Journey of Healing: Renzo Del Castillo on Poetry and Perseverance

In this deeply moving episode of "Conversations with Rich Bennett," Rich sits down with Renzo Del Castillo, an award-winning poet and healthcare executive, to explore his incredible journey from Lima, Peru, to Miami, Florida. Renzo shares the harrowing story of his family’s escape from political persecution and how these experiences shaped his life and poetry. Through their conversation, Renzo delves into the therapeutic power of poetry, his reflections on grief, resilience, and the importance of vulnerability in navigating life’s challenges. This episode is a testament to the transformative power of words and the enduring strength of the human spirit.

Renzo Del Castillo – Miami Poet

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Transcript

Rich Bennett 0:00
Thanks for joining the conversation where we explore the stories and experiences that shape our world. I'm your host, Rich Bennett. And today, I'm thrilled to introduce our guests, Renzo del Castillo. Renzo is an award winning poet who was born in Lima, Peru, and currently resides in Miami, Florida. Over the past 15 years, he has made a significant impact as an executive in the health care industry, all while nurturing his passion for poetry and art. His latest collection still offers a poignant exploration of the immigrant experience, chronicling his family's journey from Lima to Miami as political refugees and asylum seekers. Through his work, Renzo delves into themes of memory, transition and adaptation, using an intimate tone to highlight the triumph of imagination over adversity. This all you? Everybody listen, especially authors. You're going to learn a lot about this because I was talking to Renzo before we started, and it's it's unusual for me to have a poet on. And I think that's something that's missing in books. You're you don't see a lot of poetry books out there anymore. And I believe that's something that's missing. But his publishing journey, his his journey, getting here, I think you're all going to be inspired. How's it going, Renzo? 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:26
And it's going great. Rich, that's very kind of you to say thank you for the introduction. 

Rich Bennett 1:30
Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention. I think we're like long lost brothers because he's also a wrestling fans. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:38
Oh, yeah. Definitely definitely a big. 

Rich Bennett 1:42
So let's I want to start from the beginning. Your journey from Peru to here. Walk us through that. How old were you when you actually came? Came over here. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:52
I was five years old. So what happened was. My dad was born in Lima, Peru. My mom. And my dad both were born in Peru, and my dad was a major in the army. He was a fighter pilot, helicopter fighter pilot. 

Rich Bennett 2:07
Oh, wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 2:08
And my mom was the secretary to the minister of Health at the time. So 

Rich Bennett 2:13
Whoa! 

Renzo Del Castillo 2:13
if you're familiar for those who aren't familiar with Peru. Or South America. There used to be or there still is, remnants of a terrorist group called Shining Path Center Luminoso. And there was a union meeting at the Ministry of Health. And some members of that group came armed to the meeting to negotiate. And they weren't they weren't letting people leave the room. My mom played on their misogyny ism and said, Hey, do you guys want coffee? And they're like, Yeah, let the woman go get coffee and came back with the cops. So they took whoever was armed away and they those people saw my mom and they marked her for death. They told her 

Rich Bennett 2:54
White. 

Renzo Del Castillo 2:54
you. You're going to die or whatever. And one of our nannies ended up being a terrorist that infiltrated. They found her before she did anything. One of the nurses when my sister was born, because my sister and I have about three years difference. She was 

Rich Bennett 3:09
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 3:09
a terrorist. And there was another another incident. And at that point, my godfather was already here. My mom's big brother was a VP for an import export company. And he said, you know, why don't you guys come over here? My mom's been wanting to come here anyway. She thought the 

Rich Bennett 3:26
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 3:26
future would be better for us in the U.S. And I was very lucky because when I came here, my my godfather sponsored me for a student visa. This is back in 1989. So that was more common. It's 

Rich Bennett 3:39
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 3:39
not as common later. 

Rich Bennett 3:41
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 3:41
And and then my dad actually had to leave his post, so he was dishonorably discharged. It was cleared up years later, but he 

Rich Bennett 3:50
Mm 

Renzo Del Castillo 3:50
moved 

Rich Bennett 3:50
hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 3:50
here with us and that's where we started. That's how we left Peru. It was a bit of a thing. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 3:58
When you said that the way they came to the meeting armed 

right then and there, that just tells me I don't think I'm going to like these negotiations. 

Renzo Del Castillo 4:10
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:10
They're coming armed 

Renzo Del Castillo 4:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:12
and then God. And your mother was marked for death. Oh, my God. It's amazing that you guys got out of there. 

Renzo Del Castillo 4:18
Well, we we actually when we came here, it took us. So I was five. And then when we I got, we became we obtained political asylum after being in the process for over a decade because what I was. Five. And then when I was about to graduate high school, I was born 83, but I was born so I was about 13 years later that we obtained political asylum. So it was extremely challenging. But the case, the merit was there to obtain because it's very rare to obtain political asylum in Peru. I think we were one of the last ones for a very long. 

Rich Bennett 4:51
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 4:52
To obtain political asylum. Yeah, it was tough. But one thing that I realized, I mean, I could have definitely grown up hating. 

Rich Bennett 5:00
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 5:00
A blanket statement of these people. But if you think about it, Peru. Is a South American country with a very weak civil society, much like other other South American countries, because unlike the U.S. who was able to geographically separate themselves from their colonizers. Spain and other other countries that colonized South America stayed there for much longer. So. 

Rich Bennett 5:22
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 5:22
So if you there's a big history of very far left governments and far right governments coming in after each other. So in the late seventies, there was a far left government. They bought a bunch of they wanted to get in good with Russia. They bought a bunch of hardware. My dad was actually certified to fly in MiGs as an example. Like they bought 

Rich Bennett 5:42
Really? 

Renzo Del Castillo 5:42
it. They bought they bought that equipment. 

Rich Bennett 5:44
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 5:46
But what they did was they did an agrarian reform where they took the industries and gave it to the people, but and they paid the owners with the new coin of the country which had. Very little to no value. And they didn't train the workers to run the industry. So the industry went down. And then if you if for those remember, in the very early eighties, El Nino hit and then the fishing industry went down in Peru. So you create this this environment of poverty outside of the main hubs like Lima and Lima wasn't doing too well either. If you remember, I think 8283 was when the IMF, the World Bank, were created to. 

Funds and help development in South America and help them get out of of that bankruptcy that they were in. So you I can definitely understand if an an even distribution of wealth occurs and you have people that are outside of it that have four children that are starving and somebody comes with a gun and says, hey, those people have a TV and your children are starving, what are you going to do about it? I don't condone it, but I understand it. So I was very lucky that I don't harbor that hate, right. That general hate that I could possibly grown up with, if that makes sense. 

Rich Bennett 6:57
Oh, no, it makes perfect sense because a lot of people. You know, they would have grown up with that hate and just you see the lot, especially, you know, families of poverty in the cities. You know, they're just they're taught hate and they see the hate all the time. And sometimes it just it stays with them. What are the things that that amazes me, though, because your book still, it's basically about your journey, right, from moving from Lima to Miami. 

Renzo Del Castillo 7:28
Thematically. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 7:29
Okay. Most people would go the route of writing a novel. And you did this through poetry. So why poetry and not a novel? 

Renzo Del Castillo 7:40
Because poetry was one of the first languages that I knew. So as an example, I learned to read very early on. 

