Carlos Lugo

EF: Bueno, Carlos, muchas gracias por haber aceptado ser entrevistado para este proyecto de narrativa oral, de latinos en Ohio. Entonces, quería preguntarte, primero, si me puedes dar tu nombre completo, por favor.

CL: Mi nombre es Carlos Alexander Lugo. Soy de Akron, Ohio.

EF: ¿Dónde naciste y dónde creciste tú?

CL: Naciste en Columbus, Ohio, durante el año un mil noventa nueve noventa dos. You know, 1992, lo siento, yo tengo problemas con las fechas. Y, pero, yo viví para mucha de mi vida en Akron, Ohio. 

EF:¿Desde qué edad?

CL: ¿De qué edad? Es muy complejo, a las grados a primera a la grada tercera en Akron. Y después de eso, mi familia, vivíamos en Celina, Ohio, en Mercer County. Es, es una pueblo, más pequeño pero es, es muy simpático, me gusta mucho y…

EF: Hay un lago cerca.

CL: Y el lago, ey, tú sabes lo. Sí, sí, el otro lado, o el otro lago en Ohio. Hay un Lake Erie, y Ground Lake Saint Marys. Sí, sí, sí. Y, y yo vivía allá para los grados del, fifth grade y sixth grade, y después de eso, vivamos en Akron un otra vez para todo mi colegio y mi segundo, mi escuela segundo. 

Carlos Lugo Youtube Interview

Carlos was interviewed at The Ohio State University.

EF: Secundaria, ok. ¿Cómo fue tu niñez en Akron y en Celina?

CL: Celina. Celina es muy diferente contra Akron porque Akron es una ciudad, no es un ciudad grande pero es una ciudad también. Y Celina es… es una, es uno pueblo de los campesinos y, all American small town… hay un Main Street, todo eses. Y, cuando yo viví en Celina, me gusta lo, pero no hay otros latinos allá, no muchos otros latinos allá. Y al, a veces puede verlo en los acciones o, no las acciones porque… they weren’t like harsh actions or like, pero al veces, niños being niños, preguntarme, preguntas como, “Yo no soy racist pero, o, pero, eres mexicano, ¿no?” Yeah, yeah, yeah, y, never thought of it much, pero, it is what it is. 

EF: ¿Qué les hacía pensar que eras mexicano? ¿Qué de ti demostraba esa herencia, o esa raíz mexicana?

CL: Y estás… you’re asking me if like, how I associated or how did I begin to associated? 

EF: No, the kids, how would they, what was it in you that, that pointed to them that you were Mexican? 

CL: Mi nombre. 

EF: El nombre, okay, claro. 

CL: Mi nombre, no hay muchos Carlos’ en Celina, pero me encante mi nombre. Me encanta que yo tengo un nombre mexicana. Yo tengo primos que no tienen nombre mexicano, porque ellos vivieron en el noroeste de Ohio y no puede, hacerlo a lo un hijo allá. Esas… pero, pero mi, mi padre, me encanta mi padre, mi padre siempre tiene la, la estado de mente que mis hijos van a tener nombres orgullos mexicanos. Pero en Akron, estaban otros latinos en Akron, me encántalo. Y Akron es una ciudad small enough que pueden saber como todo en este, este comunidad. 

EF: Piensas… entonces, ¿tuviste una experiencia, tal vez, más… acogedora o welcoming en Akron en cuestión de tu grupo, como mexicano, como latino? 

CL: I don’t wanna mess this up in Spanish, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. There was never like that unwelcoming, there was never an unwelcoming feeling, but it’s just, in the bigger city, there was more room, more people, more different points of views where you can get out there and kinda do different things, whereas in the smaller, rural setting, and you did see that in Akron. And, it was small enough where you did have that like, community base and everybody kinda knows everybody, or know everybody through somebody else. But it’s big enough that you could branch off and there’s like festivals and we have Spanish masses at St. Bernard’s downtown… mariachis, bands will play occasionally. There was, my favorite, one of my favorite experiences when I was a little kid was, there was a boxing match and, and I guess it’s like a kinda, what’s the word I’m looking for in English? I don’t even know. I’m sorry, Tangier’s, is this big building, they always hold banquets, there’s a fancy restaurant, they do a little Sinatra type concerts. But Sean Porter, who’s a boxer from Akron, fought a Mexican guy, supposedly the national champ but, you know how they hype things up, it may have not been. But it was a fun little… 

EF: Who won? 

