Emilio J. Vargas: Bridging Hearts Through Story

What does it truly mean to belong?

In this heartfelt conversation, host Dr. Vilma Luz Cabán welcomes Puerto Rican author, broadcaster, and foster care advocate Emilio J. Vargas. As the first Latino male author featured on Write, Reflect, Reimagine®, Emilio reflects on the experiences that shaped his life and writing. He shares how a childhood fascination with radio eventually led him to become a foster and adoptive father, revealing that some of life's most meaningful stories are born when we embrace love, family, and purpose in unexpected ways.

Together, Vilma and Emilio explore:

• The unexpected path from broadcasting to becoming an author.
 • How foster care and adoption transformed his understanding of family.
 • Why vulnerability is one of the greatest strengths a storyteller can possess.
 • The importance of Latino men sharing stories of caregiving, compassion, and emotional honesty.
 • How belonging shapes both children and adults throughout their lives.
 • Why every person's story deserves to be written, published, and preserved.

The conversation also introduces Emilio's memoir, Growing Up Together: The Chronicles of an Unexpected Family, and his children's book, I Belong. This Is Me., a celebration of self-worth, kindness, confidence, and belonging for young readers. 

More than an interview about writing, this episode is a reminder that every story has the power to build bridges, strengthen communities, and help someone else feel seen.

Whether you are a writer, educator, parent, advocate, or simply someone searching for hope, this conversation offers a meaningful reflection on family, identity, and the courage to embrace life's unexpected journey.

About Emilio J. Vargas:

Emilio J. Vargas is a Puerto Rican author, radio host, voiceover artist, and advocate for foster care and adoption in Connecticut. His work is rooted in compassion, humor, hope, and the belief that every child deserves to know they belong.

Author Website: https://emiliovargasauthor.com/

Author Email: emiliojvargasauthor@gmail.com

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Instagram:

Television Interview

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Casa de Maria. This is a space for writers, artists, and cultural storytellers who believe that our words carry memory, meaning, and responsibility. Here, we gather to reflect on craft, honored lived experience, and explore ethical pathways to publishing and creative growth. I am your host, Dr. Vimalis Kalai, founder of Casa Remedia Publisher. And I am grateful you are here.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Hello! Welcome back to Write, Reflect, Reimagine, the podcast where we explore the stories behind the storytellers and celebrate the voices shaping our communities through the written word. Today's episode is in To Alta Puerto Rico. And my guest is in Connecticut. And through the magic of Zoom and Zoom recording, we will be able to join and talk about the work that he's doing. Now, throughout the season, our conversations have featured some remarkable women whose books have challenged, inspired, and deepened our understanding of identity, resilience, and community. Today I am delighted to broaden that conversation by welcoming our first Latino male author to this podcast. Now, while Latino communities have always been rich in storytelling, Latino men remain less visible in many publishing spaces, particularly when sharing deeply personal stories about family, caregiving, vulnerability, and emotional growth. Their voices matter. Every story they chose to publish adds another important thread to the tapestry of our collective experience. I first met today's guest at the Hartford Puerto Rican Parade while we were representing a collective of Latino published authors. The author Daisy Plaza of the book, I Did It For Her, was the group organizer. And throughout her generous efforts, we were a part of celebrating Latino authors in that parade. Amid the celebration of culture, language, and heritage, we connected through a shared belief that our stories deserve to be written, published, and preserved after future generations. Today's guest is Emilio J. Vargas, a Puerto Rican author born in Ibonito, Puerto Rico, whose journey has taken him from humble beginnings in Calle to a career in broadcasting as a radio host and voiceover artist, and ultimately to becoming an advocate for foster care and adoption in Connecticut. His writing reflects the same qualities that define his life's work compassion, humor, vulnerability, and hope. His memoir, Growing Up Together, The Chronicles of an Unexpected Family, shares the unexpected journey that led him to fatherhood through foster care and adoption, reminding us that family is often built through love, commitment, and the courage to embrace life's unexpected terms. Now Amelia is extending that message to an even younger audience. And on July 30th, International Friendship Day, he will release his new children's book, I belong. This is me, written to encourage self-worth, belonging, kindness, and confidence. This book reminds every child that they have an inherent value and that who they are is something to be celebrated. Today we will explore the stories behind both books that discuss fatherhood, advocacy, Puerto Rican identity, the importance of representation in publishing, and why creating spaces where children and adults alike know they belong. It is one of the most important stories that we can share. Please join me as I welcome Emilio J. Valdas.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Thank you so much. What a great introduction. Actually, let's just leave it like that. Thank you. Find my book in Amazon. It was great. I want that, I want that to put it everywhere. Thank you so much for that introduction.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