Rich Bennett 7:49
Mm hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 7:49
So my family, like when we came here, we didn't have much money. Right. We were starting from zero. We went from upper middle class, lower upper class to. Immigrant class not having very much money like I remember. Being like eight years old, and my parents telling my sister and I to go eat that they already ate when I knew that wasn't true and I didn't have I knew they weren't telling the truth, but I didn't have the context to understand what was going on. And it's also at an age where, like, your parents never lie, you must be. It just marked me, right? I was very scarlet. 

Rich Bennett 8:21
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 8:21
It's like as God. Witness. I will never go. 

And it marked me so we couldn't go on vacations. We couldn't really do much. Not a lot of video game systems early on, Right. But 

what my family did gave me was a love of knowledge, a love of learning, because knowledge, I think, is the one thing people can't take away from me. So when I was very young, because I was able to read early on, my reading level was much higher at a younger age. My grandmother was a university professor. My grandfather was a very learned man. 

Rich Bennett 8:54
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 8:55
So they would give me poetry books. My grandmother would introduce me to two Pablo Neruda as an example, as one of Garcia Lorca, all these like Hispanic Spanish language poets. And then when I came here since I was five years old, but I was already able to read, I was reading, you know, like kind of Monte Cristo at age eight, maybe I shouldn't have been. 

Rich Bennett 9:21
Why? 

Renzo Del Castillo 9:22
But I was so I was able to discover, you know, poets like like E.E. Cummings, which are, you know, more simple sentence grammatical structure. But it was. And then that led me to people like Bukowski, which again, maybe not is appropriate for a younger kid, right? So when it came to poetry. Yeah, I love reading. I'm a very voracious reader. But poetry was something that I understood. So when I went to when I went to college, I went to college at UCF, University of Florida for Aerospace Engineering. We have a pretty good aerospace engineering school. Six credits short of graduating. I decided to switch to English lit poetry, which, as you can imagine, went over fantastic that Thanksgiving slate. 

But it's, you know, they were afraid about how was I going to make money because money equals safety. Right. 

Rich Bennett 10:15
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 10:16
But since I had never really rebelled, I was in school with scholarships. It wasn't their money going to this. 

Rich Bennett 10:22
Hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 10:24
They have. They tentatively abided by my decision. And I had I formally studied poetry. I there was a program in Cambridge that I submitted a portfolio and I was going to go hoping to turn that into grad school. And I was able to go in with a portfolio that I created, but I didn't have my residency yet, and this was 2006. So if you remember, that was after September 11th. And the immigration situation in the country was very, very tenuous. And also, the people who blew up the towers had student visas. Right. So it's not the optimum situation. And I knew two people that were deported who are not terrorists. It was up to the discretion of the immigration official at the gate at the time. 

Rich Bennett 11:13
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 11:14
And my parents had a conversation with me. I also I didn't fight it. There was no push back from me at all because I got it. But I was very heartbroken about it. So I focused on the corporate world. You mentioned that I'm an executive and in health care. So I just became very, very drawn to it. But eventually in 2021, 

my dad passed away from pancreatic cancer. 

So when I was dealing with it, I realized that was moving too fast to grieve. I had to. 

Rich Bennett 11:46
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 11:47
The book is called Still, I realized that I needed to stand still and process this. And I also realized. Well, at that period over the last seven years, I had lost my dad, my grandma, my cousin, who was my age, was run over by an SUV. My little cousin was. 

Rich Bennett 12:03
Oh, my God. 

Renzo Del Castillo 12:04
Had a heart defect nobody knew about passed away. My best friend's mom, my dog of 14 years. A number 

Rich Bennett 12:13
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 12:13
of. A number of coworkers who were very close to me. The relationship I thought was going to turn into marriage also ended around the time my dad passed away. I got sick, so I was. 

Rich Bennett 12:23
She's. 

Renzo Del Castillo 12:24
I thought, look, emotionally, I was at a place, not logically, because, Rich, what if you and I become friends today? Right like and then this is something you write. But I thought that life had stopped giving me things and it started taking them. Right until I realized. All right. So the first time you tried sushi, for example, did you think, oh, that looks good? Or did somebody you care about or admire say, Hey, try this, Your favorite movie, your favorite song, your favorite vacation, Like the things that you love in your life. 

Rich Bennett 12:55
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 12:55
Typically. Right. Aren't they tied to somebody you care about or somebody you admired or a parent 

Rich Bennett 13:00
No, 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:00
or. 

Rich Bennett 13:01
we're not food wise, but. But yeah, yeah. I mean, everything else, especially music and movies and all. 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:08
Right. 

Rich Bennett 13:08
I mean, food with me, my. My theory. You got to try. I'm going to eat it before it eats me. 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:14
Fair enough. But the point I was making is that. 

Rich Bennett 13:18
No. 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:19
The point I was making is that we are made up of every little. 

Rich Bennett 13:22
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:22
Of everybody who's ever loved us. So if that's the case, then they're still here. 

Rich Bennett 13:28
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:29
That's the other reason the book is called Still. So in order for me to process what was going on, when I when I stopped moving forward and focusing on the future and just lay still and focused on the grief and allowed it to process my language for processing, it was poetry instead of a novel, if that makes sense. 

Rich Bennett 13:48
No, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, and I guess you could tell. 

Renzo Del Castillo 13:54
I'm sorry. I just had, like, a giant image of a California girl trying to eat me or something to that. 

Rich Bennett 13:59
She's. 

Renzo Del Castillo 14:01
Mm 

Rich Bennett 14:02
I guess. I mean, you can. Well, you are doing it. You're telling your story through poetry. 

Renzo Del Castillo 14:07
hmm. 

Rich Bennett 14:07
And I think and correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I believe that is something that is missing today. I don't 

Renzo Del Castillo 14:15
agree. 

Rich Bennett 14:15
believe there's enough poets out there. 

Renzo Del Castillo 14:17
I think there are. I think there are. 

Rich Bennett 14:19
Let me rephrase that. I don't think there's enough of them writing books and getting them published. 

Renzo Del Castillo 14:26
Here's I agree with you. And I think it's because and one thing that I found as I was publishing my book and marketing it and, you know, we were lucky to be an Amazon bestseller and the number of categories, but for a poetry book that's very niche compared to what a bestseller would be as a novel or a memoir. Right. 

Rich Bennett 14:45
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 14:45
We're not talking. We're talking about maybe thousands of books, not like 20,000, not like tens of thousands or 100,000 books. Hundreds of thousands of books, but. 

So when I was when I when I did my thesis, I wanted to prove a correlation between the decline of protest culture in the United States with the decline of funding for the arts in the United States. And the reason for that is and I, you know, like if you where was the peak? Vietnam, Korea and then it kind of just whittled away And around the same time the funding stopped happening for the arts arts, it used to be much more important at the beginning of the 19th century or early in the 19th century, when you left school, you you spoke with three, four different languages. You knew culture. 

Rich Bennett 15:30
Right? 

Renzo Del Castillo 15:31
You were very adept in chemistry. You were a renaissance person. To put a label on it right 

Rich Bennett 15:37
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 15:37
now, we're lucky to have people graduating or children, young adults graduating with second grade reading level. It's different. 

