On this episode of the Life in the Carolinas podcast, Carl sits down Orlando Herrera and Marty Mongiello. Orlando discusses his incredibly eclectic life—a life which Carl White sums up as “the Great American Story influenced by a lot more than just America.”
Orlando talks about his varied career paths and social causes, from becoming a musician as a coping mechanism after surviving the 1983 Beirut bombing, to his time in the US Marine Corps, to his push to bring the deeper issues surrounding America’s troubled history with race to the masses. As diverse as these passions and initiatives are, what they all have in common is a universal emotional core that brings together communities of people.
As Orlando tells his story, a singular message shines through. As Carl aptly muses: “We as human beings are on this journey together, and we’ve always had a problem with some wanting to be above others. But at the end of the day, when we lay our heads down, it’s pretty much the same for all of us.”
The conversation between Carl, Marty, and Orlando also goes into the subject of Rosa Parks and her lesser-known fellow civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin. The three agree that many of the racially-charged issues of the previous decades are still present in some form or another in modern-day America. By making the public aware of the story of Black American civil rights from the perspective of those who initially led the charge, Orlando hopes to eradicate stereotypes based off of inaccurate readings of history.
“People need to know and learn [about] other cultures,” says Orlando. He states that by deepening one’s appreciation of different cultures, it becomes virtually impossible to blame an entire race for the perverse actions of a few individuals of that particular race.
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Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com
