Eye on the Triangle

Emilia Rivadeneira 0:00
The views and opinions expressed during Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or NC State. Student Media,

Emilia Rivadeneira 0:13
your dial is currently tuned to Eye on the Triangle on WKNC, 88.1 FM, HD, one. Thanks for listening.

Emilia Rivadeneira 0:28
Good morning everyone. Hope you're enjoying your day. My name is Emilia Rivadeneira, host of Eye on the Triangle. And with further ado, let's get into some news. You

Menna Elsayed 0:48
Hello and welcome everyone. This is Menna Elsayed for Eye on the Triangle, and we're joined by Edgar Bernal, the founder of Revista Latina, North Carolina. Hello.

Edgar Bernal 0:59
Hello me now, thanks for the invitation. Oh, thank

Menna Elsayed 1:02
you for being here. So I guess for everyone, I would like to start by you introducing yourself for us and maybe tell us a little bit more about why did you start Revista Latina? And maybe tell us a little bit more about Revista Latina.

Edgar Bernal 1:16
Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, my name is Edgar Bernal, founder of Revista Latina. We started this project in 2018 and it was because when we came to us, it was back 10 years ago, basically, we felt like we were lost in the in the community. I think we didn't realize that there were that diversity that we know at this, at this point now, and at some point, we wanted to share what was the culture from from Mexico. We are. We're from Mexico, basically. And we noticed that there were many people trying to share what was the culture? But all the people that we met during those years was like in different in different communities, they were not connected. So that's why we decided to create this platform, platform to create that connection between all the all the communities, all the groups that we met during just that time. And it started like very small project. We just wanted to be in contact with the people that we met in in the next county where we were living. We started in the Wake County, and we thought that it was just to be in contact with people during the week or a in different celebrations that we have in our culture. But eventually more people started adding up to the project from different counties, from different regions in North Carolina, and there was at some point that we had to expand the project, and people from other states started adding up to the project, and even from other countries as Well. Initially, the only thing that we were doing, we were taking pictures, photographs just to have memories of we were living in the different celebration or festivals that we were attending. But at some point we had that many photographs that we didn't know what to do with all those photographs I had. I had plenty of hard drives with different set of photographs, and at some point, I was telling to my wife, I don't know what to do with all those photographs. Probably I have to remove some of them, because I need more space to do some other things. And she said, We should do something with those photographs. Why don't you create a website or something where we can share all our memories to our friends that are not in North Carolina? And that why? That's why I decided to create a website, but at the same time we were thinking, but how are you going to call the website? And she said, why don't we call just Revista Latina? It was just a name. We didn't know that it was going to have that impact in the next few years, and we just name it. We just name it Revista Latina. And we created the website. We started adding the photographs. We started creating, like the notes that the of the events that were We were attending every. The weekend, and at some point, the website started growing with a lot of information that many people started visiting the website, connecting through the website. Sometimes we were attending to one, one county in Raleigh. We were in Cary. We were in apex. Sometimes we were telling two people from Raleigh, did you attend the festival in apex? And they said, No, I didn't know that there was a festival in APEX, even when the two communities are almost close. But eventually, when the website started growing, the people started getting connected, and at some point, we met a lot of people that we decided to do our first celebration. The first celebration was the children's festival. The children's festival in Mexico is celebrated in April 30. Actually, we were surprised that there were not such festivals in North Carolina, so at least not at the way that we knew that it was celebrated in Mexico. So we started inviting different groups, different organizations, and at some point the celebration was like it was a success, because 1000s of people attending to the festival. It was the first festival that we created that was in 2019 after we created their VISTA website, and it was a successful event, that people started asking us, why don't you create another celebration or another festival? We were thinking, what is the next celebration that we can create? And we talked about the day of the vest we we used to celebrate back in Mexico with our families. In Mexico, it's not like a big celebration, really. It's more like a family celebration, only in Mexico City, it's a big parade, and it's now a big celebration. But back in since five years ago, it started in Mexico City, and we created the date of the dead in a small parking lot. Wow, yeah, it attended like probably three or 400 people were there only but the space were too small that people started complaining because they didn't have a parking lot to

Menna Elsayed 7:54
place the cars. And, yeah, that's always important in here. Yeah, they

Edgar Bernal 7:58
had to leave the celebration, and that's when we started planning our next celebration for the next year and and that's how the celebration started growing too much, yeah. And it was not just the celebrations that we created in as part of the Revista Latina. We started creating even book publications, because the people that started collaborating with the revista were writers from different countries, painters, musicians and many, many other people, artists. And that's when we realized what was going to be the direction of the Revista Latina. It was going to be a platform to promote artists, businesses and even education through the magazine, that's when we decided, oh, that's going to be the formal meaning of the Revista Latina and the the publications that we are creating are basically stories from people that live in outside from their countries, But we try to really create that stories, but not from our perspective from but from the perspective for formal writers. So we create projects with a writer, with a painter, with a musician, and we combine all those stories and create books for people to identify how they feel to live in in a country that is not ours as immigrants ourselves, we thought that was going to be the right way to show people. People how they can be proud of being outside of their country, because we were telling successful stories. And that's something that can happen to you during the during the years, right? Yeah.

