My name is to Chuy Renteria I describe myself based on the hats that I wear.

I am an author, dancer, teacher, father, but I'm also Mexican-American first generation.

I am a community member here in with close ties to the town that I grew up in just 20 miles away West Liberty, and somebody trying to figure ou what my relationship is with my and what my responsibility is to my community.

We heard it when we were young is the story of my childhood into early adulthood in West Liberty, Iowa, my hometo It's the first majority Hispanic town in Iowa.

Not only that, there's a really there's there's prominent populations of Southea I grew up with Mexican friends.

I grew up with Laotian friends, I grew up with white friends.

And your neighbor was somebody c different from you in a lot of There is a lot of good that came with that.

There was a lot of it was like a else.

It's complicated.

It's a special place.

And with that specialness comes if you imagine in the eighties people growing up in such a dive when there wasn't a lot of conversations that might be happ about being empathetic or being cognizant of those differences, there can be a lot of hostilities or there can be lots of friction also.

It's been really interesting to hear the response from folks of the book because I there's a lot of universality about about it because it's you You could be first generation, any type of identity and relate to these stories because that be between that space between like there was no Mexicans on th and we were like, when?

And you know, the local radio stations or like MTV, rig So then that it becomes this.

Th weird, blurred sense of of what Valid, right, like, what can you kind of latch on to that actually other groups or folks or your peers look at as something that's admi And we found it through dance ri because it was something that we could hold on to and it was solely our own.

And I think because it was remov from any type of like racial or ethnic identity.

That's why we couldn't actually ourselves in it.

B-Boys always But here's the break right here.

So that all is good, the B-Boys are here.

I have a line in the book where.

I'm not sure if it saved me, like if it like, saved my life.

I can say that it definitely like changed the cou It gave me a sense of purpose.

It gave me a type of navigation in not only like an artistic exploration, but also just like I know who I when I wake up now, I know that I can label myself a dancer, a B-Boy, you know, and and it was a gift.

And a lot of ways.

the immediacy of dance is is som that I always will cherish and to like the fact that I can just you know, I can stand up and do and somebody can watch it and we we can connect right then.

No , writing the book wasn't my actually I actually fought writing the book in a lot of wa So I mean, and it took me a whil to get to that point, and I think what helped me kind of go get past the hump?

And I remember talking to the ed was like, OK, I'm going to do t and I'm going to write about my and my kind of journey.

But it has, to be honest, has to It was hard.

It was very hard to be so honest in it But I wouldn't feel like I could live with myself if I like kind of if I massaged it in a way that I felt like wasn't honest, I wasn't the truth with a capita Yeah.

The tricky thing, though, was being aware that I a responsibility to my friends or community members in that honesty, right?

It was something like 5-6-7-8.

I'm at a point in my life where a lot of the things that I were the things that that matte You know, like becoming the rich the most famous, most like, most well respected author or the best dancer in the world or something like that, right?

That's not what it is anymore, because I think we're wired to think that, like the immedia wins are what makes you happy.

And for me, it's it's like, no, it's something w if you can make others, if you can lift up others, if you can open the door and kee for others to come in and.