Latest / Corpus Christi Originals Podcast / #9 | Mayra Zamora

Transcript

#9 | Mayra Zamora · Corpus Christi Originals Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's going on, y'all?
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus with Corpus Christi Originals.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: In this podcast episode, we had the pleasure of having on as our guest Maida Zamora with Mida Maida Art.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Maida is a local artist in Corpus Christi, Texas.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, we just have a conversation about uh a little bit about her background and you know her thoughts on Mexican-American studies and all kinds of stuff that she's interested in.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: So uh if you're interested in that, stay tuned.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Zamora, welcome to the show, Raida.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh how did you feel when we initially invited you on the show?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, hey, I'm ready to go.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll go back.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just oh, that's cool.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I know you.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we gave you, we we wanted to bless you with a shirt when we first started out, and you're like, shoot, yeah, come on.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we we met somewhere.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: How did you feel about us giving you uh some free merch?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm never gonna say no to free merch, but at the same time, your designs that you're putting out are so unique and they're so very much uh like Corpus Christi cultura, like raza based, if if that makes sense to the viewers out there.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Very based in Latinx culture, which which I love.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a fan from the get-go since you started putting out all your your stickers and your t-shirts and now hats.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so what what are some of the elements in particular that you can touch on uh as far as like the type of designs that we come up with that that you can say that that's part of the culture?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the first one right there, the one that's uh in your logo, the corporus the corpus crisis, where you always base you're always putting the calavera in there, and that's highly rooted in Latino culture.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, before the Spaniards came, and when when as well with the Aztecas, you didn't see none of that embellishment that we see nowadays.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like that's very paying tribute to to indigenous culture as well.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of like corpus, cultura and raza, uh you have a lot of tropical things as well and color.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just digging everything that you're doing.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, do you design them yourself, or I forget you have local artists?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I have a place that I go online, I pay a monthly fee, and I find different ideas and I just kind of piece them together.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's what I do.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's why when I first met with you, I was like thinking maybe you could maybe get some artists to design stuff for us because I don't I do a little bit of design, but not you know, you know, high level or whatever.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So most of the stuff you see is pieced together from different elements on that I find online.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, gotcha.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it also has like a like an LA vibe to it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here for corpus.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I that's what I see.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I and I love I love the LA vibe that they man, it's so awesome.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I wish we had it here more, you know what I mean?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like they're more out with it, and we're more kind of like, you know what I mean?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I I want that for I that's kind of why I you know I I like this stuff, and it's like, dude, put it out there, you know.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we do it like that?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we wear chucks all the time if we want to, you know what I mean?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, braid our hair, same like you, and uh I love it.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I love about it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so is that but it takes people like you to start putting to start put putting things out there, you know?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: It takes just takes one person, right?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not originally from Corpus, uh, you're from you born in Austin, grew up in Taiboli.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: You got it.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Tyvoli from K was it K through 12?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then uh Mr.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Garza.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: I know uh I heard that name a few times in some of your interviews.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So Mr.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Garza had a major influence on you to go took the take the route that you were decided to take.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out Mr.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: G.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Mr.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: G.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: So what so what are some of the things that you learned from him?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I know you'd learned art and stuff, but I mean, how why was he a major influence uh uh upon you to well no number one, you know, representation is so important.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he was Latino, he spoke Spanish, so it was very easy for him to communicate with my parents.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: My parents only speak uh Spanish.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when I would when I grew up too, my first language was Spanish.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So when I went to kindergarten, we communicated together through Spanish.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: As I got older, he just since I was in kinder, he just saw that I had potential and I had talent.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So he taught me mostly not much technique, but to be yourself and just keep experimenting.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And from I really feel that I was able to develop my own style because of Mr.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Garza, because he let me do whatever I wanted in class.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was different.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it was a small town, you know.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like here where you have 500 kids.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like my graduating class was only nine girls, so it was it was a small, small school.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: But he's the one who told my parents that I had a potential to make it in the arts.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to do fashion design, but he even pushed my parents like, no, myda has it, she can do it, just kind of trust her a little bit.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm I will forever be grateful for Mr.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Garza, and which is why I'm a teacher nowadays as well.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, do you find yourself kind of in his in his shoes whenever you're teaching your kids?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, for sure.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I I feel like uh I I consider myself more of a mentor than anything above a teacher.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's just guiding the students of what they have and just bringing their vision to reality.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: I always say, Oh, that looks good, but this is how you can make it great.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, man, that's awesome.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's cool, it's letting them express themselves through art.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's awesome.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I and I I like your designs um because they're real geo, like geometric or whatever.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like one side you have on the other side, it like mirrors itself.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I did stuff like that when I was when I was younger, like in art class.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I remember doing triangles and circles and just making art out of it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember my teacher, you know, take because this was in class, like a like a regular class.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: She took me to the art teacher, she's like, Hey, check this out, you know what I mean?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So uh and I I have always loved art and I've always had a way to express myself, even though I'm not in art, like I could feel myself getting stressed out.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And if I get a pen and a pad and and just start drawing with the pencil, like that helps me relieve stress.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that makes any sense.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is there like a connection between those two for you?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's that when I tell when I'm in, especially when I'm in the classroom, because I tell the kids I work at ECDC and I'm only there uh two Thursdays and Fridays.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, they're cleaning up.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you hear them.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's it's very faint.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I can't barely hear it.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, good.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you can hear me.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So um at ECDC, I only work there Thursdays and Fridays, and I tell the kids, hey, you're not getting a grade.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, this is more like therapy, this is like a stress-free zone.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is for you to just relax and have a good time.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I often think of our military, our veterans, or people who have uh mental disorders.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think art is the perfect avenue to put everything you're thinking up here, but onto paper.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right, for sure.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Is that so?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Is that one of the reasons why you work with the senior citizens?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on, now they're getting really loud.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're like right here.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah, that's uh so um, yeah, for for the senior citizens, I imagine that that would help their brain.