That interest in my culture was there for a very long time, and what was lacking was the interested audience. The conversations I had with several people always seemed to show a disinterest. I decided to take the opportunity to use blogging as a platform for sharing that which I love so much, my culture. It is that sharing of cultural information, whether an event, new talent, historical figure, or comment/opinion on a current event that affects or promotes Latinos or Puerto Rican culture that motivates me. In return, I hope to become a better writer and to connect with others that share the same love for the culture.


I try to offer the reader that stops by my blog something different every time. Instead of keeping it to one subject, I prefer to spread things out. I like to offer that reader looking for a little bit of history a place to begin that search, the reader looking for a cultural event with an opportunity to support our culture, the reader looking for a different perspective on a current event with an opportunity to get that different view. I challenge the reader to learn, share, teach, and support our culture.

Efrain Ortiz Jr.
http://efrainortizjr.blogspot.com/

Musings – http://nilkibenitez.blogspot.com

Owner: Nilki Benitez nilkibenitez @yahoo.com

The one thing I have always known for sure is that my mind relishes in fantasy. I am a product of strength, determination, and courage to be independent, free and autonomous. As a child of professional-educated immigrants, I grew up in an upper-middle class suburb of Seattle, a burgeoning progressive city where my sister and I were the only Latinas throughout our entire primary education. If it hadn’t been for the Sunday morning cumbias and pandebonos and visits to Colombia which occurred every five years or so, I wouldn’t have known I was a Latina. I still remember my girlfriend’s shock in high school when she discovered I didn’t fill in the ‘white’ bubble of a form. Yes, we celebrated Christmas with our Latin friends (there was a loose group of about twenty families) by eating dinner just before midnight and opening gifts at midnight. Yes, I noticed the grocery clerks, post office workers, and waiters who refused to understand my parents’ English; heavily infused with tropical nuances. Yes, I noticed the security guards at Nordstroms following us around when we went shopping for our back-to-school clothes. But aside from those things, I was just me. I didn’t know how to be a Latina, and I didn’t know how to be a Gringa.

My parents had rejected Catholicism and had eloped in the late 1960s to Ecuador, the only country in South America at the time which acknowledged civil marriages. We did not go to church as a family. We did not have family to visit on Easter. We weren’t allowed to wear Guess jeans or Keds sneakers. I used to be thrilled when I discovered classmates who were cousins. I would watch them in the hallways, their casual interactions unfathomable. The times we would visit our family in Colombia, we were the Gringas. Well loved, yet strange; outsiders. Both worlds belonged to me, yet I didn’t belong in either. I learned to carve out my identity and an existence at the edge of all well-established community parameters. This is something that has fed my intellect as a writer my entire life, and something I feel eternally grateful for. The ability to observe and immerse myself in people’s lives authentically, without prejudice or bias, has allowed me to have a second-nature approach to characterization in my story telling. Before my daughter was born, I wrote sporadically. Ferociously, but sporadically. I tended to need half a bottle of anything to gain the courage to allow myself this expression. I used to believe it was the genie in the booze that knew what to say. Two years ago, I made the decision to fully devote myself to my writing, and to listen and believe in my muse. They have been the scariest two years of my life. Imagine, after so many years of having kept my writing private, and the constant stories that inundate my thoughts, how I felt to reveal to others around me that I am attempting to be a writer. It was too scary to even say the words “I am a writer.” It’s taken a long time to ignore the village mob in my head that continues to shout “Fraud!” Even though writing is the one and only thing that I truly believe is what I’m meant to do.

On New Year’s Eve of 2007, I gave myself one year to dedicate myself to writing. If I didn’t make it, I would forget about it and get a real job. I wrote a feature-length screenplay and gave myself another year. I have since written the screenplay for a short play, many new poems, and started my blog, Musings. Musings has been exactly that – a place to freely express myself through poetry and random musings. My blog is a safe place where I’ve found my muse feels comfortable coming out. Musings has also helped me establish a place where I can connect with other writers and keep expanding my education as a writer. I have also become a member of Nuncasola which has proved to be an incredible source of inspiration and support. I would not be where I am today, emotionally and spiritually as a writer, if it were not for the members of Nuncasola and their support. Through Musings, I hope to inspire writers, especially those at a similar stage as mine in their careers. I can’t imagine a scarier and lonelier place than that when one chooses to devote their life to writing. I hope visitors to my blog, Musings, will feel welcome and inspired to grow along with me in this fantastic journey.

Nilki Benitez nilkibenitez @yahoo.com
Musings – http://nilkibenitez.blogspot.com