Luis Alonzo Muñoz | 89

Luis Alonzo Muñoz is a journalist and a visual artist. Originally from El Salvador, he worked across Latin America before coming to San Francisco. He has many luminaries among his friends and acquaintances, including Cantiflas and José León Sánchez. In San Francisco he founded a newspaper, Tiempo Latino, in the late 70s. His art has been less a profession and more a natural part of his daily life. His influence and contributions are interwoven with San Francisco’s history, and the optimism he expresses speaks volumes for the city we have been and are.

Interview date: 6/23/21

Interviewed by: Anna Chodos

Referred by: Sarah Arnold, Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly

Edited by True Medusa Pictures. Music by Soundology.

Translation of Interview

by Linguaficient.

Interviewer: please, tell me your name and how old you are.

Luis: Oh, so you want to make me feel old? I’m almost 90.

Interviewer: And what is your name?

Luis: My name is Luis Alonso, and my last name is Muñoz.

Interviewer: I got here a year before Kennedy's death, and I was born in El Salvador, and while I was there, I was selected [unintelligible] in El Salvador, at 17 years old, for swimming.

Then, at 23, I fell madly in love with a young woman, and I had to look for a job in order to [unintelligible].

So, while I was looking for a job, I was well known among my friends because I was a swimmer, and I was popular. So, it was easy to find one and I was referred to an American company named [unintelligible] and visited many countries in Latin America. That's how I experienced mountain climbing, and I experienced Ecuador, the Amazonian jungle in Ecuador, and the riverbanks of the Napo-Pastaza River, where indigenous people used to reduce human heads to the size of a small apple.

Interviewer: How do you describe yourself to others?

Luis: I almost never do; I avoid speaking of myself. I see them reaching their own conclusions based on what they see.

Interviewer: So, then how do your friends describe you?

Luis: Well, it seems like a commercial, like self-promotion so I avoid saying things like that. But my friends would describe me as someone very special, someone with lots of cultural knowledge in general that I can talk about almost any topic that would come up in a conversation, and most of them ask me for advice about life. For example, the friend that called me today went through something very difficult and he resolved it and is now a very happy man.

I have another friend in Costa Rica, this one over here actually. It's the same person, I took this photo two years ago. His name is José León Sánchez, and he is the best writer in the Spanish-speaking world. He has more than 30 novels, and he wrote a story many years ago and won the Art Festival in Central America, and one that UNESCO translated into 66 languages. And, in China, they just printed this book here, which is a series.

Interviewer: And so, you did the...

Luis: The painting, the portrait, yes. I did it, but it's this portrait. When I was painting it in Costa Rica, I was going to give it to him, I didn't know he had the intention of using it here, for this. And that was a surprise, instead of me surprising him, he surprised me.

Because this book is an icon for Mexico. If you can see, in the back of it, it says it was printed in Mexico, for the art and culture of Mexico.

And, it is dedicated to one of the best writers in the world, in Spanish, a Colombian who wrote 100 Years of Solitude, and he recognizes that this writer is a little bit better than him, and he truly is.

I don't use glasses to read. No, I don't use a cane to walk, and I still go to the gym. When I wear a sports shirt, people don't believe me, my friends are surprised, they’re like, impressive. Sorry, I laugh, it's just I forget and then I remember.

When I went into journalism, in the communications field, I had many happy and pleasant days. Shimon Peres invited me to go to Israel. I was his guest to the Knesset. And, I was in a group of 14 people representing the USA, it was a wonderful tour. And, just like that, I received a lot of invitations from executives, presidents… I went to Venezuela with Diane Feinstein, invited by president Lusinchi in '83 and with Diana Feinstein, who was invited by the president of Mexico. And I also went with other politicians. I had all kinds of friends, I had artist friends. That one over here, with his arm on me, he was the best film actor in the world in the 70s, he is known as Cantinflas, Mario Moreno Cantinflas.

Interviewer: What do you like about life here in San Francisco?

Luis: Everything. Everything. It's one of the most beautiful cities in the world, it's a city that my teacher, a guru, a yogi, used to tell me that each city is the same as a person. A tree has life just like a dog, and that a river is alive. We are 80% water, so how is a river not going to be alive if it's our life? It's like saying that the sun has no life. Thanks to the water, the sun and the soil is the reason why we are here, but we still haven't learned to respect other human beings, much less for animals and plants, and things. We don't know how to respect them, and in that sense the Indigenous people of the Americas have taught us a huge lesson when they say that trees are brother trees, river is a brother tree. Buddha used to say the same thing when he stayed in a river rowing just to enjoy the friendship that the river offered to him, to talk with the river.

When they are undefendable, someone with a wise mind would never defend someone like that.

Interviewer: Particularly in San Francisco, is there something that you want to see improve?

Luis: I respect by law, everything around me. And part of that is because I want others to respect me, but even within that people have a lack of respect for me because they don't know how to respect. I have trouble with the phone, everywhere…abuse is everywhere.

What I like about San Francisco, almost everything. Look at the blue sky—it doesn't look like that in any other country. It's a blue sky that means the atmosphere is clean.

When you go to Mexico, you can see the sky is brown and you can't breathe, same in China, Paris, and many other places that you will see, if you go, it is a tragedy.

Even when I went to Lebanon and saw the buildings destroyed by bombs, it was an ugly story. It was an ugly story. You need not have been there at the time of the bombing, being there and seeing what's left is enough. But, San Francisco is tolerant. I know very few cities as tolerant as San Francisco, I see here for example, that I think his name is Frank Rubio and he is an astronaut, and he was chosen among more than 8,000 people by NASA to travel to Mars and the Moon. He was chosen to be one of the 12 people who will go to the Moon. And he is the son of a woman who came from El Salvador, from a small town, she came here to have her son. That's what I think, because she was deported, and he stayed here. He had the benefit of American democracy. The benefits of living in the United States.