Rich Bennett 15:44
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 15:45
And I think and I wanted to prove a correlation. Right. I wasn't able to do that because the literature didn't exist. So I had to build my own literature for that. That's one of the issues I have with academia. And what I ended up doing was art as political communication, right? But if you if you think about it, art creates an analytical relationship between yourself and an object. It allows you you look at it and you start bringing your entire experience and focus through a lens that you uniquely you. And you start creating new meaning from Whistler's Mother or, you know, Neruda 100 Love sonnets, or James Joyce's Ulysses or any any big seminal. The Mona Lisa. Right. Is she? 

Rich Bennett 16:31
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 16:31
Is she not? That really depends on you. 

Rich Bennett 16:34
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 16:35
To the point where you see it in means right? Like that dress that was blue or blue and gray versus white and gold or whatever it was. It's 

Rich Bennett 16:42
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 16:42
all it's all informed by by your life experiences. So when when it comes to that, it also allows you to develop empathy. It allows you to see things from another perspective. It allows you to accept somebody else's position without it challenging your. Your sense of self. And I think that the United States specifically and I say this because I've lived here, I travel other places, but I've lived here, This is my experience. I can't speak about other places the way that I can speak about the U.S. or, you know, Florida or where I've lived. It seems that we we've switched more to an us versus them entertainment. Focus. Which is, Look, I love the Super Bowl, right? I have nothing against the Super Bowl, but how many times have you watched it with friends? Is it like take out his knee, blow out his knee and take him out? 

Rich Bennett 17:30
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 17:31
I think that if we were if we had the person in front of us, if we had to do that with our own hands, we would hesitate. We would not be able to because of that sense of empathy. But when we're so it's either we win or lose, and if we lose, we're losers. Right. 

Rich Bennett 17:46
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 17:46
It's just it's it's a very Machiavellian thing. And I think that art is necessary to your point. Whenever a fascist regime like the Spanish Civil War. Right. With Franco. 

Rich Bennett 17:57
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 17:58
The first people they killed were the artists. They were the poets. The poets used to be the ambassadors, the diplomats to other countries. That's not that's not what's going on anymore. Nothing against the current poet laureate for the United States, because this is not a judgment on them. But it is. It's more of a ceremonial role now instead of like. 

Rich Bennett 18:17
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 18:18
It has influence and impact and the ear of people in power in terms of how to how to deal with with other nations. Right. So I think poetry's incredibly important, but because 

I think the market is more entertainment focused instead of more like, let's look at something and let's dive deep into it and extract meaning from it, you're right. You're seeing less of it or you're seeing it evolve to somebody like Yung Pueblo or Rupi Kaur, who are, you know, who are poets who are famous. They have millions of followers on social media, millions of followers, period. But their poems, you can see their poem on the screen. And I don't think it's a reflection of their work. I think it's a reflection of the of the delivery mechanisms that exist now like we have. 

Rich Bennett 19:04
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 19:05
120, 200 and something characters to deliver a message. We have 12 seconds to capture somebody's attention. So I think 

Rich Bennett 19:11
Mm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 19:11
poetry is evolving, but you don't see it the way that I personally enjoy it, the way that you I believe that you you enjoy it based on our comedy. 

Rich Bennett 19:20
Mm hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 19:22
And it's not it's not as prevalent, but I believe it is necessary. 

Rich Bennett 19:28
Absolutely. And one of the I always loved reading poetry when I was young. Which helped me to write lyrics for song. 

Renzo Del Castillo 19:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 19:39
But there's a at least back then when I was doing it. 

There's a big difference between writing a poem and writing the lyric. I mean, not a huge difference, but there is a difference because and when what I mean by that is when somebody's race, a lyric or prime example take rap for. 

It's almost like you take that poem and you make it a song. The meaning is different because it's all B It all depends on the music that's behind it. But which is why I love the old coffee shops, you know, the old videos where they would be in there, read a poem, But reading a poem, especially when the author reads it because the author. There's the feeling the put behind. And I think it's I think that is something that's that's missing big time, too. I don't think that people 

how can I explain this 

poetry to me? It's it's definitely an art. But you have to when you're reading it, even if you're reading it to yourself, 

you have to put the feeling behind it, whether it's love, whether it's sadness, you know, it's. And when it comes to songs, it's it's even though yeah it could be a sad song but it all depends on how the music is. Yeah. How much do they repeat? Yeah, he takes some poems. That could be, I don't know, three pages of a book. Eager to turn that into a song. 

Renzo Del Castillo 21:27
Right. 

Rich Bennett 21:28
You know how many people are going to read it? I mean, somebody like you and I will. But I guarantee you, if you I don't even know if they teach us in high school anymore. If they don't, they should. 

But how many people are just going to sit down and read a poem is three pages. 

Renzo Del Castillo 21:45
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 21:45
And then what I would love is, even as adults, I think this is something that should be done for a lot of people. Don't do it, but even for, you know, novels or whatever, maybe not for novels, but definitely poetry, I would say after you read it, write down your feeling which you got out of it, almost like a workbook, you know. 

Renzo Del Castillo 22:09
Yeah. It's interesting because you're I mean, you're definitely touching to the concept of acrostic poetry festac art, right? Which is poetry or art based on another work of art. And that comes from what you just described in terms of, you know, song lyrics being reinterpreted or how can you take I mean, I believe that maybe there's a three page poem and you can adapt pieces of it and turn it into a song or, or if you have a song, it's like, who's who's going to get a different meaning? Or how many covers are completely different? Like if you listen to Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You. And you listen 

Rich Bennett 22:40
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 22:41
to Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You. I think the sign of a great cover is one that makes it completely. The the interpretation of the artist that's doing the cover, right. So, for example, like Beyonce's Jolene, I didn't enjoy as much because it didn't really feel different from Dolly's version as an example. 

Rich Bennett 22:57
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 22:58
But like Whitney, I will always love you. To me is just. I don't think of Dolly, even though she wrote it right, Like she had her or she performed at first, like it's her song. 

Rich Bennett 23:07
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 23:07
So it the same thing happens with poetry. And I do a lot of open mikes. It's one of the things that I enjoy because it allows me to build community network with other poets, find other people in my area that are into the same things that I am or have or maybe have different ideas, but are willing to have a conversation about it and reach each other. 

Rich Bennett 23:26
Right? Mm hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 23:27
And it's interesting because I'll give you an example. There's a poem called Barley in the book, and I was doing it in an open mic and it was me performing it right. I gave it the. And that I wanted I gave it this, I gave it that. A number of people came up to me afterwards to say they really enjoyed it. But I remember too specifically because one person said, What a lovely poem about. Like, 

What's that? What's that word? I'm blanking on a but about, you know, travel and love lost and lost and, and just exploration, right? Wanderlust. Wanderlust. And then another person came up to me and said, Oh, what an excellent poem about, like the westernisation of a country and gentrification and losing an identity in order to gain financial gain. And I'm like, Yes and yes, like. 

Rich Bennett 24:17
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 24:18
I know what I meant. And I don't like saying what I what I was feeling or trying to say when I write a poem. Because once I when I'm writing it, it's my. 

Rich Bennett 24:26
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 24:27
Write it down on paper, it's yours. And their interpretations are valid based on that framework that they have. Obviously, one person cares a lot about globalization and globalization and the impact it has on native cultures and you know, and to. 

