Honduras Now

Episode 39: Speaking with the Honduran diaspora about All Things Honduras

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Karen Spring Filed Under: Podcast

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Summary

In the last few weeks, Honduras has hit the international press, and not for good reasons. Host Karen Spring discusses violence, trauma, and Honduran culture and challenges with Faridd Sierra, a Honduran that grew up in the U.S. but has since moved back to live in Honduras. Since returning, Faridd has been closely following the human rights, political, and social situation in Honduras and tweets regularly at @AllThingsHonduras

The resources mentioned by Faridd in this episode:

Transcript

Karen Spring:

Welcome back, everyone. After a six-month and much needed break, I’m happy to be here and to bring you another episode of the Honduras Now podcast. 

Over the last two weeks, Honduras has hit the international press, and not for a good reason. On June 20, over 46 women were violently killed inside the Támara prison, just outside of the capital city. The incident was preventable, tragic, and, once again, framed as another gang problem.

But this is far from true. Yes, gangs are present, and are believed to be involved. But for a long time the Honduran police and military had been very much a part, if not a huge factor, in the insecurity and violence inside the Honduran prison system.

Today, I will briefly talk about this massacre, among many other related topics. I have invited Faridd Sierra, who is probably better known by his Twitter account “All Things Honduras“. Faridd is a friend, a compañero, and a Honduran that grew up in the United States. 

Since I began my podcast three years ago, I’ve heard from so many listeners, including Hondurans that live in many parts of the world. Members of the Honduran diaspora have written me, showing curiosity about what is going on in Honduras, for various reasons. They get in touch to share their stories, ask questions, and seek connection to a place they feel close to, but are far away from. 

Inviting Faridd to discuss all things Honduras with me is a way to offer one perspective of how a Honduran that has since returned to live in Honduras sees and understands a country he once had to leave.

Welcome to the Honduras Now podcast. I’m your host, Karen Spring. In each episode, I will be sharing human rights stories from Honduras and connecting them to global issues and North American policy. Thank you so much for listening.

So, Faridd, welcome to the podcast. It’s so awesome to have you here with me. We’ve been talking a lot recently. So thank you so much for joining me. But I’m gonna let you introduce yourself and let the listeners know a little about who you are and where you come from.

Faridd Sierra:

Well, thank you, Karen, for inviting me to the podcast. For anybody who does not know, this is my first time meeting Karen on the podcast. I’ve met her in person. And it really is, like, meeting a celebrity, just to let you guys know.

So I’m a dual citizen of Honduras and the United States. I was born in Tegucigalpa, a long time ago. I’m 42 years of age. And I grew up in Dallas, Texas. At the age of three, I was taken to the US. I went to school there. I pretty much learned English first, rather than Spanish. I graduated from the University of Texas, in Dallas. I worked there forever. 

And then, I think gradually, as an adult when I was able to come and live there for the first time, you know, that was really life-changing, and just wanting to know my roots and all this other stuff about Honduras. And, eventually, in 2015, I decided, you know what, I’m going to go back to Honduras, and I’m gonna do something, I’m going to go back and learn about the country where I was born, and maybe do something good. And what this means is, like, go teach, right? [Inaudible] I got my undergrad in literature. I figured I can go teach literature to students in Honduras. And, so, yeah, I’ve been doing that since 2017, teaching literature and grammar at a bilingual school here in Comayagua. So that’s like just a bit. There’s a whole lot more, right? But, you know, that’s pretty much the small and short.

Karen Spring:

Now I’m sure we’ll get into a lot more. So, Faridd, this is my first podcast episode I’m putting out after going on a break for six months, so no pressure.

Faridd Sierra:

No pressure. [laughter]

Karen Spring:

But I’m just wondering, I mean, I haven’t really, because I’ve taken a break, and because when I stopped putting out podcasts before, I hadn’t really talked very much about this new government that isn’t that new anymore. And also recently Honduras has been hitting the international press. And I’m just wondering if you want to talk a bit about that, and what your reflections are about Honduras in the media in the US and Canada, maybe some of the recent things that have gone on.

Faridd Sierra:

I have a love-hate relationship with the international media, as far as what the news is given to people living in the US. US media is [inaudible], right, that’s where I grew up, and what we hear all the time. So, I use the media just to help me out sometimes, or like let me see if I can [inaudible], I go back, just to use it as a secondary source, but not as my primary source.

I think the news that you’re referring to is like what’s going on in the prisons, right? That makes the headlines. That makes front cover news, on the gangs and gangs and gangs and gangs and gangs. That makes ads or whatever. 