However, in the streets... there's people on the street chanting that this country is one full of racists. But, we have so many examples that it is not so.

A young engineer who oversees the robotic arm that will land on Mars, is from Colombia. A girl who was 17 years old, had only finished high school and had $300 in her pocket, and that's how she arrived in Miami.

And she became an engineer here and was accepted into NASA. And now is one of the leaders of the Mars project. That is an example of democracy.

Of help, not of racism.

Interviewer: Have you had a comparable experience to the pandemic in your life?

Luis: Comparable, yes, many. Because the pandemic hasn't been a situation that occurred in a natural way. No, it was worked up, it's the product of the evil in men. And I don't have the slightest doubt about that. In fact, I have information that the building where all that poison was engineered, called the pandemic, was built by European engineers and architects. China just put up the land, the place, and the pandemic labor.

And, all of this is organized in groups. Everyone is getting an economic advantage, different people with different circumstances and conditions. So, it was created.

How is it possible that life has been normalized in San Francisco around the pandemic, and we are still receiving the vaccine? Giving the vaccine the recognition that supposedly cured the people from the pandemic. It's not true.

There are millions of dollars invested in the vaccines and they have to be used to avoid that being a loss.

So, if another similar infection can be brought on, it will be a happy occurrence because then they will be able to use all the vaccines.

And people will be manipulated, just the same way they have manipulated us in the last few times by having us be prisoners in our own homes.

Interviewer: Have you felt like a prisoner?

Luis: Not that I have felt like one, I have been one.

We live manipulated, exploited and many people may be deceived because they don't think that evil exists. But evil men are unstoppable.

Interviewer: Do you have any advice for me?

Luis: Personal?

Interviewer: Yes, in life.

Luis: In the field you are in, medicine, is excellent, but I see a person with different purposes in life. You like diversity. Meaning one field is not enough for you, it makes you more curious. When I was young, I asked my teacher, why don't I know what I wanted in life, at 28 years old? Even though I have achieved a lot.

At 15 I belonged to the National Swimming team in El Salvador, which was already an achievement. Not everyone can do that. And, I told him of my many achievements. At 17, I graduated in art, another achievement. It wasn’t that I didn’t have goals in life, but I wasn't fulfilled. I didn't know where I fit. Only after many years did I understand my teacher and I was able to prove it. People like you, it's not that you don't know what fulfills you, it's just that there are many things that satisfy you. Because a lot of things fulfill you, then you have lots of things you want to do. And, to me, that was a great school of learning. And, I have been blessed, had the luck that everything I have taken on, I have been successful in. For example, I went swimming so I could be part of the swimming team as a freshman at my high school. At 17 years old, it didn’t occur to me that I would wear the El Salvador national team's uniform. So even with the minimum, I was able to reach the maximum.

Interviewer: Is there something that has surprised you about growing old?

Luis: Well, in your case it doesn't matter how much knowledge you’ve accumulated, you may have learned a lot. But you will learn new things ten years from now that you don't know about now. And, in 20 years, another big chunk of knowledge will add on to your experience. So, when you become 70 years old, of course you will know a lot more than what you know now. And, life charges taxes, interests —just like the bank. And we pay that in wrinkles. A payment we don't enjoy making, because no one likes to... it's odd when you find someone who cares for wrinkles, or white hair. Not that they care for it, but they accept it, which is different from liking, enjoying, and accepting. I have come to accept age, and I feel happy and thankful because I see so many of my peers from my childhood that are not in this world anymore. They are dead. And that’s for me to be grateful for life. Life itself is not ugly, it has so many things. If you have a little dog, for example, then the doggy will give you love that’s rare in humans. And it's honest. They rest their paw on your knees and look you in the eye.

That, us as human beings, we don't have that. And we think animals are not as worthy as us. However, we don't have the same sense of smell as they do. We are very behind and poor.

Interviewer: Is there anything recently that has made you very happy?

Luis: Every day, I thank life and I bless life. Why? Because I don't have a life of pain, as someone in a wheelchair like the best astronomer in the world who was in a wheelchair and who passed away recently. His brain, luckily, was untouched by his condition and he was able to understand the infinite universe. There are so many beautiful people who teach us every day how we can enjoy nice things. Not only do we learn from someone who has an education, you learn from people who don’t; from the animals, from life, from everything; and the teaching is constant. We are stubborn. Centuries go by and we never learn — we continue being criminals.

Interviewer: And can you describe a moment in your life where maybe it has defined your life?

Luis: Everyday, since I was little, there was something that made me happy and showed me life was precious. Since I was a kid, I knew. So many beautiful things. At 17 years old, I was already drawing nude models when I was in art school. I only went for a year, instead of the 4 years of the program. But I was born painting.

Interviewer: You have done many things, and I want to understand it well. You used to work in journalism, and you worked also as an artist?

Luis: No, there are things you are born with, and die with. For example, I continue writing and I drew nonstop for two nights a couple days ago. This over here is the product of two day's work. I almost finished it, I just need to finish the top side of the head and the right ear. That's it. One hour and a half. Thing is that it's a bit too tall... that wood I was going to use for something else. I have designs for many works. I am going to do a church, the ancient Dolores church, the smaller one, from Junipero Serra's time. And, I’m going to add a wagon from that time as well.

Interviewer: What do you write when you sit down and write?

Luis: I write about everything, I write poems, and since you speak Spanish, I’m going to look for a poem to give you. I have many things... but I need more life so I can finish the many projects I have. I would like to make many things.

Interviewer: Thank you so much for your time.

Luis: For me, this has been such a pleasure that I didn't feel the time go by.