We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alejandro Diaz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alejandro below.
Alejandro , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from my family. From my mom and dad who had difficult upbringings as well as my older siblings who went out of their way to take care of me. My dad was a poor farm boy from St. Croix. His dad was Haitian and his mother was Spaniard. With my Grandmother belonging to a rich prestigious family in Spain, the Feliciano, she was abandoned by her family for marrying a black man and left abandoned in Puerto Rico. Where they moved to St. Croix and had a farm.
My Mother who was born in Panama grew up in a humble environment with a lack of society and technology. She was relocated to South Carolina where she was Americanized losing her ability to speak Spanish and endure the lower middle class upbringing of my grandma and her new step father.
My siblings have the same mother but a different dad than I. The smallest age gap between me and them is 10 years. Throughout their years of adolescence and adulthood they taught me many valuable lessons of self discovery and mistakes that don’t define who you are.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an actor as well as a music artist. My primary focus is Acting in my youth but I have grown a passion for creating music as well as an outlet for creativity and therapeutic reasons. Acting is also therapeutic for me as well. What’s exciting about my art is that I put a lot of influence of what is important to me or what has shaped me into who I am today. Whether they are positive or negative experiences. They’re all important. My art can be derived from a love for Disney, Anime, composition, thematics, philosophy, and spirituality. I want to keep climbing the mountain of the entertainment business primarily to become successful enough to support the family I grew up with along with the family that I plan to have one day. As well as become more well known to aid me in telling grander stories for others to either escape from reality for a little while or to raise a question about something profound in their life.
Upcoming releases are a music video I shot in Florida before I moved to Los Angeles in May of 2022. A song I rapped in Japanese and had produced by my close friend Keshav and shot by my newly found friend Dani. The video did a film festival tour in 2023 and earned 6 badges in total at the film festivals. Winning two awards. That will be dropping on YouTube so we are releasing a trailer for it on social media and are looking excited to feedback once we’ve released it to the public.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. Adaptability – being able to adapt and learn from mistakes as well as other mistakes and feedback. Be open to change the game plan for things or do things outside of the box even when others don’t necessarily agree with them. Being able to adapt is crucial in evolutionary survival. And it’s no different in your passion.
2. Humility – be humble in knowing you are confident in what you have to offer and stay true to yourself and what you believe in. But be open to hear from others especially those who have more experience in something than you do. Doesn’t matter whether they are older or younger than you. Always take into consideration what others have to offer. Not saying you bend to others’ demands or critiques. But contemplate on them and find value in the advice.
3. Be good for the sake of being good – my favorite superhero of all time is Superman. And I believe a lot of people under appreciate him because they do not understand him. Superman is always good for the sake of being good. It’s not about being perfect all the time or never doing wrong or making mistakes. But always do your best to have good intentions and help others when it is within your ability to. Help and be kind when able to. I’m not saying spread yourself thin and save everyone and everything that’s not possible. But one extra act of kindness from everyone can create more and more peace everyday.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
When I feel overwhelmed I have a few things I like to do in order to help delegate the stress. One of those things is I love to train. Training in the gym has been important to me since I was 12 years old. My sister was always a big fitness influence for me since I was young. She had an extraordinary weight loss journey and since she looked after me so often growing up I would always go to the gym with her. Aside from her influence I have always loved Anime, specifically Dragonball. And Goku has been a symbol of perseverance and self improvement. Always competing with yourself and no one else. Easier said than done, right? But I also like the spend time with my brother Felipe, or with my significant other, or family and friends. And good conversation with a loved one can go a long way. Or even being present with your pet at home. Sitting in solitude also helps quiet my mind when environmental stimuli is at its lowest.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @wndr_land__
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-diaz-45b12a85?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/bCKoCjUPNn63w1hZ8
Image Credits
Photographer: Michael Tukes @michaeltukes
Co-Creative Director: Ariana Romero @_ariawnuh
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
