We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jose Rico a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jose, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

I was born in Chula Vista, California but I lived in Mexico from age 4 to 28, I used to vacation in the USA every summer from the age of 15 and on, and kids started treating me differently in Mexico, I felt distance from them and they told me I am different, the relationships only grew apart with time, I also never felt a full Mexican, I have some beliefs and behaviors but I never felt completely adapted and accepted, and it is similar with my American side, I know the language and some traditions but I have never felt completely accepted and adapted to the USA customs, so I feel nor this nor that, but I am a little bit of different sides, I consider myself an eclectic person.

I am not a very religious person, I don’t conform to the norm, and I am always exploring ideas beyond the traditional, I consider myself a truth seeker, and sometimes this puts me in situations of making some people uncomfortable when I speak my perspective of things, I don’t agree with some of their ways, I prefer to follow what I consider to be the truth or the right thing to do, so I mostly keep to myself, and try to communicate some of my thoughts and feelings through the music, the singing, the arts.

I guess the lesson I keep getting from all this and more experiences is that we as humans must be true to our essence, for us to do that, we have to spend the time to find ourselves, we need to accept the good and the bad in us, to be patient, to develop our skills, to work on healing, to let time resolve circumstances that are out of our control, and to keep going even when circumstances are not in our favor or when people don’t support or understand us, not forgetting that we should not hurt ourselves and others in the way, but we should be focusing on the goals.

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?

When young I got into playing musical instruments because my uncle had a band, and many instruments, microphones, speakers, and stuff were within my reach, I used to practice now and then, and then I became a singer in a punk rock band for a while, the first instrument I learned was the drums, with years I moved to piano, guitar, singing, songwriting, composing, and more recently acting and filmmaking.

From a young age I used to admire polymaths, Leonardo Da Vinci is the main one, and Seth McFarlane is the one who inspired me to pursue the idea that it is possible to act, write, sing, direct, do voice-over, and be fulfilled creatively.

So, I would say that it is luck being born in my family, my education to avoid distractions and harmful situations, my personality, my drive to better who I am every time, my curiosity to learn and discover myself, and the combination of it all that has gotten me in the path I am, I haven’t found any other alternative to pursue, only what I was taught and started learning from a young age, I guess I keep enjoying trying to be better and seeing the progress.

I have huge dreams and reasons to make them true, I have goals in psychology, singing, songwriting, composing, acting, filmmaking, business, philanthropy, and more goals that I wish to fulfill, and even though life gets tougher I will keep working on my goals as much as I can, I want to see how far I can go, and I want to help family, some causes that resonate with me and others around me, and help the world to be a better place, I believe in positive changes and have a strong faith in a better future, we do have a responsibility to help, guide and give a good example to the next generations.

Currently, I am working on getting more training in acting, singing, filmmaking, composing, and trying to make a more professional image so that I can get involved in greater projects, In the acting part I am auditioning for films, and I am composing a third album, I keep learning and practicing singing, I have had two directors asked me to help with the soundtrack of short films.

So I am available to collaborate as a singer, to create music, to act, to sing a song someone has created, to be an actor and singer in a musical perhaps, and to help with songwriting, I’m looking for opportunities to learn from people who have more experience, and to network and showcase my work so I can move onto the next step, so I can make better creations and get involved in bigger projects.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Yes, the greatest one I would say is that I have always wanted to be a positive example for humanity, I figured that by doing what I like I could reach many people in many parts of the world, get attention, connect with them, and share the messages through art and then speak my view about the world and promote the causes I believe are important to support.

I have this idea of spreading positive and helpful messages through my words, actions, and work. About 5 years ago I wrote a couple of reggae lyrics and some pages for what I’d like to be a book, in which the main message is to take care of life, to take time each day to reflect on life, to search and develop the good things in oneself, and others, to recognize the miracles that very often we don’t stop to appreciate because we are too busy doing stuff that don’t align with our essence, trying to obtain things that ultimately will not heal our inner world.

It might sound naive to say that I still cannot believe how it is possible that sometimes we as the human race cannot get in agreement to work towards solving the most relevant problems in our world, sometimes I think that we are allocating too many resources into the wrong things, I remember being younger and thinking how so many people including myself can be happy or at peace or doing whatever we are doing while at the same moment, in some part of the world the fact is that there are humans who don’t even have a home, food, clothes, water, access to health, this to me is a painful thought, and I wish I could have the means to help in a big scale, I wish I could help in research for medical situations like cancer, mental health, heart disease, DNA, I wish I could donate to organizations that can make advancements in this fields, these are some of the reasons that keep me going, I cannot know how far I will get but I want to keep going and see how far I can make it.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Yes, the fact that I spend time learning, practicing, and creating things that are economically overshadowed by other types of more lucrative activities is incomprehensible to some people, spending so much time doing these activities instead of socializing or enjoying life in different ways is not worth it for some.

I spent a few years of my youth believing that money was not necessary at all, I was very focused on spiritual paths, and when I felt that I was full of it, I changed and focused for years on trying to find ways to create money, then I stopped that and started trying to create wealth because focusing solely on financial success from my point of view does not guarantee fulfillment, it does help to advance faster and have access to many resources, but it also chains you to continue creating it and monitoring it, so I chose to stop chasing money excessively and I focused on bringing out my inner world because that is the main way I have found so far to connect with people and to heal myself in a way. At the end of the day, I believe in trying to improve in many areas of life so that I can be fulfilled inside and out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thericolifebusiness.wixsite.com/jose-rico
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jose_rico_ramos
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoseRicoRamoss
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@jose_rico_ramos
• Other: – Linktree: https://linktr.ee/jose.rico.ramos – IMDB: https://imdb.me/Joserico – Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0sKiN2EsuvwVCQNdfj6Snm

Image Credits
Image Credits. 1. Kaoticklone Productions. 2. Kat Liao Photography. 3. Diego Rico Photography. 4. Tiziano Mammana (TM Media).