Menna Elsayed 10:14
I mean, it's, it's really interesting how you're telling, like, an evolution story of how it starts at the beginning of of you like, trying to let people that this is happening here, this is happening there, and trying to collect like, or at least spread the word for other events, right? And take pictures and to kind of document it. And then the evolution afterwards, of utilizing these pictures to tell the stories more, to spread the word more. And then, well, like, why not doing an event ourselves as well, you know? And then, like, in the you're still in these amazing evolution steps, and I feel like every step of it for you must have been a decision, you know. Like, now we're in by you telling that you're making books with all these success stories, especially, and I feel like it's really important when you're in a country you just arrived, or you've been here for a while, but you know you have another country of origin, that it can be difficult, it can be difficult to be in a community, and it can be alienating. And even if you're looking for success in whatever career you're doing, you need to see other success story to be motivation, and you're basically serving that, but also serving like a collection, a collective place for the community, right? Yeah,

Edgar Bernal 11:32
absolutely. Actually, one of the things that we noticed during this time is we never thought that we were going to have that recognition beyond North Carolina or even us, the stories or the work that we were doing in North Carolina as Revista Latina went to Mexico, and Mexico recognized, recognized race, Latina with the maximum award. It's the name of the word is the oddly award that means that they recognize people that is that are that are helping other immigrants from Mexico to become successful outside of Mexico. So actually, we were very surprised, because we never thought that our voice were too loud, even outside of North Carolina. I think after we got that award, we thought, Oh, I think we are in the good direction. Now, I think more people is getting what is the idea behind Revista Latina now, yeah, I mean,

Menna Elsayed 12:51
I can only imagine, if you're trying to amplify a certain culture, and then you get recognized by this culture itself, like it must feel like you're really on the good track. I'm doing great job. So, I mean, you answered a lot of my questions, what they do now? But I think I I'm really interested in what like, how do you see the impact in the community? So you were saying people were complaining that there's no enough parking lots, and 400 people like for for their cars, and for how their people showed up. And you're just thinking of a small skill event at the beginning, right? Just to like honor this tradition. So how, how do you see the impact in the society and the community that you're trying to

Edgar Bernal 13:35
serve? Yeah, that's a good question. Initially, as I, as I mentioned, we were just trying to have a small group to celebrate what we were used to celebrate back in Mexico, but we noticed that more people was willing to be part of something. When we started showing that we could celebrate something, that it was part of our culture. More people started adding more ideas, more work, and they were sharing the voice to invite other families from other countries as well. And it was not only for for the Mexicans, it was also for other cultures as well. On our celebration, I noticed that there are people that are from other communities as well. There are dancing. They are dancing with all of these the festivities that we do there. And the thing is, it's not only for Latin America. It's we want to show what Latin America means for the Latin Americans to other communities. I think that's the main point. And one of the reason is I've heard from other communities different come. Is that the the misunderstanding what the what the Latino really means for us, or what the culture means for others, and that's what we wanted to show, but we wanted to show it in an artistic way and a cultural way. It is not just having the party, but we are having the celebration, the real celebration. When we say, people ask us, when is your event? Well, it's not exactly an event. It's basically the celebration is, is? It's the real part of the culture. So we are trying to fix those kind of conceptions that we are having just an event, but we are celebrating really something. So,

Menna Elsayed 15:46
yeah, this idea of, it's not an event, it's the celebration itself is is really nice. And I don't think I've heard it a lot. I feel like in in other culture, events I've attended, it's something to emulate or come close to, the celebration of the actual, you know, the actual celebration, or the actual occasion that you're just trying to recreate what you had at home here, you know, and through doing that is just, you're not just doing for the Latino community in here, you're doing it for them To celebrate, but also for other communities to come and participate and show and show them how it is to celebrate it, and how it how like, what it means for the community, right, right? Yes.