What’s going on? I’m currently in the city of Comayagua in which there was a prison fire in 2013. And there was, I believe, over 300 inmates burned. So this is not the first time something like this has happened in Honduras. 

People who are in prison are not seen as human beings, just overall in the culture. It’s not just the government thing. It’s the culture thing that people, if you’re in prison, then you’re like the worst person in the world. Are there bad people? Yes. Are there extremely dangerous people in prison? Yes. Not everybody in there is a narco drug trafficker. Some people are single moms who maybe were doing something at one time and were caught, and they’re in prison now. Maybe it’s a young guy who was doing something, who, out of necessity, was doing something illegal, and was thrown in prison. 

And because they’re not, the court system is just out of whack here, it’s just [inaudible]. Obviously, when you’re in there, it’s, I think everybody, you can to go YouTube and look up like prisons, whatever, uh, Honduras, and you’ll see the conditions, right? Now there are supposed to be some state-of-the-art prisons, or is supposed to be safer, in the [inaudible], I mean they look nice from the outside. But, obviously, from what we’ve been seeing in the news, there’s weapons, there’s massive, you know, all types of assault rifles in there. And how do they get in there? How do they, I mean, there are criminal gangs, there are gangs in Honduras, are maybe in the biggest cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. And some of them are inside the prisons, right? 

And women happen to be part of the gangs, too, you know, it’s not just men. Unfortunately there was this incident where all these women were killed, apparently, from what we hear, it’s two gangs. How much of it is just two gangs just hating each other? How much of it is being instigated from the [inaudible]? And that’s the question that we have to be asked. How is it possible that so much, wow, this is a cruel way of dying, literally, like either a fire or being, wow, just massacred with a rifle, as you’re standing there being watched, as your prison inmates are being killed, and you’re about to be hit. 

And we know that Honduras is [inaudible] still a narco state. There’s still lots of criminal organizations, and they use the gang members for their benefit. And, you know, a lot of times gang members, maybe they don’t want to do that, maybe they don’t want to do criminal activity. And they’re forced to do something, right, because there is no alternative. When you have nothing else to do, you happen to join maybe these gangs, and then you get sucked into that lifestyle. 

But, yeah, that is definitely something that’s tragic, that’s something that, unfortunately, is leading to the military going back into the prisons and taking control. Which, if anybody is up to date with Honduras, both the military and the police are not the cleanest organizations in the world, right? They have a history. And we’re not talking about just the history from like 30 or 40 years ago. We’re talking about a history of even just a couple of years ago, of being used to kill innocent people, you know, death squads. And when you get the military and police involved in these prisons, and how much, who’s the real criminal here? Who’s watching who? And that’s something that’s happening. And it’s something that everybody needs to be aware of. 

It may be popular right now, in certain countries, El Salvador, if you want to say. And it may be seen as this mano dura [strong hand] or whatever, this [inaudible] that has to happen. But there comes a lot of questions as to who the real bad guy is, what’s going to happen when this happens again. Because, even when, even a couple of years ago, I think it was two or three years ago, there was a huge killing when the military was in charge. So this hasn’t prevented it. These events haven’t been prevented when the military has been in charge. You know, at least a lot of questions, more than answers. 

So we can only hope that things can get better, and hopefully… That’s from the government side, but the culture, the culture needs to change, and it needs to start seeing people, even those who have done criminal activities.

Karen Spring:

One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, too, is you’re talking about culture. And, you know, the solution to violence being sending in the military, to take over the police that are obviously infiltrated by organized crime themselves, and the military that’s infiltrated by organized crime as well, and with these really sketchy histories of human rights abuses. 

But one of the things that a lot of people have highlighted, especially human rights organizations, is that a lot of Hondurans want to see militarization. And they applaud the militarization of the prisons, and the ways that, you know, if you go on social media, and you read the comments, they are celebrating that, you know, they’re going in and they’re being tough on prisoners, lining them up, with their hands behind their heads, and nose to back of the other prisoner, like they’re lying together. They’re really disturbing images, and people are celebrating it. And it’s really hard to understand that, as to, like, yes! put them on an island! kill them all! they’re all criminals! 

And yet, at the same time, Hondurans know that the justice system is corrupt. They know that there’s a lot of people that are in there that shouldn’t be in there. They know there’s a lot of poor people that are in there, and they know the wealthy are not in these prisons. Because they never, barely ever, get sent to prison, regardless of the crime the wealthy people commit. So it’s this really difficult thing to understand for people that are observing the reaction to this militarization. 