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that that what you're we're talking about here, it it's not as important, it's not made as important as it should be.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because one of the first things that they cut in school, what is it?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's the arts, exactly.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And they and they go to um, they put all the money into sports, which is great, you know, which is great.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have some students are gonna be athletes, but as a teacher, we're prepping future artists as well.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Art is in every facet of every job that you can think of, and yet it's not deemed important.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't understand that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it sucks.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like funding is more important than you know, than art because I'm a musician and I feel the same way about music.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, dude, music it's good for the brain.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: If you learn how to play an instrument, I believe everybody can play some kind of instrument for the sake of their mental wellness.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, dude, why aren't because I taught I taught for maybe like seven months in San Diego, Texas.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: I taught music, and uh it that setting just wasn't for me.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I because of the that was one of the reasons.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: The other reason was like I'm a man, like I'm very blunt sometimes too, and and so a lot of times my mouth could get me in trouble.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another reason why I'm not in that setting.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like you know, why do why do we put the bad kids?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Why do we decide to put the bad kids in art and music just so that they can pass and go to the next grade level?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, I'm glad that you brought that up because the kids that were always deemed bad, right?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I use quotation marks because it's quotations mark.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because when they were in my classroom, there were some of the best artists that I had.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right on.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's also that mentality when you go into the classroom and you tell the student, like, I don't think you're a bad kid, I think you're misunderstood.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But think about all the kids who are on the street who uh who like to tag, and and I've had um older the older generation tell me, like, well, what do you think about that?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, number one, I don't think that's cool because you shouldn't vandalize anything, but at the second time, where do they have the capability to express themselves in that format in street art?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: So there need to be more programs that cater to street art as well.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I I was I substitute taught at Modi High School, and the kids would have a book, it was a black book, and they would pass it around to other taggers, and they would never know who had the book, but they would tag in the book, it was like a little community they had.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was awesome, and and just like you're saying, like there's no outlet other than among themselves to to tag and and show like their craft to other people, yeah.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, so I I I wish we had more of that, and you know, I hope you know that that we can have more of that stuff there.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully, I I know there's people in town that that always want to give back to the community, and one of the first persons I think about is Jeremy Flores, right?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course, definitely.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Jeremy, man, he's killing it.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: He started I think he started tagging, didn't he?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh, yeah.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: I see his stuff around town still, like it's seen Dask over here on the side of the tattoo shop over here somewhere.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, yeah, he's definitely killing it, man.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: I love his stuff a lot.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I I really love I would love the youth to get to know to get to know him.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they do.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's out there.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's out there, and it's like his story is awesome.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like his story is, I mean, your story is awesome too.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's like we all have a story, and that's it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: I just go back to that.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we all got a story, and representation, like you said, uh is big among among our youth.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um I I like what you're doing.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're it seems like you're working really hard uh to have that representation, you know.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel I know people always like, man, you work so hard, but you know, because of COVID, I feel like I was away for two years.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I took a hiatus, and people are like, but you were still out there.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no, but I was I have not been out in the community the way I used to.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And like before we started recording live, I told you it takes a lot more energy for me to be out there in the public because I was away for two years, but slowly but little, poquito poquito, I'm getting back out there and I'm starting to feel like my old self again.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's amazing.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing how that COVID just hit everybody.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, I and we're still in COVID.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: People forget like COVID still exists, and yeah, uh, there's other strains, so I'm just being cautious and yeah, just yeah.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So were you able to make to do work during COVID?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, because there was a thing you said where uh artists in COVID, before COVID, after COVID, they look exactly the same.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, because we're I mean, some of us artists were very social, but at the same time, we're like hermit crabs.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We love to just be in our studios and away from the public and just be here in our own cave.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so yeah, for sure.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when COVID hit, I was like, man, it was nothing new, just being inside.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: But man, I didn't was not expecting two years after the first year.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, man, I'm I did some work.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I did the Herman and Herman mural.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably the thing that kept my sanity, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my brain going.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I did a couple of commissions here and there, but I still don't feel like I'm a hundred percent like I was in 2019.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not quite there yet.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: So you did the Herman and Herman.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Man, how long did that take?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: How long did that take?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh well, oh, Herman and Herman.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: We started actually talking about it in 2019 with Eric Holgeen.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Eric Holgeen, and then uh we actually started painting it in 2020 uh in April.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: We finished in May because I had nothing to do, so that was my only job at the time.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it took us about a month, and then we waited a whole nother year and then we completed it.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: We complete the whole building.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: So roughly about between two to three years.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, yeah, that's a long time.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is a long time, you know.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, go ahead.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is dedication, yes.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Murals take a long time.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are really fast, but my work is so so geometric.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my students and my my co-workers can tell you that I have calmed down a lot.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I used to be like, it has to be perfect, the line is crooked.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, and now the final test is a picture.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: If it looks good when it's after if it looks good on a camera, then we're good to go.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just like, yeah, I might let it go, stop.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because if not, shoot, I'll still be there.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I would still be there today.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right on, man.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you're your perfection.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it seems like you're you're real like not, I want to say perfectionist, but I don't want to be rude.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I feel like I used to be, but I'm not that anal anymore about my work being so precise because I've learned that sometimes the beautiful the most beautiful things in life are things that have imperfection.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, it's okay, Maida.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just just keep going on.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that stuff.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, it's your art too.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like you want your art.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's like with someone you compose a piece of music and somebody plays it, you want them to play it the way you wrote it, too.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's it's kind of similar in that sense.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: So the the the piece of art that I know that I've seen of yours that before even meeting you is the one by Whataburger across from the street at the art center.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because obviously I go to What's her a lot.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I love What's that?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I yeah, that's cool.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then I did notice your codex.