Rich Bennett 24:41
Mm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 24:42
And another person cares a lot about self-discovery and travel and and love and that sort of thing. Right? And there are elements. Who am I to tell them they're wrong? Right. Like I wrote the words, and I can see that they're elements of all that. But I know what I. I know what I meant. So it's they create it. So there's like dialectical realism, which the theory of montage is based on. Right. It's thesis idea, antithesis. Opposing idea synthesis new idea. So it's so for example, in theory of montage, it's like an image. No sound, right? Just images. Image of a sleeping baby, image of a dog barking, image of a baby crying. Your brain is going to tell you the sleeping baby was scared by the barking dog and woke up crying. Even if they have different backgrounds like you start creating meaning. There's this idea. 

Rich Bennett 25:35
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 25:35
Opposing idea and it comes out. The same happens with music. The same happens with poetry. I think music is a form of poetry, and that's not to degrade lyric. I mean, I think Dylan 

Rich Bennett 25:45
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 25:46
got the Nobel like was Nobel laureate for his lyrics, right? 

So. 

Rich Bennett 25:51
Have his of paintings to. 

Renzo Del Castillo 25:53
Exactly so. 

Rich Bennett 25:54
Art in general, I would. 

Renzo Del Castillo 25:55
1,000% because we are inspired by the world around us. We create based on the world around us and our our imagination. Like if you've never seen a bird fly, I find it hard to believe you'll imagine yourself flying. But once you see a bird fly, then you can see what's possible and take it up a notch. But I do believe. I believe, right? I don't have any basis for this is just my experience, my intuition that our imagination depends on living life and experiencing things that are outside of our comfort zone so that we can expand our horizons. 

Rich Bennett 26:26
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 26:26
It's like, remember what they say. Like thousands of years ago, we were sure the Earth was the center of the universe. Today, we're sure that we are in the Milky Way galaxy. What will we be sure of tomorrow as we learn more things? Right. And that, I think, applies to art. 

Rich Bennett 26:46
Absolutely. It's. And I brought this up a lot with authors seriously because and even artist then when I say artists, I mean like painters, even pottery. Actually, I did have a young lady on who does. 

Renzo Del Castillo 27:00
Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. 

Rich Bennett 27:00
Pottery. And I mentioned, as I you know, I know what your meaning is behind it, but have you ever even as an artist, has your meaning changed through the years from a piece of art? And I think it's all in the mood you're in as well. I think it's I think that's what makes art so unique. Because it can have several different meanings at different times. 

Renzo Del Castillo 27:29
And that's what teaches you analysis, right? Like, 

Rich Bennett 27:31
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 27:32
let's say you're happy and you're listening to I mean, I don't know, like maybe, maybe In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. Right. 

Rich Bennett 27:41
Oh, wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 27:41
You're listening to that and you're like, okay, cool. It's a love song. But then you hear like the influences from different cultures, different instruments. Right. 

Rich Bennett 27:50
Mm hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 27:51
And then maybe maybe you went through a breakup and you go through it and it's a sad song for you. Or maybe you fall in love and it's a happy song for you. Like the meaning changes as your framework and your experience and your mood changes. But all 

Rich Bennett 28:03
Yep. 

Renzo Del Castillo 28:03
of those meanings are true, and that is such an important lesson to learn because I was a person who was very black and white, life humbled me, teaching me. There were shades of gray. But art helps you understand that. Let's say you and I have a memory of this conversation years later, and you have your truth. And I have my truth. And somewhere in the middle is our truth. Your truth is not any less valid than mine. 

Rich Bennett 28:26
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 28:27
All right. And that's a very difficult concept to get. We want that answer. We want that lack of complexity. That's why a play like the rhinoceros doesn't do well in the United States because it's satire, right? 

Rich Bennett 28:39
I never heard of that. 

Renzo Del Castillo 28:40
We'll talk about it offline. Great play. I'll tell you all about it. 

Rich Bennett 28:43
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 28:45
I think we like very clear, like, this is the good guy. This is the bad guy. This is the things that, you know, the bad person, good person. And 

Rich Bennett 28:54
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 28:55
this is what happens. And I think we're starting to see a resurgence where we have protagonists that are a bit in the gray like art really types ties to shift into this this gray area. Right. So, you know, I, I think it helps us with that complexity because life is complex. 

Rich Bennett 29:14
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I. I don't know if you're comfortable doing this. 

Renzo Del Castillo 29:19
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 29:21
Is it possible that you can share an excerpt 

Renzo Del Castillo 29:24
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 29:24
from your book? 

Renzo Del Castillo 29:26
I mean, would you like me to read that poem I mentioned, the Bali one or something? 

Rich Bennett 29:29
Oh, that'd be awesome. Yeah, that would be awesome. Especially since we talked about it. In this way, people can understand more of what we're talking about. 

Renzo Del Castillo 29:38
I'm happy to do. Thank you. I'm happy to do it. All right. 

This poem is called Bali. I thought the sea would be different. The sand is volcanic ash blackened by progress. But the sea is the same that followed me here, of all places. Solitude is a warm hug. To share this with you is to dilute absinthe with vinegar. Intruding unapologetically, abruptly, without a second thought to my introspection. I left you in Chengdu with a kiss on the cheek instead of how I wanted to. Dripping sweat and smelling of my cologne. I would miss you. I would wonder where you are. I would wonder who you were with. I didn't come here for you. I came to stage a coup on my ego to escape the shackles of corporate America and to raise time to see if I remembered how to yield. 

Rich Bennett 30:48
Wow. 

See that right there. Now, of course, I was talking to you. Forehand. 

Renzo Del Castillo 30:55
Right. 

Rich Bennett 30:56
But when you first mentioned the dark sand right away, of course, my being a marine, I'm thinking of Iwo Jima. Right away. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:06
Is your life. 

Rich Bennett 31:07
Yeah. And then 

the other part where you said you didn't come here for four then. Because what you mentioned about how you were what your fiancee, 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:21
No, no, 

Rich Bennett 31:21
I 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:21
no. 

Rich Bennett 31:21
guess you're are okay. You are you had a loved 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:24
I 

Rich Bennett 31:24
one. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:24
had a loved one. I had a relationship that almost turned 

Rich Bennett 31:27
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:27
into marriage. We never got to 

Rich Bennett 31:28
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:28
the fiancee part because. 

Rich Bennett 31:30
Okay. But that's what I. That's the part I thought of, too. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:34
It's interesting, right? So I I'll give you a little bit behind the scenes. I did like the black sand because it's very specific to a certain area of the world. Right. 

Rich Bennett 31:41
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:41
Different areas of the world have like this volcanic ash. 

Rich Bennett 31:45
Like Iwo Jima. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:46
GMA. But there are but a lot of battles were fought there. And there 

Rich Bennett 31:49
Well, 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:49
is. 

Rich Bennett 31:50
yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:50
Struggle in that poem. 

Rich Bennett 31:52
Okay? Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 31:53
Of ideas. There is a conflict. There is a juxtaposition that's that's creating a bit of a conflict. But as I read it, I could also see how somebody could say, okay, that this is about a fling or. Somebody is going and I could ask to see somebody like, I didn't come here for you. This is not this is not what I want. I don't care about you. I'm here to take what I need and go. And that person who thought about capitalism, you know, I could see where they extracted that meaning. And I know what I meant to say, which is I wanted to. What I meant to say. Just I'm not going to say all of it, but I really wanted to create that. 