But one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the podcast is because you’ve been living in Honduras for six years, like permanently, I mean, you’ve come and gone before, you were born here. But, I mean, you’ve learned a lot in the last six years, about how to understand Honduran culture, and you coming back from the US and living here for a period of time, having family members, having conversations with family members. So one of the reasons I wanted to have you is because I wanted to ask you, you know, in the time that you’ve been here in Honduras, what are the five things that you’ve really come to learn about Honduras, now that you’ve been back, and you’ve been teaching young people, and you’ve been around your family and been here more? And I think this fits into this whole discussion of violence as well, and the reactions that people have to this militarization of the prisons.

Faridd Sierra:

Well, let me tell you, first of all, what I knew, coming into Honduras, as somebody who grew up in Dallas, at a time when there weren’t that many Hondurans. I still remember when, in 2007, the first Honduran restaurant, I visited the first Honduran restaurant in Dallas, I was like, wow, there’s a Honduran restaurant! This is years after, you know, this is as an adult, I visited my [inaudible], I didn’t have any Honduran friends growing up. So the little knowledge of Honduras that I did know was just from what my parents told me, when my uncle visited. But it was mostly just family stuff, right? So, as far as what Honduras was all about, it was very limited. I knew about sopa de caracol. I knew about Banda Blanca. I knew about [inaudible]. I knew about, like, the Honduran soccer team. Those are things that anybody who’s Honduran in the US can tell you. 

But it’s when you come here, and you stay here, and you go out of your comfort zone, out of your family, and actually start exploring the country talking to people, you start realizing that Honduras is so much more than baleadas, it’s so much more than football [futbol, soccer], it’s more than just casabe. It’s more, I mean, those are all things, those are all nice things. But it’s more that Honduras has a history. And, unfortunately, it’s not a beautiful, beautiful history. And, you know, I would love to romanticize it and say, hey, you know, Honduras did this, Honduras did that. It’s a really dark history, with beautiful people that are actual heroes, the individual people who have done really good stuff, [inaudible], and I’m not just talking about, like, the colonial time period, but [inaudible] like the modern time period, like Berta Cáceres who is probably the most famous Honduran now, and, unfortunately, she’s not with us anymore, right? 

One of the things I’ve learned about Hondurans is that Hondurans, uh, besides the good things, right? First of all, let me [inaudible]. Honduras is a beautiful country. And, for me, for the longest time, Honduras was Tegucigalpa. Tegucigalpa is just all of Honduras. It’s not true. Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula are just huge, huge cities, but that’s not all of Honduras. Honduras is Trujillo. Honduras is San Lorenzo. Honduras is Choluteca. Honduras is Comayagua. Honduras is Santa Rosa de Copán. Honduras is a whole lot more, right? 

And Hondurans are Lencas. Hondurans are not Mayas, there might be a small group of Hondurans who are Mayan, but the majority are, or at least a huge number, would be Lencas. My family history goes back to the Lenca people. And I think Hondurans don’t even know who the Lencas are. You know, there are Indigenous groups who are the Garífuna, the Pech, Tolupanes, the Miskito people, you know, I’m missing somebody, I forgot who. 

But there’s so much more, right, than just what, like, the media may tell you, either it be like positive media or negative media. Hondurans are not all gang members. If you [inaudible], you may think that. There was an article, I think it was last year, where the mayor of San Francisco said, like every Honduran is a drug dealer. You know, it’s not true. Not every Honduran is a drug dealer. There are scientists. There are doctors. There are engineers. There are extremely smart people here in Honduras, young and old, men and women, rich and poor, who are highly educated. So that’s what I’ve learned, that’s the good things that I’ve learned.

That being said, once you’re here, you start seeing the other side, right? After years of being in Honduras, I’m like, wait a minute, there’s a dark side. And it’s not just politics. It’s not just government. It’s more. And, hopefully, your audience, your Honduran audience, can bear with me, because it may not be like the brightest news that they may want to hear. Or they may already know it, who knows? But I think it is important that we discussed it. 

I think you asked me about five topics. The first one was, there’s a lot of mental health issues in Honduras. There’s a lot! And I’m saying this, because I work at a [inaudible] bilingual school where it’s one of the wealthiest schools in Comayagua. And despite that, those kids, even though they have, like, materially, some of them have US visas, some of them have traveled to different countries, besides the US, Europe. For vacation, not because they’re forced to live there, but just because, hey, you know what, I’m going to Orlando to Disney. Whatever. And they have everything that you may want. Some of them live better than people in the US! But that being said, they’re depressed! They tell me about it! [inaudible] they’re hurting, because their parents might not be there. Their parents might be separated. There’s like a huge number in Honduras who are divorced. And that hurts kids, you know. One parent might be in Tegucigalpa, the other one might be in Comayagua. They may not see that other parent, or whatever, whatever issue. Some parent may be in the US, working. They may be working. They may be living with their grandparents, and their parents are bringing some of that money back, in order to be able to go to that nice school. 