You're very welcome. And that's why we're recording this today. I this season, season one, we've only done podcast audio podcasts. We are gonna launch this in our YouTube channel that we have for Write, Reflect, Reimagine, because this is an important day. This is our first Latino male author, and it's something to celebrate. And so that's why we're this is gonna live in the ether. So Amelia, Amelia, before we talk about your books, I'd love for our listeners to get to know you. Now you've had a career in broadcasting, advocacy, and publishing. Now, looking back, what thread connects all of those chapters of your life?

SPEAKER_03 6:21

If you see, it's crazy because when when I was a child, I was tremendous. And uh and uh my mom used to groan me a lot. So I remember that I have this radio on my on my room to hear music. I love music, you can see everywhere is is music, and so I hear I like this. You're in Puerto Rico, maybe you know this um radio station Stereotempo, no, 96.6, and there was this guy, Rey Agosto. He gasped this beautiful voice, really deep, really nice, and he introduced the music, and he said, Oh, this time we're gonna hear this, this, this, and that. And and and I love that, and I thought the guy lived in that place. So I have um little recorder, and I put a cassette inside, and I used to record myself doing the same thing that he did, and so raising I was looking forward to to do it, but never in Puerto Rico. I'm from Calle, and so it was really hard to get in into San Juan, and my family doesn't have the way to get me into San Juan, you know, and and so it was really hard for that time when I moved to Sidra, and so I found a radio station there that they gave me the chance to do some gimmicks, but but it's it was from a ground boy, from a boy sitting on board and his imagination, and also I was a breaking dancer, so that's all the thing. Everything's like link. I I was always looking to do something in in art.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

So radio is in our blood. My biological father, it was not only one of the very first radio personalities in Craig Obado at the time when they was AM before FM. And he was also an executive producer for radio. Of course, I didn't learn much about that. That's the sweet tea of my life. You'll learn that in my book, but I didn't discover that until much later in my life that radio was in our blood. So now we're in this space where we're reaching audiences, trying to captivate and instill a love of music, of the art, of the creative. How did that marry into maybe uh transition you to writing?

SPEAKER_03 8:54

So uh actually when the social media began, you know, you do you remember high five and and there was blogs that I was awful writing writing by then, and and I tried to blog like days by days.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

Did you always see yourself becoming an author?

SPEAKER_03 9:16

So I on Facebook I began writing stories. Anything that happened to me, I remember once I went to this pincho place, and they tried to charge me more than than it worth, and I went to the Facebook and I wrote a story. Like this morning, I start driving and I start working, da da da. Then I was thinking that I have one of pinchos, so I drove to the first place that I that I saw pinchos, and I make this story, and I told at it at the end, and I add like sarcastic things like this thing, this other thing, this looks like this is like this. Is it so people start laughing, and they always when the comments told me, next time this, next time that, and I thought, okay, you like my writing, so let me try. Let me try, keep trying it. So it becomes like a hobby. Like uh, I want to say this, but I want to say it funny. And I I I put too much humor in everything, you can read it, you you you're not, and you never well, but you you captured their their attention, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Many times when a reader stays glued, it's because they can identify exactly it's personally connect to the writing, and and that's why we're so happy that you put out your memoir of your experience, because when I think about you know that moment that you realize that this isn't just my story anymore. Yeah, this needs to become a book. When when did that moment happen for you?