A gritty like that, a gritty version of Paradise exists. And even in paradise, there is conflict. Right. For for an individual, for culture, etc.. Right. So. 

Rich Bennett 32:41
Hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 32:42
Plus some personal things I was going through at the time. But yeah, I like it. If you can extract meaning from that and if you enjoyed it, I'm very glad. Right. And it's also interesting for me because of course, I see the hat that your first thought went to. You were Gemma. Right. But it makes sense 

Rich Bennett 32:56
Because. 

Renzo Del Castillo 32:56
because it's who you are. 

Rich Bennett 32:58
Yeah. I loved it, though. That was how I with this book. How long did it take you to write the whole book? 

Renzo Del Castillo 33:07
Not long at all because it was therapy. Also, a lot of poems. Like the poems that were part of the portfolio that were submitted to Cambridge, to that Cambridge program are in this book. Right. So I just managed to dig them up and then going to open my books. I just had to write. And when I was going through the stuff with my father, I also had to write. My dad was a very religious man, but he and he was also I mean, maybe you can see the TED Lasso figurines in the back. He looked like Ted Lasso. He had like the mustache for years. It's like corny, like almost toxic optimism. But he was also an army major. Right. So and it it he was both those things and you know, like growing up, for example, I would come to him with a 95. He'd be at his desk 

where you sick 

were translating we emotionally to. Son. What could you have done differently to get the five points you needed for 100? Okay, I come back with 100 or you sick with. I see that you chose not to answer these two extra credit questions. Why? And I'm like, I knew I had hundred. It's like, son, God punishes pride if you want one. Study for 200. Okay, So I grew up thinking I wasn't good enough, that nothing I did was ever good enough, that my value was what I produced. And whenever I would tell him that as I as a man now write like a young man. 

Rich Bennett 34:41
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 34:41
She'd be like, Oh, but look how good you turned out. Second, slap a little harder. And and laugh and it would infuriate me. But couple of like no. But a month before he passed because he they gave him three months he had pancreatic cancer stage four. But he lasted for three years. Two and a half, three years and two and a half of those years without morphine doing kettlebells in the back like. 

Rich Bennett 35:07
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 35:08
Dad was his faith was very, very strong. And I think it gave him strength. 

Rich Bennett 35:12
That helped him. Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 35:13
Yeah, which was a beautiful time we all moved back into to take care of them. It was a little uncomfortable, Right? My sister, her husband, three kids, my three nephews, two them twins. They were three months at the time. Know it was for their two dogs. I had a dog for 14 years, my mom and my dad. But I was out there doing yoga because I was in a car crash. And then I became a very big yoga enthusiast that helped me get my knees back to be able to run marathons and stuff. Yoga is great and. 

Rich Bennett 35:41
Oh, I love it. Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 35:43
I was doing it. And then my dad goes outside to take some air, but he was already more frail. At this point, he wasn't doing kettlebells anymore. And he calls me over and he's like, I'm afraid for your mortal soul. I'm like, Okay. That day I had patients. I'm like, okay, Dad, why? And I'm like, okay, I know yoga is not Catholic, but it helps me be uncomfortable in the present moment, which I have. Like if I, if I don't focus on the moment, I'm going to fall on my face and also for all these things. And I don't have anything against this right, in terms of it doesn't challenge my beliefs. This is something that I really enjoy and it led to a conversation that lasted about an hour, which just outside I remember like the birds chirping, just talking, of course, me dripping sweat. And then 

Rich Bennett 36:25
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 36:25
I. 

And then he said something that I don't know if you've ever heard something that you needed to hear and you didn't know you needed to hear it until you did. He said, 

I know I made you feel like you weren't good enough growing up. And I'm sorry. First time he ever said I'm sorry. 

Rich Bennett 36:44
Oh, man. 

Renzo Del Castillo 36:45
First time and it was like he's like, You were smart. I was proud. I didn't know how to handle it. But I'm your father and I love you. And I know you're not happy if you half ass anything. 

Rich Bennett 37:02
That sweat turned into tears, didn't it? 

Renzo Del Castillo 37:05
I didn't even cry. I was like, Wow. Like, it was just like this. 

Rich Bennett 37:08
Shocked. 

Renzo Del Castillo 37:09
Completely shocked. Right. But it was the first time that I saw my father vulnerable, even with the cancer. 

Rich Bennett 37:18
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 37:19
He was like, Not God's got this. I'm good. Like, he was never vulnerable. It was the first time I saw him as a five year old kid that wasn't noticed in his house unless he excelled. Right. Like my grandmother was a fairy opera singer, university professor, started a nonprofit for single moms. My grandfather was a gastrointestinal surgeon, 

Rich Bennett 37:40
Good. 

Renzo Del Castillo 37:40
built that house ground up like it's this crazy thing. And then they expected excellence from my dad and his two brothers, my uncles. Right. 

Rich Bennett 37:48
Mm hmm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 37:48
And I saw that. And it was it was it was just very impactful. So my dad and I had a good relationship always. We always did. 

Rich Bennett 37:56
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 37:57
But if we hadn't had that conversation, 

I would carry some resentment still, I think. Now, do I need therapy? Yes. Every Monday at 5:00. I have. I talk to my therapist. Do I still have some issues? I need to go. Am I not always the perfect partner based on those issues? Yes, 1,000%. But I'm working on it. But I don't carry this resentment for my dad because he did the one thing I think I needed and I think most of us need, which is acknowledgement. Right. Which is part of what? This. 

Rich Bennett 38:28
Percent. 

Renzo Del Castillo 38:29
Which is part of why I wrote this book. I wanted to acknowledge these people that shaped me in a way, even if it's not literal, at least thematically. And there's a poem in the book called Song for My Father, because I'm not a religious person. My dad was an extremely religious person. 

Rich Bennett 38:47
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 38:48
Where I take the Lord's Prayer and I repurpose it because I was trying. And the purpose of that was I was trying to find a common language between us to say what I needed to say to him. Does that make sense? 

Rich Bennett 39:02
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:03
So it's little exercises like that. And that's how, you know, the book serves as a form of therapy. And it also lets me play with poetic conventions. The Lord's Prayer to me is one of the oldest poems we have. It's a poem to me. Right. It's art. 

Rich Bennett 39:16
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:16
You're here, you're asking for love and you're asking for salvation. And you're. And you're expressing fealty, you know? The language is very florid. 

So it's just. It's. 

That's how it helps me move forward. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 39:35
I like that idea, though. I mean, your take is something like that, like the Lord's Prayer and looking for certain things in there to. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:43
Hmm. 

Rich Bennett 39:43
I'm going to have to try that. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:46
Do you want me to? 

Rich Bennett 39:46
I. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:47
It's not like 

Rich Bennett 39:48
Yes. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:48
I. 

Rich Bennett 39:49
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 39:49
Tell you this. My mom thinks it's sacrilegious. So. Mom. Sorry. 

Let me see. It's song for my father, 

and I wrote it in Spanish first, and then I translated into English 

song for my father. 

How wrong I was thinking I'm alone when you live in my way of being in the tears shed and in every dream cut short at the moment of waking When storms hold the sun hostage from my sky. It would serve me well to remember you still exist in the threshold space between reality and imagination. Your advice? The prayer. My heart repeats unknowingly in darkness. My father, who art. Wherever thou art. Hallowed be thy name. Thy solace come. Their will is not understood, neither on earth nor heaven. I lack the appetite for our daily bread. And forgive me, my doubts, as I forgave your certainty. Lead me not into desperation, but deliver me from fear. For thine is the fiefdom, the knowledge and the peace. Help me to accept the unacceptable. Amen. 