CL: Sean Porter. (risas) The hometown kid’s gotta win. It was set up like that. (risas)

EF: Bien. Dices tú que tu papá quiso que tú y tus hermanos o tu familia, creciera con ese orgullo, ¿no? De ser mexicanos y todo eso. Puedes pensar en algunas tradiciones o, no sé, eventos, cosas que hacían tú y tu familia que, donde tu padre o tu familia estaba tratando de mantener este orgullo, estas tradiciones mexicanas. 

CL: Yo, yo recuerdo un momento específico. Yo creo que… tenía… ¿cinco años? Estaba un bebé, pero, vivíamos, o, vivía, lo siento, vivíamos en Columbus at the time, pero mi padrino, godfather? Mi padrino y mi padre y yo viajamos a Cleveland a la museo del arte porque tuviera una, una show para Diego Rivera. They were having a showing of the paintings. I remember going up there, being driven up there. I slept most of the way because I always sleep during car rides. But, he, I don’t, I couldn’t remember exactly what reason he gave me, but I remember he did take me up there and it was… it was such an impressionable thing because I’m this little baby and they had these huge murals on the wall. They have the Aztecs and they’re doing the flying thing around the pole. And there’s these elaborate paintings of the temple of Mayor. And Frida Kahlo’s “Passing our revolutionario”. All Arms to the People, and there was one, one painting that really stuck out to me. I don’t know why but it was, what was the name of it? The Embarkation of the Spanish Confederate Crews. That’s something that’s just always like, I don’t know why that one stood out to me. Maybe because there was so much going on, it was crazy. But I saw that I was like, wow. You’re a baby, you don’t know much about histories of other people or your own, of the United States, for that fact. But I was like, there’s a lot of history in my culture and I’m very, it’s like, that was one of the first things where I’m like, I’m, I know I’m proud to be able to associate myself with being Mexican-American. And then you continue going up and there’s all these other things, so my dad always imparted in me a strong work ethics. And it’s like, your grandparents worked so hard, I worked so hard. It’s like, you know what, I’m gonna work hard too. I’m glad, I’m blessed to be associated with that. 

EF: When did your dad or grandpa come to the U.S.?

CL: My, my dad was born in Ohio, so my grandparents came to the U.S. I wanna say fifties to sixties, it’s always a topic up for debate. They lived in Donna, Texas. And they always called Donna, Texas home. But they moved around a lot, they were migrant workers. And I actually have an uncle who was born in Michigan and my dad’s born in Ohio. So even ‘til this day they’ll still like jokingly play around the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry in football. But then my dad was born… I should know this. (risas) Seventies? I, he always considered himself an eighties baby, late sixties, he was born late sixties, I remember now. But he’s an eighties baby. And then, yeah. 

EF: And he was born in Ohio, you said. 

CL: Uh huh, he lives in Striker, Ohio. I believe he was born at the hospital in Wauseon. People from, you’ll know if you’re from that area. (risas) 

EF: Great, great. Qué historias… esta, esta memoria que tienes, o este recuerdo que tú tienes de haber ido al museo a ver estas, estas pinturas de Diego Rivera… ¿qué cosas te contaba tu papá cuando eras pequeño, que tenían que ver tal vez con ser mexicano? ¿Te acuerdas de algo que te contaban? Tu abuelo, tal vez o tu papá. 

CL: ¿Mi abuelo? No, no son histórico, historias específicos, pero ellos son los historias del imagen, de una imagen grande y tiene elementos mexicanos, claro. Cómo mi papá me cuenta que, hay una bebé en un pelea contra un oso o una león de los montañas. Y… like little things like that, cositas como eso. No, they weren’t like, really, it wasn’t a dominating factor in the stories, like specific things. But there were like things always there. But then, I got older and then I started finding out things about the history. And then, then you get into different stories where you get the story where my, my great uncle followed Pancho Villa. And those, so that story branched off into another story that my grandpa apparently had told my dad and my uncle when they were little that, oh yeah, there’s a treasure of gold in the mountains in Northern Mexico that supposedly there’s a sword hid in the basement in one of our relatives house that’s the key to this mountain, only you can find it, like the Goonies. But, so like for me it started off very abstract, but then got older and found out different things, and then they’ll branch off into this other world. 

EF: Do you think that’s unique of your family that, storytellers and…

CL: Oh, yeah. We don’t lie, we make the truth more… fun. (risas) More elaborate.  

