This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Transcript:
Hernandez: Paul C. Kelly Campos joined our team recently as a community engagement reporter through Report for America. For the next few months, he’ll be focusing on this year’s elections. And we want to introduce you to him. Paul, welcome to The Public’s Radio.
Kelly Campos: Thanks so much for having me.
Hernandez: It’s my pleasure. Paul, tell me a little bit about your background. Who are you?
Kelly Campos: Who am I? I mean, well, my name is Paul. My friends call me Pauly. My dad calls me [speaking Irish]. My mom calls me El Gordo. My dad is from Galway, Ireland. My mom’s from Managua, Nicaragua. But I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, more specifically in this town just outside of the city, , called South, uh, San Francisco, or South City, if you know, you’re growing up there, the industrial city. , it’s right next to SFO, so a lot of noise pollution, all that kind of stuff, but it’s a, it’s a, it’s a great place in retrospect, if that makes sense.
Hernandez: What got you into journalism? What, and what does journalism mean to you?
Kelly: I got into it cause I read, , cause I read this book by Gabriel García Márquez called, ‘El Amor en los Tiempos de Colera,” “Love in the Time of Cholera.” It was just such an incredible novel. I just never read something like that. … I don’t know, I just remember reading it and being in class being like, I want to do that. And learning more about who he was and finding it interesting, learning more about his biography. Gabriel Garcia Marquez really valued his career as a journalist in Mexico City more than his Nobel Prize in literature. And so I thought, although I love poetry and I love literature, what I really want to do is write. And I found that a good practical way to do that, or at the time a good practical way to was by doing journalism and at first I didn’t have a huge passion for news or anything like that. But as I kinda got into it, I wrote some stories about the Nicaraguan community, my community. A community that is, there’s a lot of them, there used to be a lot more of them in the San Francisco Bay Area, following the Sandinista Revolution and the Contra Civil War, but as the Bay got expensive, a lot of them got kind of scattered to the four winds. So it was nice writing about them, but it was my first time kind of being submerged in that community. And for me, that was where I was like, I can see why I want to do this now.
Hernandez: What is something people should know about you?
Kelly Campos: I play Dungeons and Dragons a lot. I don’t know. I think if you can interview someone, you can play Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know. Something that people should know about me. I don’t really take myself that seriously, but I take what I do very seriously.
Hernandez: I think this is why we’ll get along just fine. I also played D&D a long time ago anyway. Paul, tell us about the community engagement efforts that you’re doing around this year’s election.
Kelly Campos: Well, something I think that is important to keep in mind is we want to provide elections coverage that’s informed by you, for you. Por nosotros, para nosotros. We want to hear from you and about what matters to you. So we will be connecting with you in a variety of ways. You may see me, running around downtown or where have you, trying to talk to folks about their opinions on the election. We’ll have ways for you to share your perspective with us online. And we’ll be doing listening sessions in September to talk about voting and elections, but really, we want to hear about what you love about your community and what you think could be better. What we hear from you will help shape our elections coverage going forward.
Hernandez: All right, you are new to Rhode Island, so again, welcome. , wanted to do a little round of “this or that” for local food. Which Rhode Island delicacy are you most excited to try, pizza strips or hot wieners?
Kelly Campos: In Oakland, where I was living before, I really like street hot dogs after a good show. So I guess the wieners, cause I’ve, I feel like pizza strips sound, it kind of sounds like what it is.
Hernandez: Stuffies or Rhode Island clam chowder. Which one?
Kelly Campos: Clam chowder.
Hernandez: You got a lot of history with clam chowder? Just curious.
Kelly Campos: I mean, yeah, my dad makes a really good clam chowder. There’s a lot of great clam chowder in the Bay Area.
Hernandez: Okay. All right. There you go. And how about this one? Del’s frozen lemonade or coffee milk?
Kelly Campos: Man, I don’t know. Probably Del’s frozen lemonade. I’ve seen a couple stands while I’ve been going around, you know, doing person on the street interviews on College Hill and whatnot. I mean, that looks pretty attractive to me, you know, especially because it’s been so hot. Which has been something I’ve been kind of adjusting to because California is very the same all of the time. And me, I’ve got long hair so the heat and the humidity makes me feel kind of frizzy so I feel like I’m gonna probably go for that lemonade, that Del’s lemonade.
Hernandez: All right, Paul, what else do you want to add?
Kelly Campos: I have a question for, you know, for people out there. What do you want to know about voting and elections in Rhode Island and the South Coast? You can tell me by filling out a brief form at thepublicsradio.org/2024elections. I would love to hear from you. And if you have any tips for me or you want to get in touch, you can email me at [email protected].
Hernandez: I’ve been talking with The Public’s Radio’s new community engagement reporter, Paul C. Kelly Campos. It’s a pleasure. And again, welcome.
Kelly Campos: Thank you.
Hernandez: And again, to follow our elections coverage and let us know about what questions you have about the elections, go to thepublicsradio.org/2024elections. For the public’s radio, I’m Luis Hernandez.
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Publish date : 2024-08-15 17:32:00
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