Bridges Aren't Destinations
I've been learning something about leaving unhealthy systems that I wish I had understood much earlier. Leaving is not the hard part.
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Blog
Notes from the booth, the courtroom, and everywhere in between.
Reflections on interpreting, faith, immigration, and the occasional argument with Silicon Valley — from Augusto Aniano.
The Distance Between Certainty and Inquiry
The last couple of days, work took me to the Seattle Immigration Court and the Otay Mesa Detention Center, which means I traveled most of I-5, just not…
Read article →The Fourth of July Through a First Gen Lens
4th of July weekend is tough for 1st gen immigrants. You are reminded that you don't belong, and you have a tremendous opportunity to work towards…
Read article →AI for Thee, Not for Me
Church leaders are having very serious conversations about what AI can replace. And if you pay close attention, the pattern is pretty revealing. Design?…
Read article →Aguantá la Tosca, Silicon Valley: A Category Issue
One of the most fascinating assumptions in today's AI conversation is rarely stated explicitly: That sufficiently accurate prediction eventually becomes…
Read article →The Conclusion Was Never Allowed to Lose
Before I started working in immigration courts and preparing for state and federal interpreter certification, I thought contradictions were mostly a…
Read article →From the Pulpit to the Courtroom
I signed up for the written portion of the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE) this week. Preparing for it has been… messing with…
Read article →When the Past Stops Taking Your Energy
Today, I'm graduating. Six months ago, I stepped away from a ministry environment that had defined a large part of my life. At the time, it felt like…
Read article →Confidence Tag: What ASR taught me about Jesus' priorities
Lately, I've been deep in the weeds developing NoteSecutive, an ephemeral lexical app for professional interpreters (stay tuned and shoot me a text if…
Read article →Christmas, Incarnation, And Solidarity
There are so many faithful angles from which to approach Christmas. We can teach love as a Christian imperative, grounded in Jesus' own example. We can…
Read article →From City Gates to Courtrooms: When Justice Reflected Our Faith More Than We Do Today
Professed Christians are in a unique position when it comes to values. Some would say it's better, but I tend to think it is a bit more... fragile,…
Read article →Gratitude. Deep, layered, long-arc gratitude.
This week I took my first medical interpreter call with Jeenie, helping someone bridge a language barrier in the middle of an ER situation. It hit me when…
Read article →I didn't change careers. I just switched instruments.
Simultaneous interpretation is one of the hardest things I've ever done, and somehow (call me irresponsible 🎶🎤), it feels exactly like music. Take this…
Read article →Cycles We Break in Private but Preserve in Public
Many aspects of life are greatly influenced by what are called virtuous or vicious cycles. There's no human alive who is a stranger to these two concepts.…
Read article →🇺🇾 When what matters is not your size, but your example.
Carlos Eduardo Espina — a Uruguayan-Mexican-American political commentator and advocate for the Latino community — recently met former U.S. President Bill…
Read article →The CAGED illusion (and the Tyranny of Shortcuts)
Hot take for musicians and lifelong learners 🎸🧠👇 The CAGED system was designed to help you make the most out of the five basic chords everyone learns…
Read article →El Principio de Caifás (The Caiaphas Principle)
"Cuando la iglesia teme perder su seguridad, deja de ser iglesia y se convierte en institución." - Justo L. González ("When the church becomes afraid of…
Read article →When Was the Last Time You Were Proud of a President You Didn't Vote For?
We live in a time when narratives about entire regions are too easily reduced to soundbites. Latin America often gets painted with a single brushstroke,…
Read article →From Throwing Stones to Global Faith: Remembering My Great Uncle Emilio Castro
When public figures pass away, tributes suddenly flood our feeds. People quote them more in death than they ever did in life. Sometimes those tributes…
Read article →The Metric Jesus Would Disagree With
In a couple of weeks I will be leading worship in one of the most beautiful landscapes in California, Zephyr Cove. The mountains and waters there always…
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