 Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for having me, Lisa. Thank you for inviting me. My name is Mr. Soto, and I am a poet, playwright, storyteller. I wish I could sit long enough to write a story. Thank you for the short story. But maybe you turned into plays or poems. But I'm a storyteller, and I'm also an educator. I was a medical teacher, elementary school teacher for eight years, and I thought this would bring my 10th year as a school counselor. A lot of things, and I was talking about creating safety. Really, they really touched me. Also, the whole testing stuff, because, you know, I'm very proud and very fortunate that I work in a school district here in San Antonio that allows counselors to do their work, which is to be with their children. Fortunately, once March comes around its testing season, you know, it pulls away if we're in charge of that testing program, at least in my district. It's really sad to see how students who have come to rely on the support of a school counselor or a mental health ministry professional in their school, when that's gone and just how, even their parents' lives and their life is just how, but that support is so critical for our students. I wanted to share a story about... I do identify, as a hobo, that is in Chicano with Higando, with the queer, and it is a terrible derogatory term that I have worked very hard to reclaim, particularly through my work. But I remember it was probably my first year at the school counselor. Short story, so I'm kind of like, it's that site one here. But it was my first year as a school counselor, and it was my first year at the school district. And the superintendent, we were focusing on families that year, different types of families. You know, we were starting to see the effects of deployment on our families, on our military families, and, you know, of course, your own school, parents not schooled it. We were, our superintendent specifically told us, we will not speak about same sex violence with our students. We will not. And we were told to not read any of the books that we were seeing, so I was kind of like, had any queer parents? So we do a lot of video therapy. Anyhow, so I have a small group of 10 great boys, and these kids are just angry, these boys are just angry, and the teachers are so glad every time they come to my group, because it's 30 minutes, well, like, you know, it's 30 minutes, and they keep trying to put up with that. And, you know, we were, I guess, in the working stage, you know, we're well into our group, and, you know, just, they looked forward to it because there was, I mean, they got to speak, and they got to write, and they got to create a lot of art in my approach to counseling. And so we were talking, and one student was having a really good time, and he was sharing a story of his mother, who had left him and his father to be with the girlfriend, and he didn't understand how his mother became a lesbian, you know? He was really angry about that. And, you know, of course, like, I'm not going to say, oh, no, we can't talk about that. This is where Tenon said, you know? But that's how I felt, right? I was like, what am I supposed to do now, Doctor? You know? Because now he brought it to my door, you know? And he brought it to the doors of the other kids. And what happened next was so amazing, because one of my other students said, and this often happens when you're working in a small group, one student saw himself in his stories and said, that's exactly what my dad left with me. And then the other student related that story, their story, too, but his grandpa, he grabbed that tragedy and that today. And just to see them, you know, I just remember thinking, if it's just only you, this is why they're so angry, right? So I just wanted to share that, because it's so critical to provide our youth that safety, regardless of what they identify as, or anything, just to give them that space and to allow them to move in a space that is so empowering for them. But getting back to why I'm here, Lisa had messaged me and asked me to, you know, if I could speak on the how to use, you know, writing for social change and social justice. And, you know, it took me a while to get back with her. It took me a while, but we didn't have to return my phone call. You know, because initially, I was like, just get me pissed and write, you know? I mean, that's certainly what happens when you're pissed and you write. And I knew there was more to that. My first play I wrote when I was 19 years old, I was in college, my first year of college in North New Minnesota, and I took a class entitled, Here at the Church. And we were looking at queer economically throughout the United States. And one day our professor dedicated to multicultural queer and it was, you know, and I tell this story a lot. We looked at the work of some African American artists and we looked at the work of lesbian artists and that was even better. And I thought, surely she did it like she could miss the mark, you know? But she did. So for my final project, I decided to write. I was really angry. I was really pissed. I was really angry. And so I wrote a play and I said, you know, I'm going to write a play about photos and what it's like to be a photo today. Where she got her, where, you know, where we got her. And I entitled the play, photos that mattered. And I received a B minus and I remember that. I was very happy, you know? It wasn't an F, you know? I received a B minus and I shared it with a friend of mine who was coming to Southern Tokyo for the summer and he shared it with some folks at the Esperanza. And I remember getting the phone call from him and was saying that they wanted to do a stage reunion. And I think it was the first time in my life that I ever, that I questioned like, why? Like why? It's a B minus. People were doing more than they included in this class. And I wouldn't even want to do a reading of it. And at the end of the summer they did. And that was in 1995. And then I remember getting another phone call in 2002 from my friend, again, my bestie, saying that the jumpstart performance space was interested in doing a stage production of this piece. And I remember being so terrified and being so scared of women. I was talking about, you know, being terrified. I remember, I mean, I had just started my career as a bilingual teacher and I was living with little kids and they were gonna fire me. There were no protections for us. I mean, there was no city ordinance. And I remember saying, like, do it. I just don't need you to do it. And I will not