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: I did notice that because I I like art.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm into music.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And even before you brought it up, I was I was like, what is that?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because it it did, it didn't look like a piece of the art, but it looked like it was intentional.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I was looking at it like, hey, maybe that says something.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: So then I started trying to decode what it was saying.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no, uh now knowing, oh, it is a decoder thing that you have to do for your your pieces of work.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Why did you decide to put that in there?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: You got it.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I this is something I've done since I was a little girl.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've always hit hide, I've always hidden things in my artwork.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was like in when I was in elementary, like if I liked a boy or had a crush on somebody, I would write their name over and over, but then I would hide it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: If I hated someone too as well, I would put on their I hate this person.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Crazy, but then I would hide their name and just keep and keep adding lines and shapes, and then you couldn't see it anymore.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that idea started when I was in elementary.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: By the time I got to Temu C C in undergraduate school, you know, we had to develop a body of work.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, oh, you know, this is a cool time to revisit this.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then just the codex just came out of me, and I would say around 2009.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's it's developed, it's gotten more stylized.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: The reason I think the reason it comes out is because all cultures, if you think about it, have their own writing system, their own codex.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that we know in 2022 exactly what they say?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: How do we know that the Aztec Codex really is what they were trying to say?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I never have to comprehend that with archaeologists, like como salmon, like how do you really know that's what it says?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I want people to when they see my work, like, is there something in there?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes, there is something in there.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now nowadays my codex is only in black and white.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: When I first started it, like um in undergrad, you had very colorful, colorful borders.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just fun because yeah, you're looking at a mural, but I want people to stop and and and really look.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's like um something on the internet that nowadays uh I think it only takes a person.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's very hard for people to stop and look, if that makes sense.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: They only stop and look for about five seconds and then and move on.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to get them to even stay just like a minute just looking at my work is is a big is a big goal.
• 16:59
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, viewers and corpus christy, when you see my murals, you need to decode it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, for sure.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man, totally what you're saying there, because um I honestly, like I do, I just kind of glanced, you know what I mean?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: I glanced at it, and then when I went to your to your website, uh and I was looking at the I was actually looking at the pieces.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: There is a lot going on in here.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's a lot.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm like, holy crap, this is freaking awesome! Like, you got the ojos here.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um you got the and then you're you have a fascination with that, right?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, yes.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh ho's have been a big part of my life since I was a newborn.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, that's part of our culture.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I've I I have approached many non-Latinos here in the community, and I'm just hey, can I touch your baby?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Why?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Well, this is part of the Latino culture.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like touching your baby's forehead, so I won't give them oh, and they're like, What's that?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I won't give them the evil eye because there's the your baby's so cute.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't want anything any, I don't want them to get sick, and they're like, Okay, okay.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's also educational based.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I love to go into the classroom and um and I tell and I ask even adults, like, how many of you know about oh?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And some raise their hand and some don't.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's also educational based.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the oh, that's my logo.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's I'm known as Mina Maida here in town.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, that's good.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: So and so you so you you kind of got into well, uh like the Egyptians and the eye and all that stuff.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Is there some type of do you find that there's some type of uh connection between like that and like maybe like uh like the Indians that were here that had did they have that type of symbolism as well?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about the indigenous cultures having the oh, but I do know about like the Egyptian culture.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember the name of the oh, but I you know I I can kind of draw it in my head, but I even believe in Hinduism they have the hand, yeah, right?
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: The hand with the oh inside as well.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Crazy, yeah.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not educated enough to give you a correct answer.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's what's up.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's up.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a batch, so you got a bachelor's in uh what uh art in art, uh-huh, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have a master's in secondary ed.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, congratulations.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you were working on your Mexican-American studies at Del Mar.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Are you still working on that?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, still working on it.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So after this class, I will only need two more left.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I will for sure, hopefully, I'm pressing my fingers and everybody send me good vibes that I hope I'll be done next spring because the last class that I need is not offered until next spring.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm asking me to do that.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I know.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, and I was talking to my professor, I'm like, you're not offering it in the fall or in the summer.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Nope, Maida, I'm only offering in spring of next year.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, Oh, okay, well, Chuck.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess I'm not graduating into next year.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: But my ultimate little goal, and I'm a nerd and I'm 100% proud to be.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I love learning and um just researching things, but I would love to be Doctor Z one day.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell people, mark my words, I will be Doctor Z one day in that specific uh arena in Mexican American Studies.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, yeah, I can see that for sure.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna make it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be awesome.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I I encourage other people, even if it's just one, even if it's just one class, you're gonna be so surprised.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're either gonna leave that classroom super pissed off, angry, or you're gonna be very emotional.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's an emotional, it's been an emotional ride.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: For the Mexican American study, like a class of Mexican American studies, is that what you're saying?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So why so?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh why would that why you know why so?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think that?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because I think I think a lot of people don't realize that uh the education system right now, they don't teach a lot of the history.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel that you would be stronger connected to your community as well, and it's only gonna shape your future um as well.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: But some even some of my young students don't realize that Texas was a part of Mexico.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that crossing of the border, I'm like, we've never left, we've always been here.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: But also, even learning, which this is something I didn't know as well, is that the Aztec uh the Aztecas were comprised of uh of two other uh, I guess you can say uh tribes, right?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And when Cortes came over, those two tribes were fighting against each other, but then they finally realized that they hated the Aztecas so much, which was just why they joined the Spaniards.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Also, thinking of La Malinche, I'm sure some of our viewers know that La Malinche is known as a traitor, but if you think about it, what else was there for her?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: She was trying to survive.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And people forget how intelligent La Malinche was because she was a slave and she was sold to all of these different tribes.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: And she ended up well, they say, they say she ended up falling in love with Cortez, but I think she was just being a smart woman trying to survive.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, man, that's crazy.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's like there's a it's there's like there's a lot of hist there's like there's so much history, and like why don't we know about this?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know there's too much, and I'm just which which I love though.