Where the journey begins
Who would’ve thought that leaving the US four years ago to study Spanish in Medellín, Colombia, would have had such a profound effect on my life.
Honestly, this love I feel started back in middle school, in about the 7th grade to be exact. That’s when I was first introduced to the Spanish language and that passion has made me who I proudly am today, a bilingual, fluent Spanish speaker, and an ally and friend of the Latino community globally.
Who Am I and Why Do I have a Business with a Spanish Name??
For the record, no one has ever asked me this but myself.
My name is Brian Few Jr., native of Minneapolis, MN. I grew up in a very sheltered environment, where my world revolved around school, church, and my imagination. To have known this quiet kid back then and to see him now would be quite the transformation to witness. I never imagined that my world would’ve expanded to include traveling the globe alone, or becoming fluent in another language, or winning 4 Midwest Regional Emmy’s in two years. Life has been quite the journey to say to the least. I’m looking forward to sharing more of that journey with you all here on Amor Por Mi Gente.
What does that even mean, Amor Por Mi Gente??
Amor Por Mi Gente means Love For My People. It’s pretty self-explanatory but it carries a much deeper meaning for me. Over my short life, I’ve experienced acts of love from people that looked like me and that was very normal to me. We grow up in our communities, with our people, and we have both good and bad experiences. These experiences stick with us and even play a part in shaping who we are today. Well, as you’ll read many times throughout this website, my first time leaving the country, changed my world forever. For the first time in my life I made a leap of faith decision to leave my comfort zone and do something very dramatically different than everyone else I’ve known had done or was doing.
You’ll probably notice in these posts, that I tend to do things like this fairly often.
On this trip into the unknown, I experienced love and care from people that knew nothing about me. This act of love had affected me so deeply because I too had tried throughout my life to give this same form of pure love, one without expectation to others. This created this type of reciprocal cycle where love truly became blind. I had always felt this connection to Latin people, possibly because of my 7th grade Spanish class. But, what I believed and believe today is that Latino people are my people. We share similar struggles, we share similar resiliency, and we share similar love.
Since that first trip, I’ve returned to Medellín, expanding to other cities, pueblos, and countries. Everytime I return I am overwhelmed with this sense of love, acceptance and freedom. Hence, the name Amor Por Mi Gente. It is not just a representation of how I feel but a mission I consciously choose to embody within myself. Although the name is in spanish, the love shared here and that I carry with me is for all, whether you are black, latino, native, asian, or white. Love is for all, and all deserves love.
