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For update, see earthy reporter. Last story: "Part 3, Chapada Revisted: Aging City Dropouts Leave Deep Imprints in Brazilian Wild West." http://earthyreporter.blogspot.com
I have always said that I can't complain about having had a boring life. An old friend has said to me, "I'm never surprised at anything you do."
After Graded and a couple of years of college, I went on the road. The trip lasted two years. Now I am about to embark on another Endless Trip.
Way back then, I hitchhiked from New York to California, then I wandered in Mexico.
I could not repress the desire to explore Bahia because of the Jorge Amado novels I read in Dona Talita's Brazilian literature class at Graded. I stayed in Bahia for nine months, mostly in an isolated village on the coast, where I lived in a dirt-floor hut.
The trip then led me to Israel, where I lived on a kibbutz in the Negev Desert for six months.
After college, I chose a field that suited my adventurous spirit as well as my love of words. I became a newspaper reporter.
I worked for The Lakeville (CT) Journal, then for a chain of small papers in suburban Atlanta, then for the big paper, The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution.
I was not born to work for other people or to follow their rules. I became my own boss.
I founded and published Atlanta's first Hispanic newspaper, a bilingual community-oriented paper. It was more of a mission than a business, considering Atlanta's Hispanic market was very small at that time ( 1982).
More than a decade later, the weekly that started with one woman and no capital, had several full-time employees and many part-time workers. It had won national journalism awards. For instance, one award was for reporting on Ku Klux Klan activity aimed at Hispanics in Georgia.
Mundo Hispanico became an established presence in Atlanta. However, I was drained from overworking myself and I was still practically broke, so I sold the paper ( my baby ) and moved on to another venture.
At that time, I wanted to make money, instead of saving the world.
During my 17 years as a journalist, I also did freelance work, including stories in Brazil. I return there because my family still lives in Sao Paulo.
After my journalism years, I used my skills in advertising in Spanish and marketing to Hispanics to launch Latino Sounds, an agency for Mexican bands.
It started with local Mexican bands in Atlanta, and grew into a thriving business geared to famous Mexican bands and big events.
Now trying to make a living in the Mexican events business in the U.S. is like trying to squeeze the last drops of blood from a corpse.
I'm ready for the next adventure...The Endless Trip to be documented with a blog. I'm off to Brazil, then to Australia, then wherever.
In Australia, I shall visit my old friend and "partner" from Graded, Benny Sainz, now known as Manuel, the mad scientist. He no longer experiments with the best method to blow up toilets at Graded; he is now genetically modifying plants.
On The Endless Trip, maybe I will start an internet business. Maybe someone will hire me to write and edit a website.
Perhaps I will become a ghost writer for someone else's book or write my own book.
Or, I could become an illegal alien bartender at an Australian resort. Maybe I will become a multi-lingual casino worker in Macao. Perhaps I will put on events with Mexican bands or become an events planner for another market.
Maybe I will have a blast with internet dating in different countries. Maybe I will fall in love with an outdoorsy intellectual who wants to save the Amazon, and I will help him save it.
Perhaps I will go to an ashram in India. Maybe I will find Utopia, which exists only in the mind.
Anything is possible on The Endless Trip.
http://earthyreporter.blogspot.com
