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

Christopher, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

2024 and onward has been the busiest that I have been as an artist since I graduated college in 2021. Not only have I been producing my own work on stage and on film, but I have also been acting and taking part in other meaningful projects as well. The best part is, I’ve been getting paid for pretty much all of it. As of right now, it looks like 2025 will be another busy year.

Meanwhile, I have also been carrying on with my day jobs as a private tutor/usher/delivery driver. I also frequent open mic poetry events and I have also made efforts to get more involved with local grassroots organizations. I’m something of a weekend-activist.

As many do, I think about my future a lot. Right now that I am 26, I still have a lot of time to define the path I want to travel in life. I find all of the work I do to be very rewarding, but is it all sustainable? To put it simply, I am unsure if I want art to be my primary means of income. I feel like having a regular nine-to-five has become so demonized by my generation, ESPECIALLY in the arts world. The phrase, “I want to quit my day job,” is so common to hear, but what’s wrong with liking your day job? Maybe I’m just anxious about whether or not I could even sustain myself financially off of my art, but I’d be lying to myself if I did not admit that I want to make a difference in the lives of others more than I want to be “the next great American playwright”. I think I’d be more than happy with just being a pretty good one if it meant that I could live an overall fulfilling life.

Art makes me happy, and it always will, but so does working with children, and so does working in the community. But no matter what career I take, I will never stop writing. I will never cease to be an artist just as I will never cease to be a mammal. I’ve met so many positive role models this year, individuals who do not simply ‘work” as artists, but “live” as artists. They are social workers, they are chefs, they are gardeners, they are tradesmen, they are mothers, they are fathers, they are honorable and strong. They’re not just members of society, they are members of the COMMUNITY. This is what I want!

Christopher, 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?

Growing up, I was always a very academic kid. So, it seemed natural that I would go into STEM after high school. No one pushed me to go into the arts. Quite the contrary, I was constantly told by my friends and family that it would be a bad idea to do so. Careers in the arts are (generally) not pushed in the Latino community.

In the Fall of 2015, I applied to a bunch of universities; I even got as far as being interviewed for Yale and UCLA (or maybe Harvard, idk). But, I was not accepted to any of my goal or even safety schools. Not gonna lie, after 13 years of doing what everyone said was best for me and what would yield me the most glorious results, I felt betrayed. In retrospect, this was a very entitled way of thinking, but, nevertheless, that’s just how I felt.

So, I swallowed my pride, and enrolled for the 2016 Fall semester at East Los Angeles Community College, declared as a Comp Sci major. I enrolled in some gen ed courses, but I also decided to try out an acting class. Seeing as how units were so cheap at a community college, I thought: “Why not?”

Flash forward nine years, here I am doing this interview lol. I’m no longer bitter about not getting into a big university straight out of high school. I’m glad thing worked out the way they did, otherwise I might have never found my true passion as early in life as I did.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Most of my life I feel like I’ve had a lot of expectations placed on me. I think a lot of people with minority/immigrant parents have this same issue. Our parents want us to surpass them, to pick-up where they left off.

“You’re going to reach a level I never could. You have to be greater than me. I came from nothing, now I own a house. How will you top that?”

I don’t want a superficially aspirational life. I don’t want to flex a big house and designer clothes and trips to Cancun on Instagram. I don’t want to sell, or buy, an image of, “Oh yeah, I got it figured out. Get like me. Keep grinding.”

I don’t want to be great. Great people do bad things all the time. I just want to be happy. I want to do good unto others. I want to be a normal person. What’s wrong with that? Our parents are “normal” people, our tíos y tías and grandparents are all “normal” people. If I’m great, that’s great. But who am I trying to be great for?

I just want to be a normal, happy, cool, funny guy, living a normal, happy, cool, funny life.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is getting to share what I make with others. Sometimes I feel misunderstood or like no one listens to me. So, when I write a script or I perform, it’s almost like I have a captive audience to listen to me yap for 10-60 minutes. I always try to speak my truth, because chances are that it’s the truth of a million other people. Maybe one of those people are in the audience. If I feel seen, maybe they feel seen too. I hope so.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @chrismajin
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elproyector6718