Aurelio Valdez
I think the most important thing is just being present in the community. That is the strongest first thing people can do. Oftentimes, people jump right into a community without knowing what the community is all about. Who has been doing work, creatively or in social service. You got to know what community you’re trying to represent. When I first tried to get around the community in Seattle, I would always go to rallies and concerts and always be present no matter what. Regardless of being able to perform, spit a little bit of poetry, I was always present. And one of the other important things is to not isolate yourself and to really gain the trust of the community. There is a clear way of approaching helping the community and an obvious toxic way of getting around to that. I’m not from Seattle, and regardless of all the effort I put in, you know, I won’t be able to capture the whole of the community myself. There’s that disconnect of not being from there, which should not discourage you. It’s just paying respect to the community and its uniqueness.
Seeing the breadth and depth with which you are contributing to your community, from sharing your perspective at packed venues to making a full length documentary highlighting the people of South Everett is really incredible. What advice do you have for people just getting started with helping out their community? What first steps would you suggest them to take?
Photo Courtesy of Aurelio Valdez
Born and raised in South Everett, Aurelio Valdez is an educator, poet, director, and advocate for increasing accessibility to education for all. From creating a documentary titled Unseen Cualtzin to spitting poetry negating the stereotypes surrounding his community, Aurelio Valdez makes it his mission to find solutions for the problems of today while inspiring the next generation of social change. Additionally, though he admits that politics is slow, he is in pursuit of a political office as but another avenue for improving conditions for the underrepresented and under-served.
You've mentioned on social media that you will be running for political office in the future: do you mind sharing which office you have in mind and what are some changes you hope to make?
I’ve always aimed for something really high. I’ve been saying I want to become the President of the US since 17. And that’s a bold statement to make at the age of 17. I still want to become president of the US, that’s still my aspiration, be it I have to wait 16 years because of the Constitution. But for sure, I mean baby steps. Maybe become city council first then mayor, then state senator. With who I am, with what I represent, and how radical I am ideologically speaking and because I’ve seen a lot of stuff first hand, I think politics is really slow. There’s a lot of people who don’t talk, don’t spend, but they’ll vote and they’ll vote you out of office. Also, within our own movement pushing for actual radical change, we have disagreements. What if I’m too radical, what if I’m not radical enough, what if I’m too much for a Latino, for who I am? I always battle with that. But one thing that I know for sure is that I’m genuinely about the community and about serving people and their needs and if that’s what the epitome of what a politician should be—then I’m there. I’m obviously inspired by many of my great mentors, like Nikkita Oliver. She ran for mayor in Seattle and she could tell you how toxic and damaging and frustrating it is. Be it, she is fully qualified to do the work. Hearing her stories and her own experience in many ways solidifies everything that I feel and my concerns. But it’s also like, politics man. Politicians often vouch out of personal interest or big business interests and I don’t want to do that.
In the same vein as the previous question, if we could travel 5 years into the future, what would you wish to see in America and to see yourself doing?
In the last 3 years, I’ve noticed so much change within myself, my people, and America as a whole. Honestly, in 5 years I hope to see more of our people, and I mean that in the most general sense—our people meaning those fighting against social injustice. And the way that I see it, it's all baby steps. I’m a teacher. I'm already mentoring some youth. Maybe I won’t be the generation that starts to change, but they will. Change is nothing in the moment, it’s always generational. You have to approach it like that. And in 5 years, I’ll probably still be in the frontlines of protests and mentoring people. In the end, it’s all about making things accessible. Whether it be education or movements or ways to engage in protests or pushing for change, it has to be accessible. It has to be for the people and run by the people who are being underrepresented and are suffering. I hope to see education, organizations, financial needs, more accessible. In our culture when it comes to the people who push for social change, a lot of our own people have this gate-keeping mentality. We hoard knowledge and keep it from people who don’t have the same access to education that we do. I’m 100% against this type of gate-keeping and want to keep pushing to giving more people more access. We’re going to push for change right now of course, but we also have to understand that change is generational. It’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. You got to keep on going. You’ll never know when you’ll reach the definition. I’m trying to see liberation in the most extreme way and if that’s the goal, it’s not going to happen overnight.
Your documentary Unseen Cualtzin was phenomenal. I feel like it captured the essence of people, of humanity in people and made me feel like I was right there in the moment. Have you noticed changes in your community or in the perception of your community after making that documentary?
Yes, I do for sure. There’s more action and more pride for sure as far as from where I’m from. South Everett is a really diverse location with a lot of Latinos, folks from South East Asia, Ukranians, Black folks, and a lot of immigrants from Africa as well—it’s just a beautiful diaspora of people. I’ve also noticed a lot more mobilized efforts in regards to community service. There’s a new spot on West Casino Road (the road being the heart and center of what South Everett is known for, both bad and good). And they just opened up a new community center that has daycare, preschool, English classes, space for community meetings. And hearing from the high schoolers and middle schoolers, I’m a teacher and work for that age demographic, they’re talking about it in South Everett. They’re having conversations about what does community mean, what can we do, are we doing enough? These conversations, I never had throughout my years at high school, you know? I was never in high school saying “What can we do around Everett”? Be it, I was having conversations about mobilizing people, and revolution, but now it’s just so much change that I’m seeing on the individual level. I never imagined this level of impact. There’s a lot of people trying to start things in Everett now, from music to organizations, and they’re starting to pop up. A lot of the things that have been planned have been pushed because of COVID, but in fact COVID has kind of amplified what I’ve been pushing for. It really forces the question: “What does the community need right now?”.
If you could interview one person, who would it be and what would you ask them?
I’m a huge hip-hop head. I love hip-hop music. And there’s a lot of dispute on how hip-hop was founded because it’s a collection of moments. I want to have a conversation with Kool-Herc, the supposed founder of hip-hop. Just having those conversations would be really dope. I love talking to people. And I love talking to people who know a lot because if you ever give them a space to talk they will for hours, you know and you’re guaranteed to learn something. I would love to interview Kool-Herc out of respect and get to know what’s up and it’s crazy that he’s still alive in his early sixties which just goes to show that hip-hop is a new thing and still growing. And I want to see it become a forever thing, you know.
Interview edited for clarity and length. See more of Aurelio's work at linktr.ee/aurelioxvaldez.