“I think humor is one of the best weapons that we have when we are dealing with oppressors,” ICOA artist-in-residence Pedro X. Molina says in a 4,000-word interview in the online magazine Sampsonia Way. “But every time they tighten their control and the violence grows, it gets harder to find something to laugh at.”
In “The Complicated Risk: An Interview with Pedro X. Molina,” writer Nicole Arthur questions Pedro on a wide range of topics, from the disastrous situation in Nicaragua to his childhood and development as an artist and his thoughts on humor, fear, and patriotism.
The “complicated risk” of the title refers to the difficult balance he has had to strike between his creative drive, his sense of duty to his people, and the very real threat of imprisonment or worse.
“I could have stayed in Nicaragua and at some point they would have taken me and put me in jail and I would no longer be able to create,” he tells Arthur. “I was not willing to accept this, so to preserve my creative power, I had to leave. This is both good and painful.”
The writer, Nicole Arthur, is the Content, Communications, and Spiritual Formation Manager at Chesterton House, a Christian living and learning community at Cornell. A native of Pittsburgh, she is also a staff writer for Sampsonia Way.
Sampsonia Way is the in-house magazine of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh. Like ICOA, City of Asylum is a member of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). ICOA and City of Asylum will sponsor a virtual event featuring Pedro and Pittsburgh-based editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers on Friday, October 2, at 7 p.m. More details will follow.
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