By: Anthony Danilov
This past Thursday, November 9th, The Torch spent the afternoon in the Anna Maria Ciccone Theater watching Bergen’s Latin American community come together as one to celebrate their heritage. Flag waving, music and dancing, and inspiring poems and speeches made for an eventful, and more importantly, informative time spent with the impressive comic book artist, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez himself.
The event began at around 12:30 pm as more and more people started to pour in. While the crew was setting up to film our opening shots for the interview segment we were planning later on, many students began to line up in formation. Miranda-Rodriguez was nowhere to be found, and all of a sudden, music burst through the loudspeakers as the students began to unfurl their flags and wave them. Lo and behold there was every Latin American flag proudly waving in the air.
After introductions from Gloria Cevallos, Bergen Community’s Events Planning Coordinator, everybody moved into the auditorium and the energy stayed on a high. Michelle Galvis, a high school student, gave stellar vocals with her performance of what sounded like a more traditional Hispanic track. Galvis is an Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater winner as well as a Tengo Talento Mucho Talento Finalist, even having her own YouTube channel.
Poet and activist Yari “Porta Rock” Pares then gave a very moving performance of an original spoken-word poem dedicated to Puerto Rico named “Mi Bandera” or “My Flag.” “I came out of the womb with my fist in the air and a Puerto Rican flag in one hand,” he boomed. His passion and words riled up the audience and exemplified such pride and happiness to be Puerto Rican, a perfect precursor to Miranda-Rodriguez’s presentation.
Bergen County Commissioner Germaine M. Ortiz made a surprise appearance at the event as well. In between presenters, Cevallos made sure to shout out the commissioner and let her know how much she appreciated her being there.
After remarks from BCC President Eric Friedman, one of Bergen’s own, Daniel Ruiz came up and introduced the one and only Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez. Rodriguez, all smiles and fully beaming, ran up the stage, giving his thanks to everyone in the audience for taking time out of their day to be a part of this event. Miranda-Rodriguez apologized for the postponement of his event, which was initially scheduled to take place back in October when it was Latino Heritage Month, but pointed out that November was in fact Puerto Rican Heritage Month and that things couldn’t have worked out better.
La Borinquena is Miranda-Rodriguez’s original character, a Puerto Rican Brooklyn native who studies at Columbia University and struggles with asthma. Miranda-Rodriguez pointed out that “Having asthma was not something that would disappear once her cape furled behind her.” This topic was so important to Miranda-Rodriguez because according to him, Puerto Ricans have the highest rate of asthma in the Latino community.
As Rodriguez went through the history of creating this character, he brought up Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, which began back in 2014. In his words, the debt had led to a “brain drain” in the country. Many of the professionals in PR had begun to leave the country for the first time. “As a nation of people of color, when we did come here we faced a space that didn’t always welcome us. We had to fight to create our own cultural spaces,” Rodriguez said. This is what mainly inspired the writer to come up with the character: “She was created as a symbol to show the world who we are so they could see themselves in our story, in our heritage.”
The La Borinquena writer continued telling us about all the events that followed and the other accomplishments he has managed to achieve. “A tsunami I rode that I wasn’t expecting to ride” is how Miranda-Rodriguez refers to the reception and how his life changed after the first issue of La Borinquena. He told us how his issue was placed in the Smithsonian National Museum and how he had a day named after him by the mayor of New York City. “There was a huger, there was a void,” he says. It was an opportunity to fill that void but not only fill it but to plant something in there and to nurture it.” The void he was referring to was the lack of true representation of Puerto Ricans and the issues they faced, especially in the comic book world.
Not only did Marvel work with Miranda-Rodriguez, but so did DC Comics. That partnership stemmed from Miranda-Rodriguez’s work on his second issue of La Borinquena. He had based the story of the issue on research scientists had accrued concluding a standing series of cataclysmic events that were long overdue to hit Puerto Rico. Little did he know that nine months after the publication would be released, the catastrophic Hurricane Maria would devastate all of PR. During those 11 months of blackout in Puerto Rico, Miranda-Rodriguez was the only publisher working on material related to Puerto Rico. So, once DC approached him about a possible joint project, he immediately had something in mind. That something would be the crossover that is “Ricanstruction.” The four-month Amazon best-seller found La Borinquena teaming up with superheroes like Superman and Wonder Woman to help aid the reform of Puerto Rico following the destruction left by Hurricane Maria. Following that publication, he and his team created Superhero Toys for La Borinquena, dedicating all of the proceeds back to charities charged with aiding PR in rebuilding and reestablishment.
It was very clear to Miranda-Rodriguez that he had created a character that had connected with people in a way that had never been done before. The artist closed his speech with these words: “You all have a story to tell, and I want to hear it.” It didn’t take any genius to know that not only did Miranda-Rodriguez stand upon his principles, but he also worked to get where he is today. As a fellow writer and NYC native, I found myself feeling empowered and equipped with the right mentality to achieve success and to do what I needed to do.
Before the event closed, Miranda-Rodriguez made sure to answer some questions and interact with the audience. When asked whether La Borinquena would ever be made into a film, Miranda-Rodriguez made it very clear that he saw his work as “a movement rather than a movie” and would never consider the idea of selling his character to a production company. Rodriguez also opened up to us about his unique writing process and how he works with his comic book team which includes his partner and wife, Kyung Jeon-Miranda. He noted that he prefers to stay in his space of historical non-fiction and use real-life events and figures when writing adventures for La Borinquena. He left us with a teaser regarding his upcoming work, letting us know that he’s working on a new Dominican superhero as well as the long-awaited fourth issue of La Borinquena.
As we all spilled out of the auditorium, we were greeted by the wonderful scents of tostones, yuca, and other Latin cuisines. Immediately there were two lines formed, one for the hungry bellies and one for the die-hard fans. You can see more of Rodriguez’s comic book signing set up in the video below where Rachael Castro and I sit down with the writer, and ask him a few more questions regarding his story and the stories he has written that have inspired so many.