And this is kids coming from schools who are pretty well off. Students who, like, materially, have everything. Now, literally, right in front of my school, there’s a public school. There’s a [inaudible]  in the private school, and right next, adjacent, to the private school, there’s a public school. And I see the difference. I see how the kids are, they’re running up, they don’t have the best stuff. And I’m, like, wow, the students I teach, they were, during the pandemic, I was teaching them, like, via computer. And they were depressed. Now I can only ask myself, how much more, these kids who weren’t in school, how much, when they don’t have anything to eat, or when they’re forced to go work, when they’re forced to see their parents leave, or when they themselves have to make those big decisions of, hey, I gotta go, I’m 14, I’m 15, and I have to go to the US. I think one of the big news channels just came up recently that said, like, depression is a really huge thing in Honduras. And it is. It is a really big thing, when you live under the conditions that the majority of Hondurans live in, which is either some type of poverty or extreme poverty, right?

Karen Spring:

Faridd, I wanted to ask you about this, because I think that, I mean, mental health issues are a problem, like, everywhere. Poverty is a problem everywhere. It’s a problem in the US. It’s a problem in Canada, you know, and there’s depression everywhere. And I guess what I wanted, I want to understand about what you’re saying is, it seems obvious to me that, like, depression is in Canada, depression is in the US, so it seems obvious to me that there would be depression in Honduras. 

But I think what you’re trying to say is, is that, like, people don’t really talk about it. I mean, so, and I say that because I wanted to tell you this, but I’m not gonna say the person’s name. When you and I were talking, when we were hanging out in Tegucigalpa last week, you were talking exactly about this. And the person that we were with actually choked up as you were talking about this. Because it’s never talked about. And the person that was there was, like, listening to you, and the person was Honduran, and actually started choking up just hearing you recognize and, like, explain depression in a way that I don’t know if that person had ever heard it like that before. I was kind of taken aback by it. But I guess I just want to ask you about that, like, you know, is that it’s not recognized at all here? Is it not talked about? Is that what you’re saying?

Faridd Sierra:

Well, and that’s a good transition point to the second, to the second or third topic, whatever it was. It’s, I think, a lot of it, it’s just taboo. I think, yeah, it’s the third point that I wanted to talk about. 

So this is a really extremely religious country. Extremely religious country. What does that mean? What does it mean to be an extremely religious country like Honduras? Which may be considered maybe one of the most, if not the most conservative in all of Honduras. 

That’s debatable, but, you know, I have somebody tell me, mister, I try to tell my parents what I’m telling you right now, that I’m feeling depressed. And they tell me, hey, one, I need Jesus. Two, I need to pray more. Or three, I’m just, I’m just making things up. You know. 

So, when people are extremely religious, I was just having this conversation with coworkers earlier this week. It was, like, when you’re down, where do you go? What do you do if you’re feeling down? And they’re like, well, I just pray more. Well, what if you’re somebody who doesn’t know how to pray? What is somebody who doesn’t go to church, what are they supposed to do other than pray? Well, then, there’s nothing else you can do. What do you mean there’s nothing you can do? There’s a lot of stuff that you can do. You can go to a trained professional. Which is, unfortunately, one of the things, there are trained professionals, but they’re expensive! They’re extremely expensive. Like for a session, it may be like [inaudible] to go to one session, to go visit a psychologist. So cost may be an issue. The religious views of people who may not believe that depression is an important thing. If you just work harder, everything, if you just do something, you know, everything will go away. And it’s such a taboo. People are afraid. People are afraid to talk about it. 

And it’s something that everybody in Honduras should be having, it’s not normal to live with fear. It’s not normal to live in a city where you literally have to live like The Exorcist, doing this whole 360 with your head, to see if you’re about to get assaulted. It’s not normal. Those are not normal conditions to live in. It’s not normal to live, thinking, do I have tortillas, can I afford tortillas. I’m not talking about, like McDonald’s or Wendy’s. I’m talking about, like, your basic food pyramid stuff, your basic, you know, that’s extreme poverty, you know. It’s not normal to have rain come in from your roof every time there’s a hard rain. It’s not normal. It’s not normal to live in fear of an apagón [power outage], right? It’s not normal, are we going to have light today? It’s not normal to see military people walking down the street, with an AR just ready to shoot anybody who they may think. You know, it’s not normal. And those are the conditions that bring depression. 

