2015 means changes, reunions, and returning home

Me and my high school sister Sandra Ortiz, and LAUSD gem!

January 17, 2015

It's 2015 and lots of things have changed. The first bit of news is that after four and a half years of living in the Bay Area I have returned home to Los Angeles in pursuit of a professional career in the entertainment industry/arts. That is --the RETURN to the film/tv world -- as I used to be part of it before moving to Berkeley. This choice was not an easy one to make. It came after a year of exploring my goals in life as a professional artist and arts administrator, after considering my strengths as an artist, and also in thinking about my family. In the end, I realized I still have a passion for visual storytelling and writing, thus being in close proximity Hollywood would be the best option for my career. Now back in Los Angeles, I am on a mission to find a place where I can grow and share my skills to the fullest capacity. It's time to grow roots.

The Bay Area has provided me a lifetime of growing and learning. I went to school, graduated with a degree, worked as an artist, collaborated with artists, got back into my dance groove, became an independent contractor (videographer, editor and writer), participated in theater as an actor, facilitated in creative writing circles, got certified as a Laban/Bartenieff Fundamentals Movement Analyst, and also explored Education for future prospects in my career. Berkeley, Oakland, and finally San Francisco have enriched me; especially in how I approach community.  I was even able to travel outside of California through some Bay Area contacts and work for them in other cities like New York, Salt Lake City, and even in South America -- São Paulo, Brazil. I walked through many towns many small cities in the northern California; learning more about myself as a creative person in the process.

And after the five years of learning, I am returning back to Los Angeles, my second home after Perú.

In the last few weeks, I settled myself back in Los Angeles--with a short intermission of visiting family in Perú (S.A.)---and here I am in the outskirts of the 405 freeway and staying with family during my time of transition, and working freelance via my computer with organizations who I hold dear to my heart.

Five years away from Los Angeles has changed a lot of things here too. My friends have become professionals, successful forces to be reckon with. Last night, I reunited with Sandra Ortiz, one of my high school friends who is now a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Aside from our current life situations, we also talk about family. Throughout the night we shared stories about Mexico and Perú, worries about the future, becoming home owners, family woes and triumphs, and how relationships change. We laughed at how our teenage years, how we used to think -- and how we think now.

I sit here in my room smiling and thinking about all the wonderful things that were, and that will be.

Bay Area -- I take away with me your progressive thinking, your bridges over fog, your multiple bins to help the planet, your college stories on the Berkeley hills, your embrace of my writing in various mediums, your embrace of my dances, your protests and marches, my professors and colleagues from Cal, the consciousness in (almost) everyones mouth, the promise that is kept, the dance community, the theater groups, and the window into art through my video work. I will carry you and your stories close to my heart.

Los Angeles, here I come.