SPEAKER_03 11:01

It happened when um when it was like a lot of pages, and I because it for me, I was looking to do a script for that YouTube video, like a short, maybe 20 minutes explaining how how was the process in in DCF. You know, I I I I was a foster dad, then I became a doctor.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

So for our audience who's not in the United States, because we are actually broadcasting 21 different countries, 87 cities worldwide wide, DCF is the department of DCF children's and families, children and families. So that is the kind of the entity that helps support children who are displaced, who need family support.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Yes, so because what happened during that time that I was learning a lot, a lot is everything on the book, every every everything that happened, and it's this chronology chronologically, that's why the chronicles, because it's from the beginning to the to the adoption, and so everything that is there that I that when I started writing and writing, I want this, I want to see this, this, this, and that. And I present it to my wife. Hey, listen, can you read it and let me know if you like it? And she said, No, that's too much. That's too much, too many pages. That's a book, and I have no time.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

I was like, Well, that was the book, I love it, you know. That was and it became the chronicles. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

That was like a book.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

No, it wasn't the chronicles of Maria, it was the chronicles of your journey as a father, right? Seeking to support young people in finding a home. Now, was writing it healing difficult or a little bit of both?

SPEAKER_03 12:52

Is I mean, when when I began as a script, I began in 2018, like the idea. Then I have most of the pages on 2019 and and and came the COVID, COVID, the pandemic came.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Oh, that's right, 2020, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Exactly. And I was so born home. We were working from home, and so I did everything like in 2020, but it was it was the part that because the actually this picture, this is the book, this picture, it was the last weekend that we gonna have with her. So that was that that was why I took I picked this picture, and so that was during the I didn't realize that the photo was biographical.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

I didn't realize that. Wow, you know, I love that because you know, we think about writing as something that's isolated. We've envision writers off somewhere hiding out, but at the same time, it sounds like writing was something communal for you. Yeah, I hear that you you mentioned your wife. I'm here in Toarta, Puerto Rico, so you're gonna hear the local dogs and the cookies and the I love that.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

I feel at home.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

So, so we had a young person being encouraging, and now we have a dog right now, probably running after the iguanas outside that are trying to get the platanos that are growing on my platano. Anyway, at this point, I was thinking about it's something communal, right? And as the communal experience, writing was an escape for you, especially in the time when it was so challenging. You know, it was that's a marker in our art in our civilization and our in the process of what you know. I I remember doing a lot of writing during that season. It was a time where it was cathartic. Writing was an escape for me, and it was a way to process. So I'm glad that you had this and that you were doing it on a little also in family. And it was part of the work that helped you understand this process as you were chronicling it. Now, one of the themes that connects both of your books is this idea of belonging. Now, right, like right now, that iguana does not belong in my yard, and that dog is like you don't belong here, so please forgive me. But this is this is you know, this is this is not a complicated space. The iguanas are really good fries, so do you're starting to tell now circling back to this theme of belonging through your experiences as a father, what have children taught you about love, family, and what it truly means to belong?

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Vilma, I'm still growing. That's that that's why I picked first the name growing up together. Because that the first time that I that I get into the DCF trainings, I start growing. Like this is a new world because it's a world foster care, adoption, kinship, relative, all of that is a different world. And the the fact of that is and it's it's like invisible. The body looks to these problems, and there is many problems happening, and and and so, but on the other hand, I wanted to share, like, as soon I get my first daughter, and I was sharing this with with with some friends on this conference that we had, and because I and we were talking about from adaptive to to biologically, and I I asked them, what do you feel? What do you felt the first time that you saw your son? Man, I felt this, I feel that, I feel that, I feel this, this, that. And he told them, you saw that coming out from your woman. I saw mine coming out from a car. And I felt all of that that you told me. The same, the same feelings, it's the same feeling, it's the same. So it's it that's that's why I'm growing. I want to learn how to be a father, I want to learn how to be a good man, how to be a good husband, and um, that's why they changed a lot of things. I stopped doing many other things, and uh because in in and I realized that that I that I'm a different man now, so I'm still growing, learning.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yeah, from the and your family, yeah, your family seeing you go go through the growth. You know, the person who was sitting next to you that you were like, I'm getting a little nervous. Who who was that? Tell us about that person.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

That is my daughter Emma, and she's like uh air quite. So when I'm doing things like this, I get nervous, like, please don't do one of your things. But she's great, she's a very kind girl. They went to this camp and they went popular. Everybody comes to me to tell me many great things about them, how great they are, how educated they are, how um kind and and and and and and good with all the people. And I was like, oh my god, so it's working. Because I'm I mean, that's that was all my fears. Because I didn't, and it's in my book, I didn't want to be even biologically, I didn't want to have kids at all. And so my wife, yeah, she she won it, but um, so that's why we came into this.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

So coming back to this idea of what it truly means to belong, I talk about it in our in in our introduction. What are you learning about this process of belonging?