It’s not normal to be 35 years old and be let go of your job. Because, you know what? You’re 35 years old, you’re no longer good. You cost us too much money, and we’re gonna have to let you go from your job. That is terrible! What are people supposed, this is an issue that Hondurans face, many young adults, later adults, 30s, 40s, are let go from their jobs. And they can’t get hired anymore. Because they’re not, literally, because they’re no longer 20 years old, and they can’t find a job. What are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to do in that case, when you have kids who are asking you, I need food. Or if you had a job, and you lived a good life, and you get let go. How are you supposed to pay for your kids’ education if you’ve had them in a bilingual school? This is literally a fact that Hondurans at a certain age are let go. 

Most Hondurans, if they’re able to survive, have a small business. They have a pulpería [small store] where they sell candy and chips. They make baleadas, they have whatever type of little small business that they’re able to come up with, and survive. But that being said, that small business, they may not save up for a pension. What do you do when you’re 50, 60 years old, 65 years old, and you don’t have a retirement. And those are all things that’ll lead to depression, that affect people every day here in Honduras.

Karen Spring:

So Faridd, one of the things I wanted to ask you is, do you think there’s anything positive about the fact that there’s a lot of people that are religious in Honduras? Is there anything that is good about that, because, you know, I could see people saying that that’s one of the ways that people get through difficult times. 

And it’s interesting because, we were talking about prisons, and now we’re talking about religion, and that being something that is so frequently drawn on. And I’m just thinking about when I would go into the maximum security prison to visit my partner, Edwin, who was a political prisoner, and there would be, and I don’t want to focus back on prisons, but there would be people that would really rely on, you know, prayer, to basically survive the moments in prison. And I assume that’s the same here, that people seek support from religion and from the community that a church gives you. So I just want to ask you if you see positive things in that at all.

Faridd Sierra:

Oh yeah, there’s [inaudible]. People have to have faith, have to have faith in something, right? You can’t just live life without faith. Every person has faith in something, whether it be in the religion, whether it be in this chair that I’m sitting on, I have faith that this chair’s going to hold me, it’s not gonna be [inaudible], right, so I have faith. Everybody [inaudible] faith in their own way. If you have faith, and if you’re able just to meditate on something, whether it be prayer, that obviously helps out, you know. And one of the coolest things that I see is, when I see old people who have nothing else, nothing else, and I am inspired by them and by their faith, in whomever they believe in, and they’re like, you know, this person, this figure right here is going to help me through, and they, there’s this peace that literally comes on them, and they really have faith. So yeah, that individual faith definitely helps out, in whatever people, whatever religious group any belong to, or whatever belief that they have. 

But also, churches may be the only place where an organization provides community, a safe, a somewhat safe community, right? We were just talking about that, right before [inaudible]. We’re not robots, right? We’re not machines. We’re meant to be interacting with people. And church provides that, whether it be evangelical or whether it be Roman Catholic, or whatever it is. You go and you meet up with people, like-minded, and you’re able to organize certain activities on certain days. And you meet up with them, and you grew up with them. That helps you. Those bonds, those relationships, do help people, right?

They help them with aid. You know what, la hermana [the sister] is sick today. Let’s go get her some soup. La hermana lost somebody. And I’ll tell you this, just from when my stepfather passed away, he was the only son of my abuela [grandmother], his mom. And she tells me all the time, she had no one else. It was just her. And it was her faith community who helped her out when you know there’s no government who’s gonna go out there, you know, government agencies [inaudible] help her out in that time of need. It’s not a business, a private business sector or a wealthy bank who’s gonna help her out in any way. It’s the church community, right? So yeah, obviously, those two things, [inaudible] the individual faith that that person may have, and the community that that religion may provide for the person.

Karen Spring:

One of the things that you and I have talked about is looking at how, you know, right now in Honduras there’s a very fierce debate going on about sexual education, and making it law to teach kids. I don’t know what grade, I think high school. They want to provide sexual education to students. And there’s quite an uprising, and quite a conflict being created, mostly led by the more right-wing, traditional, conservative sectors of the society, saying no, no, no, we can’t have that. And people are having discussions about how it’s going to make people gay. And, you know, talking about sex is going to mean that more young girls are going to get pregnant at a young age. And so I think that your discussion about the individual, like, support that people seek, especially in a violent society, right, where you don’t feel like you can necessarily relate very much with people in your neighborhood because of how dangerous it is, especially in an urban setting. But you can find that [inaudible] sense of community in a, in a, in a more of a religious like environment, I think is really good. But anyways, you had some really interesting comments about how that conservative nature sort of feeds into some of these debates that are going on, about, like, sexual education and, mostly sexual education.