Rich Bennett 41:03
Wow. 

Your mother thinks that sacrilegious. 

Renzo Del Castillo 41:09
My mom is also Catholic. It's the taking of the Lord's thing. But I would say she likes it, but she's like, I don't know, like. I was just like, no, like the exercise again was this thing was taught like historically or mythologically or through the religion. It was supposed to teach you to get closer to the father. Right. So my father is no longer here. How do I get closer to my father? What language did he speak? The language of prayer. It's a it's a sort of finding common language to get to an understanding. My dad, I forgot one thing when he told me that or actually did mention it all highlighted again. He said, I didn't have the language to tell you this now that what I'm about to tell you. He had to go through cancer to see that he needed to say this to me or felt like he needed to say this to me. Right. Face his own mortality to say this to me. Because before he just it's not that he didn't mean it. It's not that he didn't have it inside him. He just couldn't say it. Military man. Right. Vulnerability 

Rich Bennett 42:16
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 42:17
can be weakness. Vulnerability can get you 

Rich Bennett 42:19
Yep. 

Renzo Del Castillo 42:19
killed. Right. I think this is something you understand when I 

Rich Bennett 42:23
Literally. 

Renzo Del Castillo 42:24
and the difference between my dad and I is I always believe that my vulnerability is my greatest strength. And what I told him was, you say this, but you depend on your men when you're out there on the battlefield. They're the ones who save you. You would die for them. How is that not vulnerability? How is that? How does that not make you stronger? It's always a shift in perspective, but the exercise was trying to find a common language that he would understand. So wherever he is, maybe he'd hear it. 

Rich Bennett 42:53
Do you know how this is going to sound? Weird. 

Renzo Del Castillo 42:58
No, go ahead. 

Rich Bennett 43:00
Weird to you, but. Do you find Do you find that you're closer with him now, even 

Renzo Del Castillo 43:05
That's not 

Rich Bennett 43:05
though 

Renzo Del Castillo 43:05
weird 

Rich Bennett 43:05
he's 

Renzo Del Castillo 43:05
at 

Rich Bennett 43:05
passed? 

Renzo Del Castillo 43:06
It's not weird at all. It's I don't know if I'm closer to him now, but I don't think he's he's gone, but very differently than my sister. Like, I don't like going to the to his grave because to me, he's not there. Right. Of course, the upkeep. I don't want it to go to disrepair, to monument and but it's not like I don't need to be at his grave to talk to my dad. One thing. I went to Europe for a month. One year that he was feeling good. And I needed. I needed a break. I had gone through the breakup, right. I just needed some time for myself. And I love disappearing for, like, a month because then nobody knows your name, Nobody has any expectations of you. You get to learn. You get to be whoever you are. Right. 

Rich Bennett 43:44
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 43:44
And he's he's like, Oh, I'm like, What? You want me to bring you back or bring you back? Whatever you want? He's like, I won't. I want you to go to every church you see and just pray. And I'm like, Dad, no. And 

Rich Bennett 43:54
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 43:54
he's like, You asked me what I wanted. You said, you give it to me, 

okay? You know that Europe is covered in churches, right? Okay, So at first I was just like, Hey, God, what's up? And then at the end, towards the end, I started having actual just conversations with because I don't I don't not believe in God. I just don't like the way that religion can be weaponized. Right. I mean, not to go. Not to get political here, but just like the way religion can be weaponized as a as a. 

Rich Bennett 44:26
Make you feel guilty in a way. 

Renzo Del Castillo 44:28
Yeah. Or like, you know, keep people under your thumb or commit, you know, like one thing that I don't understand is if Jesus is real, I think he wouldn't be happy in the atrocities we commit in his name. Right. So that's my problem. But it's not that I have anything against God or believe there's no God. You. You. I mean, I'm sure, like, if you've gone to the Grand Canyon and camped by the Colorado and just seen every star in the sky because there's no light. You have to believe there's something of the divine there, right? I believe that if God exists, Rich, it's between us right now. Communicating. That's where God exists, in the spaces between people. Bridging for me. So it's just. It was just difficult to have those those conversations with him. But I did that. And now, like, when when we come home and the lights are on, my sister is like, Oh, that's dad. And I'm like, If that was Dad, the lights would be off with a note to save. Because that would be dead. But for example, I 

when I go through something like I was recently, I was recently let go from my for my job because they needed $28 million in cost savings. It wasn't performance, it wasn't anything like that. And I was like, I wish my dad were here, but. But then I closed my eyes and I could hear what he would tell me because it's all here. 

Rich Bennett 45:53
Mm hmm. Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 45:54
Part of me. Like I said, 

Rich Bennett 45:55
The 

Renzo Del Castillo 45:55
he's 

Rich Bennett 45:55
memory. 

Renzo Del Castillo 45:55
still with me, 

Rich Bennett 45:56
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 45:56
so I know he'd be like, Take care. Like, roll over your eye, roll over your 41k into an era like that would be the number one thing he would tell me. Then the last thing he told me was like, Make sure you're okay. But it's his way was like the list of things that you have to do to make sure that you are sustained. So I feel like he's always with me. But I. I hope that if there's any I look, I don't know. I personally believe we exist in chaos. The world is not fair. I don't really believe in karma because I've seen. Some not so nice people really succeed and some really great people suffer. All right. But I think it's that doesn't mean that I'm nihilistic. I think that the world has the meaning we give to it, Right. It's what we do that defines us. So I hope that if there is any justice in this world for a man who was good, that died in a very horrible way, wasting away a military man going from like £200 to 115. Right. That he is sitting with his God right now. I hope that he's not hanging over because he will always be a part of me. Does that make sense? 

Rich Bennett 47:09
It makes perfect sense because, I mean, I feel with me because unfortunately, my father, my mother and my older brother passed, but. 

Renzo Del Castillo 47:17
I'm sorry to hear that. 

Rich Bennett 47:19
I feel that. 

In a way, I am closer with all three of them. Even though we were close when they were alive. I feel like I'm even closer because I'm still learning stuff from them because of the memories. So I. I forget what I was doing the other day. Oh, 

God. Oh, it was something with the package I was editing and podcast. And the funny thing is now my of course my father would have no idea what a park. 

My brother, maybe. But I mean, they knew about, you know, because I was deejaying and all that. But I'm sitting there editing something. I was like, Well, let me try this. And then just as weird as it was, it's like I heard his voice in my head said, You dumb ass, you don't want to do that. Then he going to work, which is something my brother would have said. 

Renzo Del Castillo 48:18
Right. 

Rich Bennett 48:19
Sure enough, he was right. That wouldn't have worked. I had to go the other way. It's just these little things. And I think it's. It's the memories, the memories. And it's just it's all this stuff that you're being taught by your parents and siblings as you grow older. You may not take it all in then, but you remember when the time hits where you need to remember it. Does that make sense? 