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Is I if I can tell you, and that's why this book exists, if I can tell you, I never wanted to belong everywhere, anywhere. Never wanted like I want to do my want to do my stuff, I want to do what I like, but I don't care if I belong or not. And after the that I have my family, because I mean, don't get me wrong, I have a very good family. I came from a very Puritan family together. They stayed for 62 years together. My dad just passed two months ago, and uh they they were great parents, but they didn't have the tools that we have now. They and I can't I can't blame them because they don't have the tools, their parents didn't have the tools, and and and but they did what that but they can, but they can reach. So that's that was my fear.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Like, you know, and I don't want to belong anywhere because if I want to leave a parent doesn't come with the manual, it doesn't come with instructions exactly.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

But my thought, my thought was like, if I because if I want to leave, I can live quietly and nobody get dirt. But my wife doesn't think like that, she wanted to get married, she wanted like us a real family, exactly. And she told me, if you don't put a ring on my hand, I'm not gonna move from Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

A Beyonce gotta put a ring on it, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:31

Exactly, and that was the one.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I was like, uh, okay, you're love is radical, like loving is a radical act. You will do things that you never even imagined. You you you you pursue things that you thought you didn't even think you desired, you know, and it's all because in the name of love, it activates this this radical act of devotion that you didn't anticipate or expect.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

