Carlos Pérez

Writer + Social Entrepreneur + Content Strategist

Nomination:

Nominated by Ben Goebel. Carlos Perez is an international fiction and non-fiction author and poet. One of his community projects is @philibros.

About Carlos:

Carlos wanted to be a writer since he was a kid. From a young age, he enjoyed reading constantly, and began writing around the age of 12. No wonder he thought of himself as an intellectual at such a young age! 

When he moved to the United States from Mexico, the most significant change for him was the language. As a writer, he found it especially difficult because to him, lacking the right words to communicate is a reminder that you do not belong. For Carlos, language is a territory and it’s important to learn different languages. He lived in Tanzania where speaking 4 languages is considered normal. Language can become very political. However, he found it easier here to find people willing to help him adapt. One of his biggest surprises after moving to Philadelphia was finding community.

Carlos was fortunate to participate in the Who Will Speak for America? Project from Temple University. When contacted to participate in the project, he was asked, “what do you think about America?”. For him, America is not a country, it’s a continent. Even the United States tends to assume that it itself is America. He reminds us how false this idea is, and writes about it in the publication.

A man of many projects, he is the first artist in residence for the Penn Museum. His current project is focused on teaching poetry to the Spanish speaking immigrant community. According to Carlos, poetry allows us to transform reality through language. He is also involved in Philibros, bringing Spanish literature to the Spanish speaking community through good quality books. He is also writing an opera to be presented in France about colonization and how Mexicans are seen and portrayed in Europe. Lastly, he reminds us that he is a writer, and that he just finished a poetry collection and a novel.

Carlos is extremely happy and honored to be selected as an Everyday Genius. He believes this kind of exposition helps artists and their work become more well known. 

For him, the highest level of being spiritual is to go back to the earth, to the soil. We forget that we belong to the earth, and that the earth belongs to us. He advises people to garden, to enjoy feeling the skin while bathing.
He mentions that he was born the year of the big earthquake in Mexico. I wonder if his connection to the Earth comes from such an event.

Article by I Belong Philly. Created by Ben Goebel, Geórgia Consença and Cristina Zanoni. 

Quotes from Carlos:

"It's very important to remember that language is a territory. Language is the way that we craft reality. That's why it's important also to learn different languages…it's important to understand that language is very political. And the more we understand that, the more we're going to make decisions towards diversity, such as linguistic diversity, and so on." 

"Don't worry, you are going to be fine. Like, everything is going to shine at the end of the tunnel. Keep going because I feel that sometimes we get lost in the outcomes and we want to receive the results right away, but we don't know how life is going to take you to different places." 

"I do feel that culture is the mix of values that we have learned in our ways, like now that I live in the US, I am learning a lot of values that are new to me, and they are very good for me and for others. So, the way that I connect with them with my Mexican cultural values, or whatever, is they will coexist if those values have a real meaning in my life. I don’t have to recover them, they’re going to naturally come up every time.”