Renzo Del Castillo 48:50
It makes it make sense. It's almost like muscle memory, right? But 

Rich Bennett 48:54
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 48:54
like, for your soul, You know what I mean? Like, it's almost. That's what I mean. When we're made up of all the little pieces of everybody that's ever loved. Like, if I need my dad's advice, I know it would be because it's almost like I write, like I have this I have this set of data that I accumulated over years that I can pretty much recreate whatever response. I think unless people still surprise you, it might not be what he would say. But 90% of it would probably be pretty dead on because how many times have I, you know, quote unquote, disappointed And I know what he would say or how many times have I succeeded and I know what he would say or how many times would I have done something like not become a priest. And I know what he would say because he would definitely love for me to be a priest. 

But it really is that these these people, these memories, these experiences, they make up who we are and we are the legacy of who they are, which is why I wanted to, you know, get this book. That's that's actually him. You see that beautiful mustache he had? 

Rich Bennett 49:56
Yes. 

Renzo Del Castillo 49:56
Look at that Magnum poem. 

Rich Bennett 49:57
Love that. 

Renzo Del Castillo 49:58
That's my mom, my sister, me. We have this picture. The reason I picked that cover. Other than the fact that I love Kendrick Lamar and all his album covers that look like. Is, you know, people who immigrated here around the nineties. You know, I'm 40. In the early nineties, they all went to Sears or Woolworths and they got their family picture with that weird background. And immigrants have it. And I know a lot of my American friends around that time had it. And to me, we all have memories or or symbols or pictures that symbolize a threshold space, a milestone. There was life before that picture. And there was life after that picture. You know. And that's why it's that's why it's the cover. And I used Polaroids a lot in the marketing of the book because it's that image that that snapshot in time. 

Rich Bennett 50:50
You just brought back a flashback memory of Woolworth sitting at the. So at the soda, would they call it a soda bar or whatever? Drinks and God smell those French fries. Mayor Thanks, Renzo. 

Renzo Del Castillo 51:03
You will. 

Rich Bennett 51:06
It's a good memory, though. And speaking of marketing for the book. 

Renzo Del Castillo 51:11
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 51:12
Well, let's talk about your publisher because. You're published, you're not self-publish. 

Renzo Del Castillo 51:17
That's correct. 

Rich Bennett 51:17
Explain to everybody, because we mentioned we were talking about before we start recording, but tell everybody about your publisher and how you came about. Finding 

Renzo Del Castillo 51:27
Sure. 

Rich Bennett 51:27
your publisher and everything. 

Renzo Del Castillo 51:29
So when I decided to start writing again, I had a good friend from high. Well, even middle school. I've known the guy since middle school, and he, you know, went into the army, did a career there. But he's always worked in the arts, worked for fundraising, worked for the ballet company, like just was always there. So I told him I started writing again when we caught up and he's like, okay, great. I've had this plan for you for years. Like, What are you talking? 

Rich Bennett 51:51
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 51:52
Mike. Mike is like that. He's like, here. And he sent me a spreadsheet immediately, so he had it. He's like, Here are some journals. Here are a number of journals to publish. If you get three poems published in these large journals, you can go for a book deal like The Paris Review and things like The New Yorker. 

Rich Bennett 52:09
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 52:10
If you get you know, if you go to the these are the mid-tier journals, these are the lower tier journals and go ahead and start. So I started submitting a search, submitting and I got some early success. And then I got a lot of failure. Right. It's what it is. It's all. It's all. 

Rich Bennett 52:24
Fail to succeed. 

Renzo Del Castillo 52:25
It's subjective, right? Like 

Rich Bennett 52:26
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 52:26
who? I know my stuff is technically sound because I studied it. But you don't know the aesthetic, the taste. You have to keep in mind that if you think that you are good, you're good, you know? And I can. I won't divert from your question, but it's just this concept of criticism. Like you don't have to tear somebody down. You can say like, I don't enjoy this, but I really enjoy their use of grammar or the syntax of it. You know, like you can you can 

Rich Bennett 52:54
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 52:54
say. I think you always find. 

Rich Bennett 52:55
Constructive criticism. 

Renzo Del Castillo 52:56
Constructive, constructive criticism is a gift. You can do something with it if you're like I. What did they tell Mozart and Amadeus? Too many notes. What notes should I take out then? It's just. What are you saying? Right. 

Rich Bennett 53:09
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 53:10
So as I was doing that, I was as I was getting published, I was going and finding open mikes in Miami. One of my I made a friend with a poet there who's a good friend of mine now, Andy. And he knew floored me, really floored me. Let me tell is a young publisher. She had worked in the publishing industry for a while, became disillusioned with it, came out and started her own company. At that point, it was one year old and it was kind of like like a buffet of like. This with your book. That with your book. Do you want a hardcover? You know, like a Kindle digital version and all that stuff. And then. Up with the price point. And the and I was, you know, shopping the book around looking for a publisher. I was thinking about self-publishing, but I didn't want to do that. Nothing against it. I just I just didn't want to write. I wanted 

Rich Bennett 53:58
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 53:58
to be published. But then when I met Flora and saw her vision, which was to create affordable publishing for authors who don't have the means to do so. Right. And for me, inclusivity and accessibility to art is very important. For example, you know, still, like I said, Amazon bestseller, but I couldn't make it free. But the Kindle version is $0.99 if you want it. I, I made it as low as it can possibly go on Amazon so that you can get it. I want the book to be accessible, right. So when I found out that was also her mission, I decided to go with her. And the rest is history. 

Rich Bennett 54:38
But now you're. You have to do the marketing, right? 

Renzo Del Castillo 54:41
Yes. Yeah. Because you. 

Rich Bennett 54:42
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 54:43
Experience with publishing. She's obviously growing like what I learn about marketing I share with her and I believe she is. 

Rich Bennett 54:48
Okay, good. 

Renzo Del Castillo 54:49
She has grown, but the marketing of the book. For the most part, I you know, it's something that she I mean, that's one of the thing that if you ever talk to Flora, you're going to love about her. She's very honest. She's like, This is what I can do. These are the things that I have challenged with. This is something we can do together. And I'm like, Cool. So the focusing on the marketing has been a challenge because my Instagram used to be private. Now it's public, right? 

Rich Bennett 55:11
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 55:12
Shift. I like my bit of anonymity in terms of that because it's just privacy. It's not that I have anything to hide, but I don't want, you know, some random people looking at my nephews as an example. 

Rich Bennett 55:23
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 55:24
Right. 

But it's been interesting because you have to find that you become a brand. You really do become a brand and you have 

Rich Bennett 55:32
Yes, 

Renzo Del Castillo 55:32
to. It's the development of content. And it's not even like I just wanted to write and now I have to, you know, I'm going to start soon producing like Tig talks about like top three books I'm reading right now, and my book is the last one of it, right? Or my journey as an author, because people want to connect with with that. I mean, that's what we're talking about now. 

Rich Bennett 55:52
right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 55:52
And it's and it's all of these things, you know, developing brand guidelines with another company, White, White Deer from Australia, who are fantastic graphic designers. I'm starting a podcast myself. We can. 

Rich Bennett 56:04
I was going to ask you that. 

Renzo Del Castillo 56:06
Yes, I'm starting a podcast myself with a really good friend of mine from college. He's about 24 years older where we went to grad school together and he wrote the English Forward for the book. The other friend that's really good friends with that wrote the Spanish Forward. He lives in Madrid and it's going to be called Still Life. And it's talking to different sorts of professionals about the role that art plays in their lives. And we call it still life because of still life paintings, right? Like it's a ball of fruit. It's a candle. 