Edgar Bernal 16:31
And one of the one of the reason, is that misconception, and it's not just for the Latino. I think it happens for many other cultures as well. So I think that's the way that we want to show as Revista Latina, that we can create something where we can show the real meaning of the culture in an artistic way as well. So I think the only way that we can accomplish that is not just one person can do it, but the whole community needs to understand that. We have to show what we can do to other communities as well. So I think if it's a project of one person or one organization, I think the product can be only a small project. I would say Revista Latina is not just person. Is just is not just an organization. But you can see in the different celebration that we do. People, families from from Apex, from fayville, from Charlotte, from many other cities are really involved in the project. So I couldn't say that Revista Latinaa is an organization, but Revista Latina is the community now, so it's serving like a bridge for the whole community to show what they really want to show to others. So I'm really proud that we have accomplished this. At this point, I wouldn't say we are an organization, or we are a company, or we are an institution. We we I could say we are the community, because the community feels welcome on this project. Yeah, wow.

Menna Elsayed 18:35
I mean, this is beautifully said. You're not a company, you're not an organization, you're a community, and you're not only so what you're saying that you're not only connecting a certain community from a certain cultural background, but also your bridging North Carolina itself. You know, people from different counties and cities are coming together. You know, for for this celebration, which is, which is really beautiful. And I feel like only successful projects are able to do that, and you know, you're being one of them. So I guess we talked about, like, the celebrations you do. So like, can you please share with us a little bit of what other celebrations Revista Latina have done in the past, or maybe coming up, that we should look out for?

Edgar Bernal 19:18
Yeah, the other celebration that we do is the children's festival. It's made in April, around the April 30. It's basically we celebrate the kids, the children back in Mexico, if you go to any small store, the kids receives a candy or small toy, and many of those things, something that we noticed in the different festivals is at least that happens to our kids. When we used to go to the festivals, the kids used to tell us what's going on in this festival, there is nothing for us. So that's why we created also the children's best. Festival. But this festival is more for all Latin America. We have countries from Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala and many others, where we celebrate children and all the organizations or businesses that participate in that festival are requested to provide something to the children's and we offer shows or dancing in our stage, where the kids also can be part of the celebration, and they have pinatas. It's a big celebration. I think now also, it's not like the date of the dead, but at some point, I think it's growing to that point, and the next one is going to be in April as well.

Menna Elsayed 20:56
Yeah, I'm sure it's a big celebration for the kids. They're looking forward to it every year.

Edgar Bernal 21:03
Yeah, another thing that I want to share is it's also related to the kids. When we started creating these celebrations, we we used to go to many other festivals with our kids, and at some point they'd say we didn't have a festival, a Latino festival, that they could feel that it was for them. So we used to go to festivals from all other countries, and we love those festivals, but they didn't. They felt that they didn't have something for them to show what they lived in back in Mexico or in Latin America for other kids as well. That's why we decided to create these Latina festivals specifically for kids, for children. Yeah,

Menna Elsayed 22:05
yeah. I mean, I'm really impressed by the idea that you're trying to you're seeing an issue that's presented like, whether people it's like at the beginning, when didn't see people connecting to different communities and events happening around and celebration, but also caring to that degree of like you know you want, because I'm sure there are kids activities happening around North Carolina, but caring that there has to be something for like Latino kids to to feel that they are celebrated and also celebrated in a way that's part of their culture, that's not alienating, or it's not very different from what they experience at home. Because I feel like a lot of immigrants would feel like they have their culture preserved at like household and language and all of that. Once they're out, they kind of have to shift identity, or they have to or they kind of feel distance with this, but you're like, you want to create this for them, and I think this is really beautiful, and I really would hope also other cultures try to do the same thing as well. So I know recently and you talked about the Day of the Dead, so I know you recently held that. So tell us more. How was the event, how was the planning and now that scale like how would it? How is it like to plan an event like that?

