Today, we’d like to introduce you to Camila Paredes.
Hi Camila, I am so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I think my story began a long time before I was born; I love to tell this story because it shows the reality of what the drug trade did to normal families in Colombia. I was born in Cali, Colombia. Cali is a very diverse place with beautiful landscapes, people, and culture, but people of color still struggle (to this day) financially. I had two cousins who were left as orphans by their mom when she left for the USA. They were teens and had nothing; they were left to live on the streets until my grandfather took them in.
He educated them as well as he could, having been affected by this trade himself, but when you’re young and poor in Cali, there wasn’t much else you could do. My mom says they were sweet, caring kids, roped into narco-trafficking by the promise of wealth. They didn’t survive. When Griselda Blanco was in jail in the 90s, she distributed her properties to her henchmen in an attempt to protect them from the government. My cousins were one of those property protectors, but Griselda was wicked and paranoid, and she sent them to get killed, thinking they wanted to steal her property.
My grandmother told me that it took my grandfather days to find them, beaten to nothing in the mountains of Colombia. He didn’t stay quiet, and because he spoke out about the murder of his adopted kids, he now had a target on his head and all his family, too, as the letter Blanco sent said. I was just about to be born. My grandfather was able to deter it, begging for the life of his family, but even though it seemed like we would be ok, everyone knew that once you knew Griselda’s secrets, you wouldn’t be safe. I was seven years old when, through the help of family and friends, my dad, and my mom, we were able to move to New York.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When I first moved to New York, I struggled greatly with the language. I had to learn a completely new language. I couldn’t really communicate with my peers for months until I finally learned English. I think that age is so important for kids in regard to socializing, creating friendships, and building confidence, and it was pretty traumatizing leaving my family and going to a whole new place. I think that it has always been quite difficult for me to make friends and feel understood, even to this day sometimes.
I also struggled with my self-esteem, being from indigenous ancestry and looking very different than many of the people around me in New York, along with bullying and never seeing people that look like you in the media; it took me a very long time to find myself and my inner and outer beauty. I think it’s quite funny the difficulties I had as a child because now English (writing) is one of my favorite subjects, and even though I struggled a lot with self-esteem and friends, no one could ever guess that I had those issues in the past.
There are other struggles, of course, being from a mixed immigrant family, but all struggles that every day I work to get past for my sake and my family.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
First and foremost, I’m an actress. I’ve been doing theatre since I was 13; it was one of the things that helped me break out of my shell. I’ve done plays, have worked as an extra in movies and TV shows. What I aspire most now is to show the world that Colombians are so diverse, that Indigenous people from Colombia exist, and that we’re talented and have incredible stories.
I’m currently going back to school to study theatre, and I really hope to create works from my stories and show the world these stories that are so often overlooked. Even though acting is my main art form, I’m pretty multifaceted. I also do makeup, hair, nail art, photography, photo editing, poetry, and roller skating.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memory is the day I first got to meet my little brother. I was nine years old, and I had been sick when he was born, so it was days after that I was finally able to see him. It was the day I stopped feeling alone.
I always say he was my favorite late birthday present because he was born two months after my birthday. He still is my best friend, and even though I was an only child for so long, I never missed it because I was always so happy to share life with him.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arsmay/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/boy.nailz , https://www.instagram.com/3n.linea
Image Credits
www.instagram.com/wrap.str
www.instagram.com/planetfruits
www.instagram.com/yokoverse