Faridd Sierra:

Yeah, I’ll give you an example. I really think there’s gonna be a culture clash here in Honduras. You know, whereas the US is still facing it, but it started facing it like 20 years ago. I don’t know how long ago Canada started facing it. But Honduras is gonna face it. I have students, Karen, who have come to me and said, mister, I like somebody. A male student, seventh grade, I like a boy. That is the reality that Hondurans, whether Hondurans want to accept it, or deny it, it exists, and it is coming. So whether it’s this generation, or the next generation, or a following, it is coming where people are, their views on the world are changing, are not the same ones from yesterday. So there’s gonna be, not just this political clash, but it’s gonna be like this culture clash, this worldview of ideas. And as you know, Karen, Honduras is a very machista country, it is like extremely machista. Oh my goodness, it’s not just fear of homosexuals. It is seeing women as objects. It is seeing women as second hand citizens. You see this, whether it means in small towns, you see it in the cities, or where women maybe don’t feel safe walking, because they may be catcalled, they may be harassed. There’s this clash where women are supposed to be virgins until they get married, but yet boys are told, hey, go sleep with every woman that you encounter with, you know. So it is this culture clash that’s coming. It’s where men are supposed to be able to do everything. Which leads to, if you’re not able to see women as people, then you can do harm to them, unfortunately.

Karen Spring:

It sounds to me like what you’re saying is that, when you’re talking about a culture clash or some sort of, like, reckoning, it sounds to me like what you’re saying is that young Hondurans see things differently. Young people are leading something really special here and important. And that you’re seeing that. And so, that gives me a lot of hope. And I see that when I work with student movements, for example, like the student movements in the university were always the strongest and most daring when it came to, like, resisting the dictatorship and organizing. And they were the most, like, solidarias, as they say, with movements around the country. So I think that, you know, you can draw a lot of inspiration from that. And I’m sure you see that because you work with students, and you work with young people, so you have like a front row seat to that.

Faridd Sierra:

Oh yeah, I’m really excited about, when I hear young people, I’m like, how is it that you know about mental health issues? You know, I didn’t know about this when I was in seventh grade. How is it that you’re able to say, hey, you know, that person is supposed to be treated with respect, regardless of who they like? How is it that you know this, and you’re in seventh grade? So, I mean, they’re aware, and I’m really excited. 

When I hear the students just talk, and they have different views of what’s going on, and what do you want to see, you know. And where girls are like, hey, you know what, I want to be a leader, I want to do something, girls are stepping up. And I see that. And so that, to me, is something that’s extremely good. Obviously there are adults who have been wanting change for a long time [inaudible], and thank you for them who are open, despite being of a certain age, and they have that mindset of seeing Honduras progress. And so, yeah, I’m definitely inspired. Not everybody’s machista, not everybody is sexist, not everybody is classist. You know, there are good people. There’s a lot, there’s a lot of good people, especially when it comes to young people. And so they’re aware, and hopefully they can bring some changes. It’s not gonna be easy! It’s not gonna be easy, I’ll tell you that right now! Because those culture clashes are never easy, we’re seeing that right now even in the US. And even like in Texas, you know, people are going and tearing down [inaudible]. And so [laughter].

Karen Spring:

So Faridd, we’ll probably have to wrap up soon, just because of the time limitation. But one of the things I wanted to ask you, to sort of like close up our discussion, which has gone really fast. What would you say to Hondurans who are living either in Europe, or, you know, left when they were young, or maybe they’re first gen in, you know, Canada, the US, or Europe? You know, what is something that you would want to say to them, now that you’ve come back and you’ve lived here for a while? And you’ve gotten involved in politics, because we haven’t mentioned this yet, but [inaudible] politics in a sense that you’ve become really sort of immersed in trying to understand the political and social and economic situation in Honduras. And we haven’t mentioned that your Twitter is “All Things Honduras”. Which is like, everyone knows you as “All Things Honduras”, not as Faridd. What sort of advice do you have? Or what would you want to say to them, if they’re even thinking about coming back here? They’re trying to understand Honduras from outside of Honduras.

Faridd Sierra:

Yeah, I would say, well, I can just tell you from what, if I could go back and talk to me, the younger me, I would be like, be proud of being Honduran. Don’t be ashamed of being Honduran. There’s a lot of, like I said, there’s a lot of good people, there’s a lot of good things that have come out of Honduras, right? Learn your history. Read the history. Read, read, read, read. I can’t emphasize that enough. Read. There are books, especially if you’re in the US, you are surrounded by a wealth of information, not just on Google or the Internet, but actual public libraries. Go and read. You can order books from pretty much anywhere online, and find your history about Honduras, about Central America. Find out who you really are. 

You know, we’re more than just baleadas, we’re more than just 15 de septiembre [September 15, Honduras’s Independence Day], and we’re more than just football. We are way more than that. 