You know, there is I'm sorry to interrupt you. There is a part on my book that that just came in my head now that that explained the first hog, the first family hug that I ever had in my life. Because as a Puerto Rican, we grew in a family that a man doesn't show love. You know, we understand that you know there is too much machismo and that and mom sometimes they show love, but not you know, you need to feel love from every from every corner of your nose. So I I wrote in my book one thing that I wrote in this one, it's everything's linked, because the first time that I felt like four people were hugging me, I was like, Wow, what's it so that in there that is when I understand that I belong to somewhere, that there is a place that I can come back, that there is a place waiting for me, that there is a place that needs me. And uh so I realize that and uh so there is many kids that that I see it daily my job I I will tell you have that when I think about what you just shared is so vulnerable and our men our men need spaces to be able to share those moments that there's power in that release power in that moment of realization and declaration and that it should not be wrapped in shame or it should not be wrapped in it's not enough so I I admire your your courage I admire your bravery and you know I don't know about you but you know I put when I published my first book I was like I think it's one and done I'm not ready to do I can't do that again that's so I mean I right now I'm playing with the idea publishing a poetry collection but I'm not gonna lie I am terrified and to see me too ready on July 30th how exciting on International Friendship Day you're gonna release I belong this is me wow like good for you now why was this the right story to write at this point in your journey why do you think it is the right story there actually the when when I when I'm translate because the the first one and this is something that that that that I won't really want need to share the first one is in Spanish is full in Spanish actually it's the first book about foster care ever wrote in every United States about foster care in Spanish all the foster care books around around the country are in English and then then translated good for you good for you first one and and so after that I told my wife you know what I'm never gonna pass to this process again I lost weight I lost a lot because I was so it was my first like my firstborn and I was so nervous I lost weight on a lot of things and I say you know what I'm not gonna this is not gonna happen again but it happened Avenue of dreams that that is an event that we do every year in in my agency for we give prom diverses and tuxedos we do haircuts you know makeovers stuff like that for for teenagers so you you can I I saw I saw those faces you know with the hoodie on with the phone all the pride right it's just I don't want to be here I don't belong to here that I saw that and I remember when I was on like 13 years old and I wasn't like that because I was more I want to do everything that I'm seeing here so I talk I we start talking to them to the girls to the to the boys I I'm in you know in charge of of the men's room and after like let's say four hours five hours that they have the tuxedo on a new haircut a fresh a fresh haircut everything made fresh makeover everything they start shining the confidence start bright like crazy and and and I remember that we because every year we do videos for for for DCF to see the event and it's it's all in tears so this that year I took the song I belong this is me from the the greatest showman yes yes I'm familiar with it yeah when I heard that song I hear it again again and again and again and again I was like oh my god and then I say okay let's go to the paper and you cry grab it so all that experience for those kids from my kids from my childhood that I always wanted that's why I never wanted to be lone songward because as a child you always want to be lone songward and and and and and I always wanted to to have a girlfriend and and I was too short for the girls. So like if if I could think about a good question here if every child that could leave your book like if every child could leave your book with one message yeah what would you hope that message would be like what is the takeaway message that they walk away with the message that that again my my dad doesn't show love like you know because man that that kind of man didn't show love but my dad showed me something really great and it was wisdom and and and self-esteem he showed me that you can do whatever you want you are capable you're you can and and if you fail you can get get up again and do it again and again and again it doesn't matter how many times and that my dad gave me that and that's that's one of the powerful tools I ever I ever had in my life I I think and I was talking to my wife that I did whatever I wanted I'm for I'm turning 45 now and I'm regretting nothing from from from my past exciting wow exactly and and I always believe like I want to do this and someday I say I wanted to go on my radio I want to do radio you know the message is you could do it right exactly it's like it doesn't matter what the what that I mean if you're in foster care it doesn't matter what that paper said you're different you're a different person what that paper said is not you it's like when you are in school and you're struggling in relations like like you know trying to to get into friends that you like or the kind of you know friends that got your kind of music and they don't like you it doesn't matter because you are there you are there you belong to there if they don't like you doesn't care because you still belong and you it's you you don't have to change you don't have to act it's just you that's that thing the human condition is one where it's almost like we're immediately designed to see what's different. You know it's it's it's almost counter counterintuitive to go with how is everything the same we always come at something how is something different and you know when I think about this season you know it's featured some incredible Latina authors all very different and today you being our first Latino male author why do you think it's important for Latino men to tell stories that embrace this type of vulnerability this caregiving and this very raw emotional honesty why is that important every story matters bad good any anything because it's a lesson behind everything it's like um I I read and then I saw the the series of about Pablo Escobar so people told me what you're reading that I mean that and I'm like I like you know mafia stuff and this is real but the thing is at the end it shows it's actually it's not fiction it shows you how you learn something new and and my dad always says the um let me say I can translate that because it said in Spanish say it in Spanish we can try to translate it sure it's like he always my papa decided it's like if if you have no knowledge at all you get nothing in your life and you have nothing how you get he always say how you get knowledge and that's why he he forced me to read 20 minutes a day I remember that and he and he told me that's that's the only way that you can have knowledge I love that well like a publisher we often say that our stories deserve to be written published and preserved now what would you say to someone especially a Latino man who has a story inside of him but doesn't believe anyone would want to read it what would you say to him there is not not a stupid story there is not because more lives are not stupid I'm sorry about my language but I don't find another word I received as you are exactly the journey yeah every journey I mean I if you want to write a book about building houses I don't know how to build house I probably I want to learn something from you you know and and and and in and it's like I went to this event that I love on last Saturday write to rice I saw the our friend daisy there and many people get their their books like from like 20 pages to 100 right but probably that many pages have more to say than the 100 pages to so I mean books are knowledge and your story matters if you want to share it you never know who you can help it's like I thought I always thought that that sharing my my story and and I asked to my wife I asked many people do you do you think that we want to do this because you know it's like open the door for my house like an open house and come everybody inside and uh so she she didn't want it but because we we were like ashamed of what we're doing about fostering adoption and and and I felt like I was less banned because I don't have biological kids you know it's it's like many many many things it's a really true raw you know unfiltered experiences and that's part of our human story.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