EF: I like that, I like that. Let me see, I know from previous conversations, I know that you love boxing. Can you tell me about that? How that came about and how…

CL: It’s another familial thing. I’m sorry I’m switching to English, I just don’t wanna butcher it all in Spanish. It’s another familial thing. My grandpa was always into boxing; he claims he was the state champion in Texas when he was a younger kid. But it was something that he started teaching to my uncles and my dad. And some of them took to it, some of them didn’t, my dad didn’t take to it, but then there was wrestling. When we were all in love, in love with wrestling, too. And the story goes, one of the first Lugo’s to come to the U.S. in the twenties, right after the revolution, spent a lot of his time in La Valle in Texas, and he was a wrestler known as The Panther in the Valley. So it’s just like another thing like that that kinda branched off and, so, just, it was a, thing that was always present growing up is, I love boxing, I love wrestling. I never trained in a boxing gym, but I’d fight my brother all the time. And it’s just a fun thing to watch pay-per-view boxing fights or watch the Olympic wrestling matches with my friends and family. 

EF: Who was your, or who is you favorite boxer? Mexicans?

CL: Favorite boxer… of Mexican descent? Canelo Alvarez, hands down. Of course you have your, your gods in the sport your… Cesar Chávez, César Julio Chávez, Cain Velasquez. There was a great history in it, but right now Canelo Alvarez.

EF: Great, great. Mencionas un poco la lengua, ¿no? Estamos, estamos hablando en inglés y en español. Puedes hablarme de esta historia que tú tienes con el español. ¿Cuándo lo usaste, cuándo lo usas? ¿Cómo se usa en tu familia?   

CL: Mi familia, cuando, cuando queremos poner énfasis en una punto de conversación, usamos español. O si, si estás criticando a un hijo…

EF: Regañando.

CL: Yeah! It’s like, oh, you pay attention quick. La, it’s, es, es complicado, la relación conmigo con español y la inglés. Es un, es como la atmosphere del mi mundo, pero, no es el país en esta mundo. Y, me encántalo, me encántalo, y hay seguridad en el español y… comfort, it’s a lot of comfort, safety, it’s like a child regressing into like a blanket for me. But do not ask me to write a thesis in Spanish, I simply can’t do it. I apologize, I wish I could, pero no puedo. 

EF: ¿Te hablaban español de pequeño? 

CL: Un poco, un poco, y un poco con mi padre. Porque mi padre sólo habla un poco porque un otra vez es muy complicado. Mis abuelos siempre estaban trabajando. Mi abuela trabajó durante la noche, y durante el día ella dormió. Y mi padre, mi abuelo trabajó todo el día y dormió todo el noche. Entonces, no, no, no aprendieron el español a mis padres o a mis tíos, entonces nosotros aprendamos en la escuela. Y, escuela está bien, pero es escuela en el país, en Ohio. Y no tiene una “base” fuerte para el todo de la, for the rest of your life.

EF: Pero tú usabas un poco de español con tu familia con tus primos con…

CL: Sí, sí, sí. Y sí, y tenemos esta ‘base’ y hablamos con mis, con mi familia, con mi padre, con mi hermano, pero again, it’s comforting, Spanish is, you know it’s daily conversation.

EF: Es español casero. 

CL: Casero. I like that word, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

EF: More like home, casero, sí, sí, sí.

CL: You know it’s shouting, it’s putting emphasis, it’s living, it’s like, it’s very animated, but it’s, it’s definitely not like when you go to school. When I went to school and tried to use that in the school setting, in the class and my teacher didn’t know what I was saying half the time. And I remember one time, una vez, estaba escribando una papel en el colegio, y yo usé la palabra ‘chancla’, ‘chancla’ para los sandals. Y mi, mi maestra creyó que ‘chancla’ estaba una palabra… slang, no, slang word y she always would get, not yell at me but like scold me like, “you gotta stop using these slang words, you gotta stop, you gotta use this in a academic sense”. I’m like, “Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, okay.” Y we were writing, we had to describe these people in a photo. And I was like, I was like really just trying to reach, I was like, at the end of the day I’m tired, I’m trying to reach for just like things to describe and them so I could get done and get out of school. And I don’t know, and, oh yeah, and they’re all wearing chanclas. I remember I got the paper back and there was a big red ‘X’ through the word ‘chancla’. “Don’t. Use. Slang.” It’s like, are you sure? Are you sure about that? 

