Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carlos Garbiras. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Carlos thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Yes, I look at other artists who have found their calling early on and I feel a little “compare and despair” energy. But if I truly look at my journey, I believe nothing could’ve happened any other way. My storytelling is infused by my meandering around, immigrating to the US, moving jobs and industries and finally finding my calling.

Carlos, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an award-winning essayist and columnist laughing at my topsy-turvy upbringing in Colombia, life in California, and raising two amazing daughters!
I publish personal essays and stories at my newsletter, Unequivocally Ambiguous (unequivocal.substack.com). I also talk about storytelling and artistic recovery.
I write humorous essays on travel, relationships and culture by talking about my identity as:
a man raised in Colombia during its most violent years,
a loving husband to a kick-ass, better-person woman,
a father stumbling my way through gentle parenting and Montessori to two gorgeous, angel girls.
Ambiguity reigns my life in an age of fabricated certainty. These snippets of life are not what you will find in influencers’ reels. If anything, you would probably find it in what gets left out.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

When I was going to San Diego Mesa Community College, I signed up for a hip-hop class. The beginner’s class was full, but I thought of myself as a good dancer. So, I took the spot available in the intermediate class.
The teacher, a local San Diego hip-hop artist, talked in the first class about this little booklet she often finds herself referring to called “Art and Fear.”
She said it had been very helpful to her in her artistic journey.
I eventually ended up dropping the class because the locking and popping was too advanced for me, and I needed something a bit more basic. I still think of myself as a decent dancer, and I put to good use the two moves I picked up in class when I was clubbing in my twenties.
I also bought the book. It is my artistic bible. For anyone struggling with creative doubt, I can’t imagine a better book. I try to read it once a year. But when I feel my doubts creeping or taking too much space in my mind, then I pick it up. It helps that it is a quick read.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2013, I started writing a satirical business novel, which I was sure was going to shake the literary world. Think Silicon Valley but in San Diego with a giant circus Big Top and horses.
But no agent wanted it.
I find it funny when people say Harry Potter was rejected 32 times before it found a home. I would take those odds over submitting it 200 times and shelving the project for later, which were my odds.
I took classes, I went to writing conferences, and I joined teams, coaches, and editors. But after close to seven years, I decided to switch gears.
I joined an online digital platform, Medium, to slowly publish short fiction and poetry. I started being tagged on prompts for personal stories and essays, and I found myself enjoying writing those.
My wife had always wanted me to write some of those stories, and Medium became the perfect platform for them. Then, my wife suggested I read those stories on camera so people could hear my voice.
From there, I started performing those on stage at local story slams and theaters and found myself completely devoted to storytelling.
It was one of the happiest mistakes of my creative career. One that has allowed me to pay attention to my daily life and to look into my past and what I went through growing up in Colombia and later moving to California.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://unequivocal.substack.com/

Image Credits

First Photo (Profile) by Juan Carlos Troncoso
Second Photo by Carlos Garbiras