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then just like the the development of the frontier, Spanish frontier, Mexico, because of the Spanish mines, like and the Spanish actually didn't want to kill the Indians, but they brought all the disease, so the India Indians were died because of disease, and ultimately because there was they were all dying, they needed more slave workers, more labor workers, I should say, which is why they brought um a lot of African Africans to Mexico.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's crazy.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is and to know that that that's our and that's ancestry, like and and when people don't consider uh Africans, African Americans in in the Latino culture, mexicano culture, it's like dude, they're part of our history as well.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: In order to keep them kind of happy, the Spanish government, I believe, if I remember correctly, they allow them to marry Indian women, which is where we get the mulatos and the mestizos and and all the different um mixed breeding.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I shouldn't say mixed breeding, that sounds bad, but you know, yeah, no, I understand like intermarriage.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Intermarriage.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, for sure.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: And there, and there's we found a lot of that in like Venezuela and Cuba, those those port areas where you know the slaves kind of went in and they when they mix, mingled and have different different shades of you know, people uh of that nationality or whatever, how you want however you want to say it.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I don't believe in in this racism, like our black our black primos, they're they're mexicanos, they're latinos as well, so we cannot dismiss them.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're part of our culture.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Would you say our culture?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Would you say that it goes beyond that to where it's like because like you said in one of your things that it underneath we're we're all just white, like the skeleton, we're all us, we're all the same.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: How do you say I don't I don't know how you say it, but would you go beyond that and say it's just humanity as a whole?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah that's what we talk about in class, uh every single day about uh kinsmanship.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're all related somehow, some way, and if we knew that, then I think our world would be a better place.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I find it, I find it difficult, like uh you know, maybe other people do too.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever we try to, whenever you encounter somebody of a different culture, we automatically have a defense up because they don't know our culture and we don't know their culture.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes we avoid uh no contact with them or even talking with them for that for you know, just because of that.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel that those that there's like cultural boundaries boundaries in that sense?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would say I would say yeah, yeah.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: We always you feel more connect.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: I feel more connected always when I'm when I'm around more Latinos, you know, that's just a thing that we share.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I think what we all need to do as a society is just everybody bring each everybody's uh food from their culture, and let's just sit down and and and talk.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then once we sit down at a table eating everybody's food, we're gonna see that yeah, we're different, but we have so much more similarities at the end of the day.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because what are we?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Somos humanos, we're human beings, yeah, for sure, man.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Golly.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: So so you call you call yourself a Chicana artist.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um so before you started doing that, it would you feel like you were kind of like like out not outcasted, but kind of outside of something that you could have, you know what I mean?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, did you feel outcasted because of that?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because there was nowhere for you to go as an artist.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I 100% yes.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even to this day, I guess just being an artist, I still never really feel like I fit in to somewhere, even in the Chicano world.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, but if someone's gonna label me, I might as well label myself.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: But that is what I identify as I'm chicana, I'm Mexican and I'm American, I'm both things, and I'm proud to be Chicana.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I go up, you know, you know the first thing I think I mean, I'm a chicana, you know.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And and I love to hear the next generation, especially my little kids, my my young students call themselves chicanos, which I think is great.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, or it doesn't matter if they're like Cuban or Puerto Rican, like be proud of where you come from.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you're mixed, be proud of both you're you're lucky, you're from two cultures.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you could just double study.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, for sure, man.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I first experienced that because I used to go to Tamu CC, and the music building was right next to one of the art galleries.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the art gallery, yeah, and it was open, like I don't know, they had a showing or something.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I know Joe Pena because I worked for him at the Islander Art Gallery.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, okay, right there in the Hamlin Shopping Center.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember Joe, he had a piece on there, and it was like uh a cow tongue, and it was called uh, I think it was labeled Lengua.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, man, there's an actual uh like thing going on here for you know Mexican-American artists, and it made me wow, made me kind of like proud, like wow, there's like an arena for Mexican artists, you know?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that yeah, that was pretty cool.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I forgot to answer your, I kind of forgot to really answer your question.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't really start calling myself a Chicana artist until I saw Chich Marin's uh private collection at the art museum, I believe, around 2009, one of the first times he came down.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when I walked in, you know, I I would go to the museums a lot, but I never felt I never felt the connection.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when I walked in to see Cheech's show, I said, damn, this is where I belong.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is who I am.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be a part of this Chickano um art revolution that's been happening since like the 60s, but now I feel a lot of us younger generation, we're really trying to push it to the forefront about boxing over here.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, man, that's awesome.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: That that's very awesome.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I would have liked to have seen his collection, but it it seems like it's really, it's really uh a lot.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of it going on in California.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but yeah, I mean he has he has De Hanos as well.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he has Vincent Van, yeah.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Vincent Valdez is is probably the one that I most admire.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's from San Antonio.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: He was young, he was very young when he became part of Chicha's collection, but he does a lot of uh more realistic, hyper-realistic work.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: So so so the realistic work that he does, is it realistic from like like Spanish, like Mexican-American roots, or does he take from different types of uh like like European type of art or this type of art and put it into one and just call it Chica Chicano art?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say yes, because I feel like that's what Joe does as well with this language, he's drawing from European, what they paint over there, but with the the with the texano, uh chicano, mexicano roots in there, underlying.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so why do you think uh in your art, why do you think that uh line, shape, and color are the most important elements in art?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're the they're the basis of art, like the basic ingredients that you need to make a composition.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure in music, I'm sort of there's something equivalent to those elements.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Are there elements of music?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you have you got, I mean, you got the there's a lot.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's harmony, there's melody, you got uh loudness, softness, um shoot, you got all kinds of stuff.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: But like you're saying, the basic is like you know, you have a chord, you know, you have a theory, one chord goes to the next because of this, and another chord goes to the next because of this.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a theory.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I yeah, I guess I can see that.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the basic elements of theory make up songs, yeah.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: But same as as if you're a chef for cooking, you have this this the basic ingredients that you need to the foundations that you need to start with.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right on, cool.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's awesome.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, but like I don't know, I've always loved line, shape, and color.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I've always been been drawn to the health, even as a kid.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: How do you so how how do you pick your how do you pick the colors that are gonna are gonna go into any given art piece?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's very intuitive.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just let whatever color, yeah, just whatever I'm feeling.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, sometimes I'm stuck.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I'm just there staring at a painting for like a good three hours.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like literally just like just doing this, just looking like okay, and I'm like kind of painting in my head, okay.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: If I put a red here, would it look good?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: If I put a green here, would it look good?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I also always think about basic color theory as well, right?