Edgar Bernal 23:23
Yeah, well, yeah, many people usually ask us, How do you do it? And as I mentioned before, it's not something that we can do along. I think all the communities involved in it and when we plan this next celebration, usually it takes us, like, a year to plan it. Actually, we already started planning what's going to happen the next year. And also we want to plan not just one year, but two years ahead, because there are many groups that want to be part of the celebration, but the time is limited on the day that we offer the celebration, that we have to postpone the participation of different dancers or or musicians or singers that needs to be part of but Not next year, but in two years now, the last celebration that we hold in october 27 I think I don't have the how many people was there, but people say a few 1000s were part of The celebration. We closed Main Street in downtown Raleigh, and we had two stages this year, and every year is growing. This is the third time that we had the celebration in downtown Raleigh. And as I mentioned, we started in a small parking lot. Then. And even when the pandemic started, we continued doing it, but we did it virtually. We used to go to the different counties, different cities, and we were recording videos for all the folkloric dancers, and we offered the show. But virtually, I remember that we recorded like 30 videos with the different folk, great dancers or musicians. There are even musicians that now are writing songs to the festival itself. So, yeah, the the even the after the pandemic, we didn't know what we were going to do. We thought we are we were going to close. We were not stopped doing the celebration. But people started asking. And the instead of slowing down the festival, the celebration, people started being more and more involved, and then after the pandemic, we had to do it in the dicks park for one year, but it was too crowded that people started parking not in the right spots because it was too crowded, and that's why we decided to move the celebration to the downtown rally, and from there, probably we are going to expand it, because the same celebration is asking for more space or more Time. People from other states are now sending us requests that they want to participate. They want to come to the celebration, and it the celebration just happened two weeks ago, and we are already receiving those requests to be part of the next next year celebration. So you can imagine what's going to happen next year.

Menna Elsayed 27:03
Yeah, that's sounds like very impressive. And I guess on this note, um, a question for you is that, how did you imagine this when, when you first start taking pictures and attending a different events in around North Carolina? Did you imagine reaching like this point right now and how it

Edgar Bernal 27:23
feels. No actually, at the beginning, I didn't even talk and stay in us for long term. So I just was taking the pictures because I wanted to have memories of a miss on my visit in the US. So everything started with a picture. Eventually, people ask me, why don't you do a video instead of a photograph? Yeah, let's write that. And I started practicing the videos as well. And the videos started becoming like short movies, because we were telling it was not just a video. We were telling stories in the same video where people were were dancing or were painting or were creating something for for the celebration or for the magazine. So it was also a success after started creating the videos. And then after creating the videos, we started creating more applications for VISTA Latina, the mobile application, the Alexa applications, and even we started creating on the stream for Revista Latina, where we're showing a different music from from different countries, from Mexico, even bands from other states, on from other countries, wanted to send us the music that they were creating to A stream on that on that platform as well. And, yeah, everything started small, but I think we never planned to be that big as we are now. And that, I think that is not something that you can plan. The only reason why I think it grow, it's because you were not thinking on that. It's because you were just involved, and you were just trying to share what you wanted to share to others. You wanted to share your culture. You wanted to share the feeling on how you were feeling outside of your country, so we realized that there were more people feeling the same, and that's why every people started getting together, and that's why is it. Started growing. It's grown now. Yeah,

Menna Elsayed 30:03
I mean, you're right. I feel like a lot of people feel the same. Feel that they needed a place to eat, a community to share this feeling, being away from their country, from their culture, and being able to celebrate it. And, yeah, it's really well said there. So I mean, at the end, I feel like the the question I want to ask you, how it feels for you right now, being the founder of Revista Latina and taking that part of your life and reaching this success level right now, how do you feel on a personal level?

Edgar Bernal 30:38
Well, no, I think it's, I feel more committed because it's more now. It's more like a responsibility that we we feel that we have to be on top on what we want to share to other communities. I think we already have the Latina community being part of the Revista Latina, but now I think it's time to show what we have accomplished to the other communities as well. And that's something that it's now happening, and one proof is that now I'm hearing with you in this interview, more people is getting more interested. I don't know what is their interest. Is because the story, because the festival, but I think the the interest is the same. Why or how did you get all that people together? And the only answer is, is because everybody is feeling the same outside of their countries. So I think that's the only reason why Ruiz Latin has been so successful. Yeah.

Menna Elsayed 32:00
Thank you so much for this. Is there anything else you want to add to us about maybe next event that's coming up? You said is the children Festival in April?

Edgar Bernal 32:11
Children Festival in April? I don't have the right date yet, but I'll share with you probably in the website. But I just want to thank you and all our followers as well, because, as I mentioned, without them, Revista Latina wouldn't exist. That's, that's the only thing that I could say. Thank you everybody. Yeah,

Menna Elsayed 32:38
thank you so much for being here with us and sharing all this amazing information and really inspiring story with us here today. Yeah, and this was Menna Elsayed for Eye on the Triangle.

Emilia Rivadeneira 32:49
You This has been your host, Emilia Rivadeneira, thanks for listening to Eye on the Triangle for back episodes of the show. Go to WKNC dog or slash podcasts. Music In today's episode is Krakatoa by Noah Stark, licensed under creative commons. You

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