What is Of Spanglish and Maximalism?
First off: I’m still figuring that out. Chances are you’re here because of my ‘Make it Make Sense’ column, in which as a native Iowan and former higher-ed DEI professional, I detail my messy break up with upper academia.
But like Whitman or Pre-Kanye Kanye, I contain multitudes. And Make it Make Sense is but a part of the whole. I also post personal essays on Latino identity and masculinity, musings on Writing, hot takes on culture, extrapolations on Neurodiversity, ramblings on video games (I main Ken Masters and think Tetris is goated), and old man yelling at clouds about dance (Ohad Naharin is a biter and I’m not quite sure if I’m 100% on board with Breaking being in the Olympics.)
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Why should you even consider giving me money?
Like previously mentioned, I left the dying star that is DEI work in a major university within a red state. I left for my personal values. To be able to look at my daughter in the eye and tell her that I stand for something. Though full disclosure: as a toddler she would probably just reply that her diaper isn’t poopy but merely full of toots (this is legit something she tells us.)
Anyways I left because the job was doing its damnedest to tell me that I was nothing while at the same time I was getting national recognition for my writing. So the universe was asking if I felt froggy and I’ve answered by jumping.
This is all one big spiel to tell you that your monthly contribution would go really far in supporting my voice and platform. Subscribing enables me to do what I love while also calling out truth to power. A monthly sub costs a cool $5. Think of it like taking me out to coffee once a month to hear me spill the tea.
Paying subscribers have full access to the archive and access to all the newsletters, and will get a personalized something or other from me (a physical card? A personalized dance solo? Sub and we’ll figure it out!)
Who is Chuy Renteria?
I’m a writer, educator, dancer, father, and first generation Mexican-American. I wrote a memoir We Heard it When We Were Young about growing up in the first majority hispanic town in Iowa. I won the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award for fiction. I’m an aging B-boy that is too stubborn to dance my age. I’m a facilitator and community connector that wants to educate communities while always striving to learn about myself in relation to said communities. I am husband and Dada, respectively, to my loves Darcy and Marisol.