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, proper secondary colors, uh, complementary colors that work together.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: But then sometimes I'm like, screw it, close your eyes and pick the color.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that color theory that you mentioned it uh about the one nation flag.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, how you pick.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Can you can you share a little bit about the you know about the colors that you added to there?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh the una nacion, that's probably the the painting that has the most color symbolism.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much going in there.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: I took away the 50, the 50 stars and made one singular calavera.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time I finished this, this was February 2020, right before George Floyd and all of the uh Black Lives Matter protests, like all the protests that were happening go worldwide, and that was my whole intention behind that.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And because we always say one nation under God, indivisible.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I came una nacion.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I put that one singular calavera, and in the eyelashes, I put the the symbol for man and women, but in the ohols, it's the it's the rainbow to represent the LGBT uh community.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the browns represent the earth, the yellow represents the hot sun, and the triangular shapes that are orange represents the mountains because a lot of our immigrants have to make this huge sacrifice to come to America, and it's it's very difficult.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I have about three strips of blue around the border with one singular red around, and that's supposed to represent the river and the blood, all the bloodshed that has been wow, that has been, I guess, sacrificed at the at the border.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty deep.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at it right here.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's crazy.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the four corners with the black and white.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, the first time I did that, that's my art symbol, but for in this particular space, this it represents uh the detention centers.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, would have thought that crazy.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like people just look at my work, oh, line shapes, and colors.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but that one in particular has tremendous color symbolism.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: So would you say that most of your stuff is like that to where it's like there's a story behind or something like that?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them, yes, but then some of them, like I said, is purely intuitive, just playing around with color theory because I love to do uh a lot of play with warm versus cool colors, yeah, for sure.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: So do you learn most of your color theory from Joe Penya?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was the professor.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Kidding, cool, man.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love Joe.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Joe also has a big uh he's played a big part in my career as well.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Believing in me and represent you know, representation matters.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I just going up to a Latino professor is very different than going to a non-Latino.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man, for sure.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: He's a cool dude.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: He seems pretty pretty chillax, you know.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, man.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm looking at my uh my notes here.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: So are you left-handed or right-handed, or does it matter when you're doing your pieces?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can paint with both.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: No kidding.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm more I'm more right-handed.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but um, I hope Monica sees this.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: But there are sometimes we're painting murals, and there you have no option.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: You have to figure it out on what you're trying to paint with my left hand because you can't, it's a wall, you have to move your body, I don't know, in certain ways.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I can paint with both.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so you do you prefer the the mural that you put together or that you paint first and then you put it on the wall, or do you prefer the mural that you paint on the wall and not put it together?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, painting on the wall 100%.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I because to me that's very traditional, that's the old school way of doing it.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: But then when I'm out there painting directly on the wall, especially if I'm painting outside and and I start complaining, you know, sometimes it happens.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're out there like, I don't want to be out here.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I tell myself, Maida, shut up.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're out here working, doing what you love, and think about your ancestors who who had to go pick pick the crops, or who, you know, just working and construct like stop complaining, Maida.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: You are doing what you love.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man, that's awesome.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, so what what's in the what's in the future for you?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, where are you headed?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: I know you said you wanted to be a doctor in Mexican-American Studies, uh, and you're very involved in the in this in the in the city, like that aspect.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a future like for you in that in that area?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you see, you know, I mean, do you have any goals for where you're headed?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I definitely have like a bucket list of like I guess people I want to collab with and cur and corporations that I want to collab with.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping that some of those come to to life, I guess you can say.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I am, I do have one great opportunity that I can't really talk about yet.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because I signed an NDA, but hopefully, if everything goes good, I can talk about it in the in the next couple of months.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: But for sure, what's coming up is June.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be at the Garcia Arts and Education Center.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I work with the teenagers.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if any parents out there who are looking for a teen camp, that's one I recommend.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Teens Building Tomorrow.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're there all day, but with me, they're only there from two to two to five, two to six.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have we haven't um picked the time yet, but they're gonna be helping me do another mural.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Then uh in June and July as well for Case Pace Contemporary, we're gonna be downtown this year, not at La Palmera.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the applications are up, the deadline's May 15th, and it's absolutely free for teenagers 13 to 17 years old.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: So go online and and just fill out the application because we're looking for serious artists because they have to um they're gonna get the experience of uh submitting a portfolio, writing an artist statement.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: And to us, to us, we thought that was important because it's a leg up for what's really going to happen to them in the future.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: You have to go through this process.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: So why not start it now?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then um I applied to to some about three murals outside of Corpus Christi, so I'm waiting to hear back from them.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's also so I still want to do a lot in Corpus Christi, but I also want to now I want to represent Corpus Christi, if that makes sense in other cities and and maybe national.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I mean, so why did you why corpus christi?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like how come you chose?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, why did you choose to settle here and just make an impact here?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first I I have I love Corpus since I was a little girl.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: We would always come to Corpus.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't know this.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: That I actually would come to Corpus and we would visit the West Side, but I didn't know it was the West Side when growing up, but we have family here in Corpus.