EF: Chancla no es slang. 

CL: I was like, I don’t know, but…

EF: Yo les digo ‘chanclas’ if somebody asks for ‘chanclas’. ¿Hay otras anécdotas así? De palabras que tal vez te corrigieron tus maestros o, o que no conocían, otras, otros hablantes del español.

CL: Ya no sé. Estoy creyendo, lo siento, estoy pensando. Una vez uso la palabra ‘desmadre’. (risas) That was cause, it was, I was trying to describe to my teacher, lo siento, estaba hablando con mi maestra y yo, I was describing driving to school and it was snowy and winter in northeast Ohio, so I was trying to describe the roads like, they’re crazy. But she was like, “desmadre… Carlos, ¿qué es un desmadre?” Desmadre. Desmadre es un, desmadre. (risas) Es muy loco, es… 

EF: Caótico.

CL: Yeah, caótico, she’s like, “¿seguro?” She pulled out the dictionary on me and looked it up and was like, “You’re right this time”… moment of triumph. And desmadre y, ¿qué más, que más? No estoy seguro… quizás es porque like, como yo soy, yo soy de la segunda generación en América y, at this point, you start mixing, my Spanish started getting mixed with TV Spanish and my other friends. There’s a, everybody watches MTV3, everybody knows the same words.

EF: Sí, claro, claro. 

CL: So maybe that erases a little, or, crosses the bridges a little bit. 

EF: Carlos, ¿qué trabajos has tenido en aquí en Ohio? 

CL: ¿En Ohio? Uf, that I’ve had? Personally? A lot. Yo trabajé como un, en un landscaping y HVAC, Heating, Ventaliation and Air Conditioning. Y un poco de construcción en high school, en el colegio. Durante mis años en la universidad, en OSU, trabajé para un, camp? Estaba, estaba una camp director, for the wrestling camps here during the summer for little kids. I was a lifeguard, I loved that job. Soy masajero, no, no, lo siento, mesero, mesero, mesero. Y también, yo trabajé en, en Minnesota como un, yo no sé la palabra pero, I was basically a glorified junkman, garbageman. It was a moving company and we did moves and I would, occasionally we would move these people, but also, oh, we can also haul out trash, so I spent the majority of my time moving trash into a garbage truck and we’d go to the dump and we’d dump it. Yeah, it was great.

EF:¿Cuáles de estos trabajos te ha gustado más? 

CL: Lifeguard. Me encanta trabajando con los niños, me encanta ser outside en el sol, me encanta nadar. No, ahorita, ahorita yo tengo un trabajo con, potential, con potencial. Soy una research assistant en esa proyecta aquí para Ohio State, y estoy trabajando con niños en el Spanish Immersion School. Y well, pero, we just started so, it has potential, but we just started that, so we’ll see how it goes. 

EF:¿Cuál es, cuando tú recuerdas tu niñez y esta identidad de, de mexicano con tu nombre, Carlos Lugo, qué significaba para ti, y con tus amigos de la escuela? ¿Veías tal vez alguna diferencia, o era celebrada esa diversidad en tus escuelas? ¿Te veían diferente, te trataban diferente o no? ¿Qué piensas de eso? 

CL: Sí, sí, sí. Definitivamente estaban diferente porque, definitivamente, en Akron específicamente, hay una, una influencia si estás, ¿cuál es la palabra? Anglo. Tienes una herencia italiano, Irish, yo no sé la palabra en español para… irlandés, irlandés o greco. Y casi es todo. Y, y… each one of those has their own like, there’s the Italian fest, there’s the Irish fest, there’s a Greek fest during the summer and I love going to those. But it’s definitely different because they all have their own pride, prideful heritage. So when I was growing up with them, they’re all my good friends, growing up with them it’s like, oh, well my heritage isn’t these things. My heritage is Mexican-American. And it definitely, I got, it got to be different and I got to break off from the normal kind of branches that everybody had in the school because everybody had these things in common, but I got to talk about, oh yeah, Day of the Dead, oh yeah, my grandparents are migrant workers. And like…

EF:¿Piensas que era una oportunidad para educar a tus amigos o a tus…?

