Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Camillo Garza.
Hi Juan, we’re thrilled to learn your story. Can you tell us more about how you got where you are today?
Roughly 400 million years ago, an animal that very much resembled the modern fish (albeit with a triangular, flattened head and unusual, cleaver-shaped fins) woke up from its watery shelter and decided to take a little bit of a gamble — on this fateful day, this fish, this four-limbed vertebrate with a face that resembled Kermit after forgetting Ms. Piggy’s birthday, mustered up all its cold-blooded courage to do something that had never been done before: it walked. The mad fish walked, everyone. And after shimmying its way onto the rocky shores of our premature earth, the creature then catapulted all of life as we know it into a casino-like game of life and death and evolution, which inevitably led us to here, today, with me eating soup, writing to you from my checkered pajamas, pulling out my hair over the right adjective to describe what the first animal to walk looked like.
Stay with me.
The details in-between where we were and where we are—both the struggling fish on its way to walking and me on my way to becoming a writer—all fit into a much larger narrative of life’s endless series of successes and failures. We are all that clumsy fish, trying and failing to walk a million times until we get it right or don’t. And the little details of how we succeed in making our first step (or land a career in writing) are ultimately triumphed by where we are right now.
The fish walked, I write, and details of how we got here don’t matter. Unless of course they do.
Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Death. Wandering the street. Hunger. Bad love. The challenges are always there. They are there for everyone. I try not to be too self-indulgent about my obstacles but also understand it’s important to honor our struggles. So no, it has not been easy, but I have never been short on those willing to help me.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Firstly, and foremost, I am a poet. What I write for money, the songs I craft to stay sane, all the places that I go, the photos that I take — I do this all from this very specific lens of a poet.
As for what I do exactly that no one else can, well it’s a bit tough to identify that idiosyncratic bit because of my longstanding belief that the truest thumbprint of a creative person will always be invisible to themselves. For me, the most unmistakable mark an artist impresses in their work can never be completely seen by themselves. It’s like… a fail-safe to prevent creatives from tampering with their pure, inscrutable selves.
From a broader perspective, however, all of my work has an air of poetry to it; whether it’s writing, music, or photography, I like to elegantly probe subjects for their inner workings and then surface their suchness. It is my job to see into the heart—and then bring back the heart to be seen.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
The first memory that comes to mind is a road trip with my father. We hit the road in a 1988 Crown Victoria LTD with nothing but an icebox and a camera, drove about halfway across the country. All the shimmering Texas roads, all the favorite songs playing, all the windows down as low as they could go — it felt more real than anything else has since.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.juancamillogarza.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juancamillogarza/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Juancamillogarza/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JuanCamilloGarz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JuanDiegoCamilo
