We recently connected with Alexis Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.

Alexis, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

My Uncle Joe, or Jose, has always had a passion and talent for writing poetry. When he was younger, he even use to perform Christian raps at his church. So, ever since I was little we’ve just always bonded through writing, and he introduced me to Eminem, who made me fall into a deeper love with words. Just his play on words, his love for words, the way he describes his writing process. I could’ve criticized myself less. I believe that I can be hard on myself, especially on my writing. When it comes to something such as this, it takes practice, just like anything else, if I’m not reading or writing daily, then I’m not “watering the plant”, it won’t grow, blossom, etc. It’s just as they say practice makes perfect. But it is writing, it’s passion, it’s deep, it’s beneath the surface, it’s taking something that can sound so mediocre, something you felt on just a whim throughout your day, thinking it’s nothing, but it’s something. It’s vulnerability, it’s honesty. It’s anything you want it to be. Which, exactly are the most essential skills that are necessary, because if you can’t be vulnerable, then fear is most likely what stays in the way.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a writer, a poet. I’ve published one poetry book so far, but I’m currently working on other projects and following other steps to help get me closer to a few dreams of mine. I would like to publish more poetry books, but also strengthen my storytelling. I’m currently working on my Bachelor’s, Creative Writing Degree, which could ultimately help open doors that can help strengthen all or several different aspects of my writing. I intend to share things, parts of my story, hoping to resonate with those who may feel as deeply as I’ve felt. Eventually, I hope to spread more mental health awareness throughout the Hispanic community, as will be seen through my writing, there are still several stigmas for my culture and several obstacles that have yet to be overcome, shedding a light on family trauma or emotional abuse.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

What drives me on my creative journey, is just simply knowing we all have magic inside of us, a story to tell. And the beauty of words… the truth is, Stephen King couldn’t have said it any better; “The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish them — words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out.”, but being creative, a writer, that’s exactly where my love lies, in the existence knowing that there’s a way I can describe something, using something so complex yet so little as words, to paint a picture, or to inflict an emotion within you. By doing so, by reflecting on someone’s journey, and resonating with them, we find empathy within each other, essentially “spreading empathy” towards one another. That is overall, my goal, especially throughout my community and culture, is to share our part of the story, speaking for those who had to break through their journey in some way.

Question not found

I think being a writer, in general, is a very hard and complex topic to discuss and understand. Writing in its different forms, it’s different emotions, reactions, stories, the world it paints and portrays, or the world it can create and destroy. Writing is in our music, in our social media, in the movies and shows we see, the podcasts we listen to, in the articles and books we read. From the scene described, the tone set, and the words chosen, it is all a form of writing. So, I guess my advice is, to flip your perspective in what writing means to you, and how in-depth that can go. The main difference I’d say, from a creative and non-creative is that we have this dire need to express ourselves for this burning passion we know we feel inside us, so powerful, we can’t even fathom the words ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: lexilisete.medium.com
• Instagram: lexi.lisete
• Twitter: lexilisete