Don’t stop speaking in vos. Use vos. We speak with vos in Honduras, and, you know, vos and usted. Use that, that’s how we are identified. 

People want people to know about Honduras. Because we’re more than just the violence. I mean, if you travel in Honduras, you’ll fall in love with people. Like I said, there’s different cultures. You get to see people work, Hondurans are hard-working people! I mean, if you go to Tegucigalpa, you’re gonna see people get up at four, five o’clock in the morning, my students are up, they tell me, hey mister, I’m getting up at four o’clock in the morning to get ready, because school starts at seven o’clock. You know, Hondurans are some of the most hardest working people that I know, you know, they are go-getters. 

You know, we were talking about this, how Tegucigalpa is a college town. People never mention that, people always think Tegucigalpa is a dangerous city. Yeah, but it’s also a college town where people are, there’s like, I don’t know how many hundreds and thousands of college students are going there. And they’re getting up, and they believe, hey, you know what, they have faith that if they get an education, then something good is going to happen. They’re not sure what, but they have faith, you know. Hondurans are learning second languages, third languages. Hondurans want to learn. They just want to be given a chance. They just want to be given an opportunity like everybody else. You know, I have students who are learning three languages, you know, they’re improving their Spanish, they’re learning English, and they’re learning French. And it’s not just like regular students, I’m talking about like adults, adults who are like either going to college, adults who are graduated, or post grad, whatever, they’re always learning. 

Hondurans are interested [inaudible]. They want people to visit Honduras. They want that, for the right reasons. Don’t explain Honduras. Just come and visit Honduras, and eat a sopa. Eat a sopa en el mercado Dolores en Tegucigalpa. Go enjoy it, you know, it’s 100 lempiras, you’re gonna have a good time. People are like, did you enjoy the soup? It’s like, wow, where else can you get this great meal? And you feel like you’re, like, hey, we want you to come back. You know, that’s Tegucigalpa, that’s, I’m talking about Tegucigalpa, which, because obviously that’s the city that I love the most, even though a lot of people may fear it, I love it! 

There’s museums there. There’s music there. There’s El Picacho. If you have not been in Honduras for a long time, if you’re Honduran, go to El Picacho, it is so amazing what they’ve done there. You’re gonna love it. Uh, if you don’t know what El Picacho is, it’s like this Christ figure park on top of Tegucigalpa. You need to go there. 

Yeah, come and enjoy Honduras, come and enjoy Honduras. It’s not, I promise you that no one is going to be wanting to kill you the moment you get off that plane. There’s [inaudible] people who say, look, the moment I get to Honduras, they’re going to kill me. No one is gonna, no one. Come to Honduras. And I think you want to ask me something, Karen?

Karen Spring:

Yeah, but do you think that Hondurans living outside of Honduras feel like that, that they’re scared to come back?

Faridd Sierra:

Yeah, they are scared to come back. They are really scared. I met somebody in Dallas, and she was from El Progreso. And she’s like, I’m not going back to Honduras. And she was like me, she was taken as a kid to the States. And she hasn’t been back. And all she knows is what she sees on the news. And what her family tells her. And then, like, I had my older brother show up, twice already, just in this past year, and he’s like, oh my goodness, why haven’t I arrived here before? You know, obviously, look, there’s a lot of human rights issues. There’s a lot of things that are going on. But, there’s also, that’s not happening 24/7, you know, that’s like, you’re gonna be amazed at the beauty of the country, the people when you start talking to them. I remember, when I first got here in Tegucigalpa, people were telling me, look, you can’t go here, you can’t go there, you can’t go here, this is Tegucigalpa. I’m like, where can I go then? You know, where can I go? But, obviously, if you come, be careful.

Karen Spring:

So Faridd, if you had to tell Hondurans living outside of Honduras two songs that they should listen to, to understand Honduras, or kind of get a feel for Honduran culture and maybe music. And read, let’s say two, I’m totally putting you on the spot, so read two or three books about Honduras, let’s say in English, because I think it’s probably easier and more accessible to get English books outside of Honduras, I assume, I might be assuming wrong. What would you recommend? So like one or two songs, and two or three books, what would you recommend that they read and listen to?

Faridd Sierra:

Uh, the most recent one would be Dana Frank’s The Long Honduran Night, which is pretty accessible to everybody in the US. I highly recommend that one because that pretty much tells you up-to-date stuff that’s going on right now. We’re not talking about colonial [inaudible], we’re not talking about 200 years ago, we’re talking about like right now, the last 15 years, and that catches you up to, like, a lot of things. Because the book was published in 2018, I think? So yeah, that one. If you want to know more about, like, I really like the one, I don’t know where, I think I got it from listening to your podcast, on Ottawa and Honduras and the coup?

