Sayre Quevedo

Sayre is passionate about broadcast journalism. He is involved with Youth Radio as a teacher and reporter and also as a poet in his community. His goals for the year are to become fluent in a new language and to learn a new skill.

Abuelita’s Hands and other Reflections on Colonialism

Sayre Quevedo

2014-02-03

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/127703594″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&player_type=tiny” width=”100%” height=”18″ iframe=”false” /] It lives in their bodies. Just look at Abuelita’s hands. She’s winding a dirty shoelace around the joints of her fingers, bent inward, an intricate cat’s cradles. They meet in the middle of her palms, the knotted roots extending from her knuckles. Like an exotic flower reeling in...

New Roots

Sayre Quevedo

2013-11-08

The first night I arrived in Riobamba my host brother, Paúl, took me out to a show. He didn’t tell me what kind of show it would be. And honestly even if he had I probably wouldn’t have understood, only smiled and nodded and said something like, “Si” and followed him. We walked around for about an...

Souveniring the Scene

Sayre Quevedo

2013-10-10

Riobamba is like a surrealist painting. Dogs on roofs. Half-built, quarter-built structures, like big gray dollhouses. Farm animals along empty train tracks. Little boys in baseball caps playing in a dusty lot. Nameless streets. Especially when the neighborhood is empty, cold and blue, I remember that I will remember this. I try to take the...

Faith

Sayre Quevedo

2013-09-18

“Cristiano…” the question begins, “Católico…Mormón?” We’re standing beside a mound of trinkets and wallets. In the middle of the square a man blows bubbles with his leathered lips, his face peeking out from the neck of his Barney suit. There is the sound of flutes. There is the cocktail of sweet and flesh, odors rising...

“What Stays” Part 2

Sayre Quevedo

2013-09-04

I’m writing this to confront my own concerns, concerns that I am doing a disservice to Ecuador before getting to know the country. I’m referring to my second blog post, “What Stays.” I began to think about my own assumptions about how I, and my sexuality, would be received here more critically following a conversation...

What Stays

Sayre Quevedo

2013-07-16

The packets we are asked to read about our countries suggests we pack light, bringing what we need: a formal shirt, a gift for our new host families, comfortable shoes; nothing that has too much sentimental value, nothing we would be upset to lose. The nature of packing is that we are never prepared. It...

An Introduction

Sayre Quevedo

2013-07-09

This is a photo I took at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral procession. This is a photo I took in London. This is a photo I took on my first trip out of the country in my whole life. Up until the week I took this photo, standing on Abingdon Street with a cheap disposable camera and...