CL: Mis amigos, claro. Mis amigos, especialmente mis amigos que siempre vinieron a mi casa. My grandparents, mis abuelos, siempre vivieron con, con nosotros cuando era niñez y…they were exposed to like, cosas como migas, comida, posole, y mi, mi abuela encanta sus, her soap operas and do these things. It gets down to the more academic sense like, they would break down, oh yeah, yeah, so what’s the history? Oh, there was a civil war? Oh, you fought, your family history is in the civil war? And this and that. And it’s breaks off definitely. It’s that close, when you’re always with somebody and you’re always exposed to these other things, you do develop a greater appreciation, like they… it was definitely many opportunities. And they always took advantage of it to learn about, my close friends, about my history. And it works in both ways and I have a great knowledge of their history as well. 

I found all these different cultures of the Latino experience in Ohio … I got here [to OSU] and you saw these different stories in Ohio, in my own backyard … 

EF: That’s great. Tu experiencia aquí en la universidad, como latino, ¿cómo ha sido esa experiencia? ¿Cómo llegaste? ¿Puedes contarme este journey, cómo llegaste aquí a la universidad y cómo has acarreado esta identidad de ser latino, un latino, un Buckeye latino? 

CL: Es, es muy… yo creo que es muy único porque cuando yo llegué a la universidad, yo tuve esta historia cuando mi, mis otros amigos latinos en Ohio, en Akron y en Celina, casi sólo mexicano. Y yo, yo me llegué aquí en OSU y me encuentra amigos de la herencia cubano, boricua, yo no sé the… I didn’t know Lorain was a predominately a Puerto Rican town and I would’ve never know that, cause I don’t go out there, I had no reason to go out there. But, yo, I found all these different cultures of the Latino experience in Ohio. It’s so diverse and when you’re growing up, we’re Mexican, oh you’re Mexican too. We had the same heritage of growing up. Oh, well our grandparents came during the war, sure, sure, sure. And, yeah, we moved everywhere, we have family in Texas. Oh, you too. And it was very common. But so, you kinda build that idea up as being Latino. And yeah sure, New York has a more Puerto Rican influence and California has a Mexican influence, but it is what it is. But then I got here and you saw these different stories in Ohio, in my own backyard. And I’m always an Ohio, I’ll profess my love for Ohio all the time. And I felt, not ashamed but I was like, oh man, I was, I messed up, I didn’t realize there were all these other stories, these histories in Ohio.

EF: Great! So there’s more pride, maybe? In knowing that?

CL: Definitely, definitely. Yeah, it definitely created a bigger world for me. 

EF: ¿Cuál es una de las historias de tu juventud que recuerdas, like with a special fondness, or “I remember when I used to do this” or “I remember”, or mi, mi papá, me llevaba? No sé, something… 

CL: Lo siento. ¿Sabes qué? Pascua. Pascua, tenemos estas huevos con confeti en el centro… 

EF: Los cascarones, los cascarones. 

CL: Is that the word for them? Cascarones. I never knew the word for them, but that was… I knew they were a Mexican thing because no one else ever knew about them, but my family looked forward to them, every year. My grandma would have cartons, on cartons, on cartons saved up the entire year. And I would get handfuls and we would run around just smash them all day. Siempre usámolos en, durante Pascua, en la casa de mis abuelos cuando ellos vivieron en Striker, Ohio. Y tiene una, una yard grande, it was a lot of room, it’s a country town. Y todos mis primos, y hay muchos, hay muchos… we were running around and smashing them on each other’s heads, jumping up, running up trees. Pero… yo creo que es, es un historia de mi juventud que me encanta. 

EF: Me encanta, que bueno. ¿Piensas continuar esta tradición con tus hijos en el futuro? 

CL: Sí, ¡claro! Gotta learn to be quick! (risas) They need to build, they need to build up reflexes. 

EF: Claro. Eres joven, eres, todavía muy joven, pero, ¿cuál ha sido el momento más orgulloso de tu vida hasta ahora?

CL: Es una pregunta muy profundo que… my most proud moment. Cuando yo llegué aquí en OSU y mi padre, he was dropping me off and like getting situated for the first time. And we always moved around a lot like, you know I said I move, we moved all around Ohio. But now they had, they had hit a point and they’re moving to Texas. I’m choosing to stay in Ohio, move in with my brother. And so we’ll see each other during Christmas, but it’s not like I’m gonna be like everybody else of my friends, drive home for the weekend or crash on the couch. It’s… so they’re getting ready to go away, away. My dad’s coming, dropping things off for me. He’s like, “Listen to me.” He goes, “You are ready for this?” I’m like, “I’m ready for this.” And he’s starting to tear up a little bit. Me and him are both softies, we, I’ll never, I’ll rightly admit it, but we’re emotional guys. Starting to tear up a little bit, “Listen to me.” He goes, “You know, I’m proud of you.” That was, that was very profound, very proud moment for me, going to college, going to OSU, the place, it’s the primary university in the state I love. And it’s the same institution that my dad had graduated from. 