That's part of our human it happened it happened today that someone called me and she shared time with my daughter Emma too and she told me I was thinking for years to be a fossil mom and I wasn't ready after you have a book and the time that I share with your daughter I I'm calling DCF look at um I'm cutting down now because that that that makes me really proud so that means that that house is open you know that house that house is open one house open one house open is is a home for children and I love it I love it because what you did was you made a contribution it's something that's lasting it's impactful and it's and the ripple effect of that change you you're not gonna see it maybe your daughters will see it in their future and their children will see it in the future and that's the beautiful contribution because you chose to share that story. You know as I listen to your journey I couldn't help but notice that both of your books although they're written for different audiences seem to share that same heartbeat of helping people know that they belong but this one actually this one is not just for kids this ah tell me about that tell me about it this is for parents and this is for your kids I mean when I when I realize that I okay I am um a dad what kind of dad I want to be because I mean I don't want to I I okay my dad showed me something but I learned something on the streets I have a Puerto Rican wife and you know how spicy they are anything about that I'm sorry I can't help and uh and also I mean I love I love it no but it's the connection that you felt that you were making this book not only for children but actually exactly for because what kind of of that I wanted and and and I didn't want to be at this drunken that's why they stopped drinking I don't want to see my daughters watch me smoking cigarettes all the time that's why I quit smoking it it's like I I want to because I learned that that girl I have two girls that girls always always look up to their dads always and I found in my 45 years many people that and and there are studies about this that they or I mean I I me too probably they found a person that looks like they did and they get attraction because they remind that man that writes them and that's love that's could that's anchoring that's exactly and commitment so yes you're absolutely right I love that I love that the book is not only for the children but for the adults for the adults in in in in many many other things I mean I was a a kid that that that I had my dad in my but I didn't hear those words I didn't hear that that that that that confidently you know my dad showed me that he taught me he never told me he taught me how to do it he told he told me okay get up let's do it again but he never told me I never hear it and never and I never get a that hog that that that told you everything is gonna be okay let's do it again you know so now with this book that that the child is telling is telling you and and you are reading it you've you're gonna feel like you are that child you know because you are you're saying it you're saying it I belong this is me I'm not gonna say all all the poems but it's you're saying it and and and once you're saying it and you realize it about my book knowing that this is really the dual lens you know yeah I love that now at Castle and Maria Publisher we often say that our stories they deserve to be written published and preserved right was there someone that told you that you should do this um no wow you're an outlier you're an outlier this is this is yeah it was it was like I mean my my brother Joshua it was the second my wife told me she was she didn't want it to to read it but my brother Joshua told me you should do the book not a video he told me that but I was all this time how I understand that because when we think of writing we think of manuscript we think of manuscript as this big monster yeah that we have to put away and I I get it you know many people think publishing begins with that manuscript but I think it really begins much much much earlier. Yeah it's it's growing up together creciendo la par and this is me this is me where we're we're a little more quick because growing up together started began as a script then I have to look for another way to to to add all the stuff like an additive and and stuff like that because now it's book then I have a very disorganized manuscript and I was looking for help like I really don't know what what I did about process and you did it in community and and that's what is so important that you did that and that you're modeling that for us right so for someone who's on the edge who's thinking you know I don't know about this I don't even know my my story I mean I know so many exemplary men in my life that that their stories are extraordinary that they just that I wish they could carve time in their busy lives that's why I give you a lot of credit that you did this to be able to release that that's a gem that you give to the world you know and I want to thank you for releasing this gem we're going to put in our podcast description the link so that we can do a pre-order can people pre-order your book now definitely okay we're gonna put that in there we're also gonna put your website for your author website your your social media handles we'll definitely do that yeah if you contact me by you know in social media i did the dedicated and i then design it to you oh perfect that's everybody you are you are so responsive you're so connected they can meet you in September at the Puerto Rican parade in Harper Connecticut I'm coming I'm coming all right so I will be I hope I'm I'm gonna be better from my back and we're gonna have fun because that day was all about fun it was great to see you there in community and we're gonna share this information I'm so happy you were with us today in write reflect reimagine but before we go I love your personality I feel like people got to know you a little bit more you know but wait let's do a quick I did this with my last speaker and he loved it a lightning round okay so quickly I'm gonna shoot some questions for you ready all right let's go and whatever comes to your heart okay ready coffee or tea while writing coffee always happy in a boy booya all right morning writer or night writer morning ah okay tell me one book that every parent should read this is me one word you hope readers associate with your work I I didn't get that one word you hope readers associate with your work oh my god that's heavy it has to be one yes just one one word that you hope readers can connect with your work that they they they see they see this word they think of you humor maybe all right so now I dare say this I dare ask what's next after I belong this is oh my god okay I gotta tell you I gotta tell you all right this is this is gonna probably sound crazy but um leo Leo takes life so the my daughter reads the book and they ask for someone like let's say Roberto Clemente so that we are in the table having dinner and say they ask oh I heard about this character in my school named Roberto Clemente okay yeah man I say that this is Roberto Clemente and that so at night they they still have in dogs and and they want to know more about Roberto Clemente so Leo comes out from the book Leo the name of this kid is Leo Leo and Leo comes out from the book he got he has golden sneakers so Leo the the the his feet on on the floor and he opened a golden portal and they travel in time to see Roberto Clemente but not Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh they go to Carolina when he was a child and he was eight years old with dubs with with fears with probably I'm not good enough and that kind of stuff and then you see listen this is Roberto Clemente he got fears he got dubbed he he he thought he wasn't good enough and look what he was well it sounds like there's a book series on the way am I catching that right yeah yeah Leon the golden sneakers I love it oh man Amelia I'm so excited for you I I want to thank you I want to thank you for spending this time with us no I is it is kids I mean I saw my daughters I know that how that's not say privilege because I mean we have we need we we are all privilege let's say how loved they are how I want them to feel loved and they are how guy they are you know the good how they they know the good the bad everything and they know where they belong