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, and then when I was I think a junior in Taivoli, we I actually got to stay here for a whole weekend doing a basketball camp.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to spend a whole weekend at the university, and I just fell in love with it.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, because of Selena, when I we were come, yeah, when we were to come here, I was like always praying and hoping that we would just like magically run into her, but that's funny, yeah.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, that's you know, Porecita, yeah, man.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: She's still our queen, yeah.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I just love Corpus because it's that chiquito, it's small, and I'm from a small town.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, Corpus is a sm um a small big city, yeah, for sure.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I love and I'm a Pisces and I love being by the water.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say, so did you learn how to fish?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: You well, you live near the water in Taiboli, right?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, no, uh, we didn't live that we lived okay.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was only six miles away from from to get to the water, and that's in Oswald.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was used to be Oswald Taiboli.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we have people from Oswald go to Taiboli at the high school, but no, I never I think I've only been fishing one time.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: This gunna doesn't know how to swim.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: People are never swimming.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: Really, you don't know how to swim?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't know how to swim at all.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: I need a life jacket for sure.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my back, my backyard is is the water, so I just like love being by the water, it definitely just calms me down.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if I go into the beach, dude, I only go about like where it hits my knee, then I don't go, no, no, no, thank you.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's funny.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, it's funny.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, man.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're like co, it's like the coast, we're coastal people.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking with uh Priscilla yesterday on the podcast, and she was telling her friends that like uh that she's she's uh she lives near the coast, and they they think it's all this nice place, and she's like, No, the water's green a little bit, yeah, yeah.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so you did a lot, you played a lot of sports.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like the that the ethic that you learned from sports uh carried over into your your your I guess what you're doing now, you know what I mean?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh you know, I've never been asked to ask questions, like the correlation between sport and art, yeah, yeah, but 100%.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like I feel like um I always tell the students too, and I tell a lot of adults as well art is like a sport.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: How do you get better at sports by practicing your technique?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you do the same thing with art.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I think um not in terms of competitiveness, but working with others in like a basketball team because that's what murals murals are a team effort, yeah, for sure.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to experience in Taiwan, I did everything.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: I did cross country, basketball, track, tennis, golf, like I did as much as you can think of, but it's just I don't know what it all.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've always liked to used to call me like Mighty Maida.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like yeah, for sure, man.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's it seems like you're everywhere, and I could see you doing all the sports, you know what I mean?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but for sure, even uh being in Taivoli, being in all these different organizations and doing it taught me how to do how to keep a schedule, time management, how to just schedule your your your daily life and routine.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very grateful for Taivoli and and all of my teachers for making me the person that I am today, yeah, and just influencing me.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome, yeah.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: You can because like with with sports, it's like you have you have to have like determination to finish, to get better, and your body is involved, your mind is is involved, and it's like I feel like because I was in sports also, and I feel like that has helped me in my life.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever things get hard or tough, it's like, dude, you can do this, yes, you know what I mean?
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can get through this.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like sports has helped me a lot mentally.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I always think back to cross country, right?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Always cross country.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I remember being in San Antonio and it was freezing, freezing cold, and it was pouring rain.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was a fast runner, so I remember telling myself, okay, Maida, if you think about it, it's only 15 minutes of your life, go for it.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember hauling ass, just running, and it was I'm like, if you can get through that, then you can get through anything.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you push, you push yourself to the limit, like how far you can go.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely, if you ask me what's the thing I miss most about high school, is I I miss that sports.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: I miss just the camaraderie and being in a sports and a team.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because now I'm 35, I just turned 35.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: My bones hurt, okay?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: It gets tough when you get out for sure.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now I just now I just uh ride like my bike.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have like an indoor trainer, and that's what I do, and it's just a mentality mentality thing.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's it just helps, and that saved that saved my mentality during COVID.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's awesome.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, what happens if what happens if somebody was to put you inside of a box?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: What would you do?
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: I would probably I don't know.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you mean inside of a box?
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like a like a plexiglass?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what would I do to try to get out of it?
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because you seem like the person, like, don't put me inside of a box, don't put me in a box.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like you're you're that type of person.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't want to be in the box, but it's yeah, like no, it's it's not like a it's like a it's like a figure of speech, like, don't put me in a box, like don't box me in.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, okay.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: You see what I'm saying?
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's kind of like this figure of speech.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's like uh like like when you put somebody in a box, you you confine them to to your rules and to whatever you want them to do.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like if somebody was to do that to you, you're like, hell nah, get out, you know what I mean?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like you I guess I'll respond like this because one of my main things in R is I always draw a square, right?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Always draw a square, which is kind of like a box.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: And my whole mission in life as well, I was like, Well, what how many designs can I do within this square?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: So even though I've if I'm in a box, I will try and I would probably try to find different ways to draw inside that box.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: I like I like your I really like your shirt, man.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: You got a bunch of skulls on there.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, eBay, eBay, yeah, eBay, here we go.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's it's been a pleasure talking with you, Mara.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: This was a blast, and I think this was like the spurt of energy that I needed.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because remember, I'm telling you, like these days, like it takes a lot out of me to go out in public just because I'm not used to it as much as as I was before.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, is it is it?