speak to the media. And one individual said, you know Mrs. We've got a lot more risque pieces here at the jumpstart. You guys will get naked on stage. And I was like, you put it clear on stage, they will come. And I also told, another request I said, another request I said was, because this was in April, I said, and we're not having a show on Easter Sunday. Like, I will not compete with Jesus. And I said, we have to, we have to have a show on Sunday on Easter Sunday. I said, okay, but no, no, it's gonna come. So anyway, yeah, the media came. I mean, the media came. And I'm so thankful to Erica Salazar, Erica Andrews, who has since passed, who just, she took that form. She took that bullet form because she knew. Like, I did. And she never questioned my lack of courage. I just put it through. And Easter Sunday, we were sold out. And it was wonderful. Last summer, I received another phone call. You know, and it's from Lorenzo Aguero Salazar, who is from, he's the founder of Coding my Press. And he was wanting to meet with me about publishing this piece through Coding my Press. And I remember thinking, is this even relevant anymore? And I called it man. That's the first person I talked to was a man. And they're like, is this piece even relevant anymore? And, you know, I remember thinking like, well, if it isn't, why are you celebrating the pieces? If the pieces that you wrote about are no longer relevant, why are you celebrating publishers? Why did you move forward with it? And so that was a challenge to myself. And so when I thought about, you know, writing for social change, you know, and how I approach my writing, I realized that it really goes beyond, for me, I guess it goes beyond like a social critique or calling for change. It really starts with yourself. A lot of the pieces, people identify with a lot of the pieces. It's presented in different vignettes, different poems. There's a real cheesy infomercial in there. But it has a really strong message, right? But a lot of people identify with so many different parts of that. And I think part of the reason is because a lot of those movements came from moving from the inside to the outside. I wasn't trying to put down straight people or break down my parents or break me up in this, you know, head-thrown-over-tip world. I wasn't trying to do that. I was trying to examine how I was moving through the world, how my friends would share their stories or move through the world. And so, oftentimes when I sit and write, you know, and I look at my work, and the things I'm going to talk about, they normally take place through the revision and editing stage of my writing. But I always ask them, like, what is the social context of my work? What are those social quotes or social political status I'm trying to take? And how does that influence my work? I remember someone reading the play last year when I started the editing process. God, this is such a wonderful period piece. And I don't even know what to make of it because immediately I went to, like, you know, Oscar Wilde or, you know, Shakespeare. That's where my mind immediately went. And, you know, because I thought, like, well, God, maybe it's not, maybe it's not, I love it, but then I stopped thinking, well, yeah, period pieces are very relevant today. I mean, what kind of work would it be? And as we got further to production this last time here, this last month in June over in the Esperanza, it really is like a slice of life in the 90s. You know, the writing is very, you know, and we kept it at that. But speaking of that, you know, the language that you use, you know, we, Latinos, we are such a, we have such beautiful, fluid English, Spanish, and everything in between. And so I always question that, too, a lot of people try to use slang to get street cred, you know, and something you can see is so transparent, like, dude, you don't talk like this, you know, and either it's your character, you know, and so you, you know, those are the things that I talk about. Another thing I always look at when I'm looking at my characters, I always, how human can I possibly make my characters, you know, because these are people that you're writing about, these are people that I'm writing about, especially when I'm borrowing stories from friends of mine, right, like, like, what's the case in Tocos, you know, and so I think a lot, I spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, how do they move through the world? What are those, what are, what are their capabilities, but what are their limitations? The power of being able to think about their thinking, how they react to certain things. I do this exercise with my characters, where I will envision, I will envision them sitting before me physically, and we will spend time together. I have one character, he's 22, you know, and I've been writing him forever, I've been writing him for eight years, and he, or fail, and we run together, and I hate him because he's always, like, a mile ahead of me, you know, and I always know, like, when my clock beats at that point, it becomes very real for me, and after that, after we meet up, we have these conversations and where that story needs to go. So that's one exercise that I do. I also think a lot about the universality of my work, the themes that I approach, you know, there's some themes that are, that are very universal, but in that, you know, it's also being ready to be a habit, to the fact that some of the things that I write about are other people's truths and their realities as well. There's one piece in particular, in particular, you call it that scene, right? That's what everyone reported to me. Oh, you know, that scene? Because a 16-year-old child is in this scene, and I remember talking to the cast and the person saying, like, we have to be ready because, you know, in the past, people have not had that kind of scene, and it happened three times during production, during the run of the show, just last month, where people did not, you know, expect that this angry email and someone like, how could you even stage this protest act, you know, but being ready for that reaction is, you know, because aside from, you know, telling someone's life, potentially telling someone's truth, not everyone's going to really like you or like your work, you know. So, yeah, so I guess I'm out of time. I don't know more, but I can stop, because I can go on forever. I know, because I'm such a bad person, I don't want to stop you, but I think that thing about humanity and testimony, and in certain ways, the courage that I really took away from your state.