EF: Oh, great! He’s an OSU graduate? 

CL: Yeah, we have, we have deep history here, yeah.

EF: Oh, tell me about that. 

CL: My dad met my mom at OSU. This is, ok, so this is back in the seventies. My dad’s looking for college options. One of my uncles went to the navy, my other uncle went to Toledo, he’s only a couple years older than my dad. My dad’s looking for college options and he goes, “Well, I’m gonna be paying for it by myself.” So he looked for the most cheapest option. Back then it’s different than OSU now. OSU was the cheapest option, so he applied to OSU and got in. And he met my mom here years, years later. He eventually graduated with a degree, I wanna say in exercise physiology. He continued working, he got his medical degree here at OSU as well. So, I’m very proud to be here and kinda continue that tradition. I’m not gonna be a doctor, though. But what I would really love to do is, I would like to get my MBA from Ohio State after my undergraduate which would be my career…

EF: What are you studying here again?

CL: I’m an International Studies student. It means you get kinda the combination of both literature, culture, politics, and economics. You focus on one certain area of the world, I chose Latin America. And even that in and of itself kinda stems and permeates my relationship with my grandparents. I always understood there’s a greater world out there, and I wanted to be more of a part of it. So I took that as my major focus, and then I’m also getting my minor in Spanish, working on it, hard.

EF: Qué bien. Ésta es otra pregunta… profunda. ¿Qué significa Ohio para ti?

CL: Ohio, Ohio es… Ohio es yo. Ohio es, es mi amor. Es mi… it’s the center of the map it’s, it’s, it’s América en un estado, yo creo. Es… they’re these Midwest values, I love that family, that togetherness, that they always preach. But then there’s also the work ethic that you will not see in many other states. And it’s just, this state’s been so good to me and my family. I go like, I travel everywhere, I’ve lived in a lot of different places. I lived in San Antonio for a while. I lived in Mankato, Minnesota, which is terribly cold. It got to negative 50. I’ve been to these other places and I’ve lived in small towns, I’ve lived in big cities. But something always calls me back to Ohio. And it just… it almost transcends like, word value, I can’t really find the right word right now. But I love Ohio so much, it’s everything to me. And I love this state, which is why, again, I was excited, one of my most proud moments being dropped off at OSU, because it’s the premier institution in the state. It’s done so much for me and my… LeBron James comes home, but actually at the same time, my, my family’s planning to move back to Ohio, too. They found new work, new jobs so they get to come back, too, and we’re joking, we’re joking, my family, right now is, “oh, everybody’s coming home!” (risas) Living in Texas, you think you’re ready for warm weather and I’m like, this is going to be it, we’re gonna live everything out, out here. It’s like, it’s gonna be warm, it’s gonna be nice. It’s like, you know what? You just can’t escape the Midwest, there’s always something calling me back to, for me, for my family at least. It’s…it’s definitely, I don’t know, I’m getting kinda lost here trying to describe it. 

EF: It means a lot, a lot of different things. 

CL: Yeah, it definitely does. In this new, we live in a new world, a transnational world. There’s all these different peoples in the U.S., and different heritage. I kinda like to think you don’t need to be like, cause you don’t live in San Antonio, it’s primarily Mexican influence, which was awesome, I loved it, especially with my study of area studies, I’m all about this. But you can be Latino, you can be Mexican, you can be proud, and you can be from Ohio. You don’t have to be close there geographically, you don’t have to be from Michoacán or from the border or from Cali. We have all of this in the Midwest, we’re here, too. This is our state, too. Yo soy puro Ohio. 

EF: Y puro latino.  

CL: Y sí, puro latino, puro Ohio. 

EF: That’s good. I like that. Is there anything else that you would like to add that I haven’t asked? About you, about your experiences as a Latino in Ohio? 

CL: Not off the top of my head. You asked some very, very insightful questions, they were great. Thank you for the opportunity to get here and talk about it, and like I said, I’ll profess my love for Ohio any day. (risas)