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, well, I guess because it uh do you feel like you have to go out like to socialize?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Would you would you rather like would you rather be home antisocial or would you rather be out social?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: I that's a 50-50 question.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because there are days, don't get me wrong, there are days where I just want to be in my apartment and just watching like Netflix, Hulu, Netflix, you know, and hang out with my boyfriend and my cats.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: But there are days where I want to go out.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I need to, well, and I should say this, I need to go network because part of art is networking.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's who you know.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: So there are days, that's like I said, it's a 50-50 question.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not like you can, I mean, it's like you can do art, yes, but if nobody sees it or hears it.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: But now I I guess now that I'm 35, uh, I've been doing this here in Corpus Christi since 2008.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, I don't have to go out as much as I used to because I have developed a little bit of a reputation, or if they don't know what I look like, at least now they're like, oh Midas Samora, that sounds familiar.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Midas Samora, the artist.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yes, exactly.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: So thankfully I still work, but um, I feel like I don't have to work as hard.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: Has social media played a part in that in in what you're talking about?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like as far as I would say, yeah, I would say yes and no.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Social media, um, what I love about social media is doing a lot of behind the scenes because people just think, oh, yeah, I want to hire you to do a mural.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can you do it in a day?
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, no.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or can I I need a painting done and uh I need it done like this, and I'm like, no, like it takes time, and as a creative person, we need time to refresh.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes when you're seeing us do nothing, that's part of the process as well.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not being lazy, we're just gathering the energy and the creative juices to flow again.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're not lazy, y'all.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: We just need a little bit of time.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh man, yeah.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's like art, like art is like being being like made to believe, like, oh, it's it's just art, you know what I mean?
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, nonchalant, oh, it's just music.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: Anybody could do that.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no, dude.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, it's not.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I can't even imagine starting a song like just with the tune or with the lyric, you know.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I can't fathom that, like, how that that process goes, but I'm sure it's very similar to art as well.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it is.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because music is is it's the arts, yeah, for sure.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, and we don't just cut it, doesn't just I mean it cut, it's it seems like it comes out of nothing, but we have influences that help us to bring that out.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, for instance, uh like Bach.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: He he spent years of his life transposing and transcribing, I think it was Handel's music, which was before his time.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: So he would transpose it and he would learn how the music would go, right?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: So he had that influence to in to create the music that he made.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's I feel like it's kind of like in art, like you were saying, Joe Pena takes from the European side to create his own style, so there's always influences in in art.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's what I'm thinking about whenever what what you were just saying.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm very influenced by modern art, right?
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Which is line shape and color.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what it is.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's cool.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I'm trying to say goodbye, but it's amazing.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can be, I can talk all day.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: I have no issue talking.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's cool.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you coming on.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I appreciate you, man.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say when you tagged us uh and you wore our shirt on your Instagram, we got like, I don't know, it was like five sales, it was like a handful of sales just from that tag that you posted.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, really awesome! Yes, I was like, What that's what I was hoping for as well to bring you customers because what you do is a business as well.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I appreciate that.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we gotta support each other, and and I think that's one thing too in the Latino community that sometimes we lack is uplifting our fellow Latinos, right?
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot who help each other, but I still feel like we're not quite there yet.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why do we do that?
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: I feel amongst the African-American community, man, they're tight, right?
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're very solid, and I feel like with us Latinos, we need we need a little bit more helping each other out, yeah.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I'm always kind of asking, like, well, why do we do that to ourselves?
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is it human nature or is it just something that we that we've learned up until now, and that's why we're like that.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think a lot has to do with history, with going back to the Aztecas.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, there was those I'm I feel like I'm re uh reteaching, but uh those there were three who were part of the Aztec Empire, and those two were against they hated the Aztecas so much.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: But imagine if those two were with the Aztecas, right?
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: They would have pushed the Spaniards away.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's crazy.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been a whole different world we we lived in if if that little part of history would have been a little different, right?
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right, for sure.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_01: But it feels good, it feels good for those that it it feels it's kind of surprising in a way sometimes whenever you you've received the support from somebody else that you know that is you know Latino or Hispanic.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and because it it because it's always like, oh, he thinks he's all bad, or oh, it's this.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: And when you receive it, it's like kind of weird at the same time.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you enjoy it, you know what I mean?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I w I wish we had, I mean, I hope that we have more of that in the future for for each other, you know?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: I hope so as well.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that our our community can grow, our our influence can grow.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_01: Just it it's kind of like you're we're wanting stuff to mature and get better instead of it getting worse.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, if you think about Corpus Christi right now, a lot of the older generation is leaving the politics when we're having this young generation come up.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping and I'm praying, yeah, that finally corpus Christie will move into more into a progressive setting, but I don't know.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if we're quite there yet.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: Progr what do you mean progressive?
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: Just more like open-minded, yeah.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: And politics and things in general, yeah, for sure.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bringing more stuff, Corpus Christie, saying yes to a lot of cool stuff, but also saying no to some things that are not gonna contribute to our city, right?
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll see.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be yeah, like you said, she's praying and then do like do the footwork, which I mean, you know, some of us are doing the footwork, some of us aren't, you know.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but anyway, yeah.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I just hope I I just hope we see a lot more uh Latinos in government, uh education, higher education, just in every facet, every job that you can think of.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we're getting there.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: So so you think you want that to happen so that uh so we can have more influence?