SPEAKER_03 44:00

They they even they know that they are not blood relative with me. They don't have relationship with us, but they know that they belong to here, that this is their family, and this is all what I want. That every child find a family first if they are in foster care. But child, biological child that they're struggling because I know how childhood it is. I mean, teenage ages in my time was hard. I don't want to know how it is now, and not easy. It is exactly in the world that we live is cruel. So, anyways, that you if you feel down, it doesn't matter because that's that was always the the the thought that I have. I mean, probably when I was 13, 14 years old, my wife didn't like me by then. But I told her, I told her when I was 13 years old, you will be my girlfriend someday.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

I told her that very proud of you because you didn't give up and you stayed, you stayed the course.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

But that that is all that it's like I mean, thank you, and we hear it about empowerment all the time, feminine empowerment, masculine empowerment. But yes, it's good. We need empowerment, yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

Bye. I appreciate it, I appreciate it so much. Thank you for having this conversation with us. You reminded us that the most meaningful stories aren't always the obvious ones or the loudest ones, and sometimes they're found in those beautiful quiet moments of saying yes to a child. Thank you. Showing up, showing up for a family, offering encouragement or simply helping someone believe that they belong. Wow, I'm so proud. I'm so grateful that you have joined us today. You know, this work here in Puerto Rico has not been easy, you know, because our mission is about supporting marginalized and underrepresented authors. And a part of that mission is also encouraging people that yes, you can. I think I think that really they they're just they're holding back is they're a little nervous. And as an independent publisher, I often think about like the stories that never make it back to the page because someone just decides that that that work's not important enough to tell. Well, today, Emilio, you reminded us that's simply not true.

SPEAKER_03 46:40

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

It's not true, and I'm especially grateful that you're our first Latino male author to join us. And my hope is that today's conversation encourages more Latino men to pick up that pen, to open up that laptop, to trust their voices, to even record their thoughts, and then later put it down on paper to share that wisdom that comes from their lived experiences.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

And don't be scared to make questions.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

And don't be scared.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

Yeah, I and that's what that's why my boobs sits because I start asking. Hey, I I hear that you publish a book. Okay, how'd you do it?

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Congratulations on growing up together, the chronicles of an unexpected family, and your upcoming release of I Belong, this is me. I have no doubt that both books will continue to touch lives in very different and equally meaningful ways. And to everyone listening, I want to thank you for joining us. If today's conversation resonated with you, I encourage you to support Emilio's work, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and most importantly, never underestimate the power of your own story. So until next time, keep writing, keep reflecting, and keep reimagining what is possible. And the coqiz here in Toarza, along with the saying until the next episode of Write, Reflect, Reimagine. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

If today's conversation resonated, I invite you to explore our free webinars, writing retreats in Puerto Rico, and our curated anthologies at Casa de Maria Publisher. Your voice matters. Your story deserves care. Until next time, write with intention and courage. Pen your passion. Publish your promise at Casa de Maria Publisher.