Karen Spring:

Oh, I think it’s like Ottawa and Empire, by Tyler Shipley.

Faridd Sierra:

Yes, yes, Tyler Shipley’s book about Honduras that let’s you know more, that it’s more than just the US, I mean, it’s just a whole group of people, of messing with Honduras foreign policy. 

Uh, there’s another one from a journalist from England, his name is…. [The book Faridd referred to is The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs the American Elite, by Matt Kennard. Chapter 8, “A Drug War Colony”, is about Honduras.] And it talks about Haiti. It talks about Honduras. It talks about other countries that are very similar to what Honduras has gone through, and you’re like, wow, this is not just a Honduran thing! This is, like, happening in other countries. And you’re like, wow, at the end of the day, if you come to understand Honduras, you’re able to [inaudible] to a lot of what’s happening in the world. 

As far as songs, we just met a singer, Karen.

Karen Spring:

“La Huelga”.

Faridd Sierra:

“La Huelga”, yes! By Don Mario…?

Karen Spring:

De Mezapa.

Faridd Sierra:

De Mezapa. If you listen to that song, oh, my goodness, he sings it, it’s about the time when the banana companies were in control of the country. And he does such a great job of singing that song…

Karen Spring:

Putting history into a song, really…

Faridd Sierra:

Yes, yes, exactly. That’s exactly right. And if you want, say, in Spanish, read Ramón Amaya Amador. Read them! Read Cipotes. Read Prisión verde. Read Honduran authors. You gotta read Honduran authors that talk about Honduran history, if you’re a Spanish speaker, if you know how to read in Spanish. So yeah, read that, read those books. And there’s movies. There’s a movie coming out, Cipotes. There’s a play coming out in Tegucigalpa about Cipotes, uh, [inaudible] San Pedro Sula. So, I mean, definitely go, read the book. If you happen to be in Tegucigalpa in August, September, go watch the play. You’re gonna be laughing, because they use the Honduran vernacular, [Honduran slang phrase?]. So, I mean, you hear that, if you’re like, what, this is, this book was written in, what, the 50s or 60s. And if you’re familiar with Tegucigalpa, it’s with real spots, the names are obviously fiction, the characters are fiction. But it’s so funny because, you’re like, this is the language that we Hondurans speak. And if you don’t use the Honduran, the Honduran [inaudible], then that’s a good way to learn how Hondurans speak.

Karen Spring:

OK, so I’m gonna link to all of the songs and the books you mentioned, so that people that are listening can find them easily by going to the show notes. 

And so, I just want to thank you so much for coming and having this chat with me. It’s been super quick. I feel like we just started talking. But thank you so much for sharing your perspectives. And I think it’s so helpful for people to hear your view of things and your perspective. 

Where can people find you? How can people get in touch with you if they’re ever here in Honduras, or in Texas, or they just want to be like, hey, I’m moving to Honduras. What advice would you give me as a Honduran? How can they find you?

Faridd Sierra:

Yes, I guess the best way is “All Things Honduras” on Twitter. That’s the best way, just hit me up, my DMs are open. Or if you’re in Honduras, or if you know a place you want to, like, you want me to go check out as far as, like, eating, whatever, I’m down with finding, like, the cool spots. [inaudible], you know, to a cool spot, they would say [inaudible], how is this possible? And it’s [inaudible] to me to this cool spot, you know. So if you know a spot, then hit me up, I’ll be more than happy to go check it out, you know, when I have a chance. You know, especially if it’s a mom-and-pop kind of store, yeah, I like that.

Karen Spring:

Cool, thank you so much, Faridd, for joining me and for sharing with us. It’s been such a pleasure having you on the show.

Faridd Sierra:

Likewise, Karen. Thank you, I appreciate that. ¡Nos vemos!

Karen Spring:

That was Faridd Sierra, or “All Things Honduras” as he’s called himself on Twitter. Thanks for listening to this podcast. It’s great to be back. Show notes can be found at HondurasNow.org, along with some new content that I’ve been posting. An amazing volunteer is translating some of the podcast episodes into Spanish. 

Thank you to everyone that helps make this podcast happen. Translation, transcripts, and editing. 

I’m also posting monthly summaries of the Honduran news, for anyone that finds it difficult to follow the day-to-day. 

Also check out the US Intervention Monitor that I wrote, and which outlines the role of the US in the first year of President Castro’s administration. 

Both the news summaries and the report can be found on the Honduras Now website. 

Thanks to our donors and to all of you for listening. 

Hasta pronto.

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