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is that what is that what you would say?
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, more influence and more representation because uh a non-Latino, and I'll just say like a uh a white American does not have the same, they don't understand what we go through, people of color.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right on.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have people of color in office, so they'll connect back to the community and hopefully act make actual change.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, change for like change for the better, for yeah, for sure.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's awesome.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_01: Mada, thanks a lot.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thank you.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm not gonna say anything anymore.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it's like I was sending another guest, like we what we do is we say bye and then we talk for longer, and then we say bye again.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is part of the Latino comedian.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're leaving in 15 minutes and we're gonna leave until about an hour later.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's super normal.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel that.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: I feel that.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh so I I drive through Taivoli every every I mean like lately it's been every day because for my work I go to Port Labaca or to Point Comfort, and then I pass through Taivoli and I see the Canales Cafe, and then the little water tower you guys got up there, uh the store there.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all had there was like a market going on the other day on Saturday or something like that.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, they're starting to do a little market, which I think is great.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I think what Taivoli is missing, and I know with like some of my my classmates that are still living back in Taivoli, I really hope they bring back like the dances.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow, man, I used to love going to the dances in Taivoli.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh like in the other type of function that you mean?
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: No, like street, like street dances.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, like for 4th of July for any like just for a like a summer thing, like there used to be dances, like I feel like all the time.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: There used to be more, and I and I feel like they lack, but like I'm just thinking about like my friend Charlie who lives back there.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I think she'll still do it, yeah.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: So and so you have a little sister, how is she?
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: Karina.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, Karina, she is my best and worst critic.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_00: She is not afraid to hold back.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: So when I'm really struggling, I usually send her.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's usually she's VIP, VIP.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like she's one of the first people to ever see um anything that I'm working on, or she's one of the first people that I tell that this that I got this opportunity.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I love my sister and I miss my sister, but she's doing great things in Houston.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh she's a teacher out there.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, nice.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: She teach what does she teach?
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: She teaches uh, I believe fourth and fifth grade math.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: So teachers, you guys, it seems like you guys are like uh teachers, you know.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but my sister also has a very she's also very creative.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_00: My sister wanted to be like a pastry chef and she didn't take that route, but my sister's very good at baking and just doing decorating decoration stuff, and she herself is a good little artist, yeah.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she would do stuff with me as well.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, um so it seems like you're you're an along with being an artist, it seems like you're an entrepreneur.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I feel like I'm starting to recall myself an entrepreneur because, like I said, I've been away two for two years with COVID, and I forgot.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait, you are a businesswoman, Maida.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget that.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_00: You sell mugs, you sell coffee, you sell stickers and t-shirts.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just haven't done it in a while.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: It is a business, yeah, for sure.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you so you have to pick that up along the way.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like nobody taught you about that.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I'm glad that you mentioned that because no, I you that's something you would think they would teach you at the university, but no, I feel even though I did get a great education, there's a lot of things that I learned on my own, which is why I feel no, not why I feel, but which is why I do work with the teenagers coming up or emergent artists and just like a throw-up of information because I don't want them to go through what I went through through.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to make it easier for them.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: So do you how so do you is do you think do you think a certain way like about like about like making money and money being a part of the society that we live in?
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it sucks, like the whole money, because all that what I really think money is is just printed art.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's all it is, it's printed art, it's just printed, it's a it's a plaque that's printed on paper, right?
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, we're working, we're working for art every day, but it just sucks because you know I'm an artist, we we all have to eat, we all have to make a living, yeah.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to think of ways of um how to make my money because it's very difficult to sell original paintings, but it's very easy to sell like a sticker or a print.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I like that you some and and it's like people just go to like Hobby Lobby and buy a painting for their house, or you know, instead of supporting the art that is around, you know what I mean?
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, because you get you're getting a unique piece if you think even if it costs you 50 or 60 dollars, you're you have a one-of-a-kind piece that no one in the world has.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so when people sell work for thousands of dollars, like think about why they're that some I ain't gonna lie, there's some art where I'm like, seriously, you're you're selling it for this much, but yes, I don't know.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some I feel like my work just takes a lot of time, and just like when people say, Oh, I want a Picasso, I want people to one day, oh, I want a Samora piece, or I want to be a Mayra piece.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I truly believe I have a very unique sense of art style.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely like the the always tell people you better buy your work, you better buy my work now.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nice, man.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool that you that you really that you believe in your stuff and you just do it.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I I'm my my own boss, I'm my my number one cheerleader.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I there are days where I want to quit, don't get me wrong.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: Plenty of days I want to stop, but I got it's the mentality that that sports mentality you gotta keep going, keep going.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I can't stop.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can't stop, and if you stop, that's when I feel you really have to let yourself down because if you keep going and keep going, success will come.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: Beyonce and all of these little like it's just not a one overnight success, right?
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: It takes time to be an overnight success.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I'm an overnight success, but um but now I don't have to work as hard.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know the work that it takes, you know, you know the hard work that it that you have to put in to get there.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like you you've experienced it and you're still experiencing it.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_00: Am I still there?
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, my alarm went off.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: It went blank for a second.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me?
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sorry, I can't hear you anymore.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: Can you hear me?
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just say yeah, I can't hear you anymore, but thank you so much for having me, and hopefully we can do this in the future again, okay?
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: Bye, everybody.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right, yeah.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: That was Mayra Zamora.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_01: You can check her out.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_01: I can leave I'll leave links in the description where you can find her on Instagram and her website.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: Also, if you want to support this podcast or if you want to uh rep the city, check out our merch at corpuscristials.com