Rich Bennett 56:33
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 56:33
Showing that art exists everywhere. Because again, it's my mission to show that art is inclusive and important. I was just at a dinner party where somebody said, Oh, I poetry seems interesting, but I don't. It's not for me, it's very intimidating. And I'm like, No, it's so inclusive. Like there's this rejection 

Rich Bennett 56:50
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 56:50
of knowledge that seems to be prevailing in our culture now, right? Like 

Rich Bennett 56:56
Mm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 56:56
being learned is something to maybe it's elitist, right? It's somebody that you don't want to talk. I'd rather talk about my opinion instead of my informed opinion. I think that knowledge is, again, inclusive. It should be accessible. And poetry, like I gave that person like a couple of book recommendations. She wrote me back like a week later saying, This is awesome. This is great. Do you have anymore? And that to me, like, if if, if that's what could happen, then that's what I would love to do, you 

Rich Bennett 57:26
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 57:26
know? Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 57:28
I love the fact that you're starting a podcast. 

Renzo Del Castillo 57:31
Really? 

Rich Bennett 57:31
Going to ask you that? Yeah, because it's. I mean, you see a lot of people start in cars, but they don't stick with it. They don't realize it. It is a lot of work. 

Renzo Del Castillo 57:44
But it's also. 

Rich Bennett 57:44
But a lot. 

Renzo Del Castillo 57:45
Yeah. I mean, to your point. 

Rich Bennett 57:46
It is, and especially for I feel as if you're a business and you are a business. You're an author. Preneur. I believe every business should have a podcast because it is market, but a lot of people think when they start a podcast it's got to be 30 minutes, an hour long or whatever. Could be 5 minutes long. 

Renzo Del Castillo 58:06
I have a I have a good friend. His name is David Sawicki. He runs the bond experience. So in the Bond community, he's like the main guy. And we've become friends because we have the same Taylor And then we just hit it off going on trips and stuff like that. And one of the things he told me as he thought I should start a podcast because of my podcast voice and the. Said, like his podcast is like 5 to 10 minutes to your point. 

Rich Bennett 58:28
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 58:29
You know, it's like, you know, he said he'd be a guest on it, like, whatever you want. Like, I hope he out, but he's like, You really thrive having conversations with people about art. Like that's something that motivates 

Rich Bennett 58:40
Mm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 58:40
you. And I'm like, Yeah, I know he's right. So when my friend, you know, he's about to retire, he's 64 and we hadn't worked on anything. I love that guy. Like, I love that man. And we haven't worked on anything in a while. And when we found the opportunity to do so, to work next to one of my best friends who I find incredibly intelligent, incredibly interesting. And talking to different people that I've met that I also find incredibly intelligent and interesting and fascinating. Talking about the impact art has had on their lives and how I mean, one of the things that I was very successful in my career was in terms of team building. I take the lessons from art and put them towards business in terms of team building, in terms of developing competencies in terms of analytical skills. And we were very successful. So people would ask me. 

Rich Bennett 59:28
Good idea. 

Renzo Del Castillo 59:29
How are you? Are you the poet or are you the executive? I'm like, I'm Renzo. I just it's I'm not different in any of these arenas. Right. It's not left brain. Right brain it. That's a fallacy. All areas of your brain light up, maybe predominately in one area, may be predominant in another. But when you're creative, all of your brain, it's more complex than that. And art helps you understand even the concept of why art is complex. Right. So it's I think it's an incredibly important. 

Rich Bennett 59:59
So when you guys hoping to launch the podcast. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:00:02
We're going to start recording. 

We just had the podcast. Podcast cover art. I have a good friend of mine who has a band. She wrote the music. She's about to send me her first draft of it, which is really cool. You know that 32nd, 32nd piece of music. So the design is there, the covers there. Kurt has done podcasts a lot in his life because he's a tech writer, and so we have all the format. So it really is just sitting down. He's going to interview me first. I'm going to interview him. Those will probably be filler episodes, but we're going to use that to. Get our pace, get our rhythm, see what it is that we want to do. Do we want it to be a free flowing conversation? Or they're like, Do we want to ask like, hot, like one word answers, like, like Adam Grant Right. Like what? Like, like quick response. What do we want to do? We know we have a concept of it, but we want to put it in action. And then when we have that secure, then that's when we can offer value to whoever, whatever guest comes in and say, Hey, here we go, instead of like, okay, you're going to help me. No, we want to get it right or and it'll evolve right? But we want to get a good. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:07
Oh, yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:07
Dation that it's come. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:08
It takes time. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:09
And it's solid. And then. And then start bringing people and it will evolve. But at least my intent is to provide value, whoever is generous enough to give us their time. Does that make sense? 

Rich Bennett 1:01:21
So much. That makes sense. Absolutely. And it's so much fun. One of the things that been doing is since 2015. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:28
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:29
And I love it because I learn all the time. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:34
Yeah, I love that. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:34
All the time, and which is one of the reasons I do it, you know that. And to give other people a platform to get themselves out, something with your book. Cause I notice it's an audio version. Is it you doing the. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:50
I hired a company to do it, and they again told me he's like, Yeah, we can get a soundalike but you should do this. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:57
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:57
Only the 

Rich Bennett 1:01:58
Good. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:01:58
artists like you have a voice for this. So I did it. That was I made a mistake because I recorded it all in an eight hour session. It's two and a half hours, and I have friends that do voice voice work, and they're like, Dude, no, no. But I was there with like, t pong. POM The reason it took so long one POM took me an hour was the one that I that I wrote in French. And then there's 

Rich Bennett 1:02:23
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:02:24
a poem there in French. It's a list affair, which is to do list. And it was. I just so the girl that I had that long relationship with. I met her when I was 33 on my birthday in Paris, and we hit it off. And we just it was like every song. Every every every poem, every movie. Like it was like that. So we started a long distance relationship. And because my job allowed me to travel and work, I spent about 4 to 6 months in in France, in Paris, and not in centers there. And I didn't want to be the dumb boyfriend who was like, We wear pop. Like, I didn't want to be that guy. So I and I've always been a Francophile, like I said, what was I reading at age seven or eight? Monte Cristo. Kind of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumont. And I've always been a Francophile, so I've learn the language. And for a while I got pretty okay, like maybe second grade reading level, you know, like pretty okay being able to make small sentences. And I wanted to write that poem. And the reason it's a to do list, it's because the format allows me to not worry about like past tense or future tense or all that stuff. It allowed me to cheat. But I wanted to write something in French first and then translate it because I had never told her. But I always I made a promise that I wanted to learn the language because I wanted to understand her unfiltered. And when it ended, it wasn't in a good place for a variety of reasons. But I kind of wrote this again, like a like a message in a bottle. I'm not sending it to her. I'm not in contact with her. We have friends in common which which are great. They're great friends, but I'm not in contact with her. But it's a it's a message in terms of, you know, the time that we spend together. I treasure. And whatever happened, it made me the person that I am, which I hope is a better partner. Whoever came after and whoever I end up with. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:22
How many different languages do you speak? 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:04:25
Definitely fluent in English and Spanish. I learned Italian in high school and I'm sure I can understand it when I watch movie, I can read it. Writing. It takes me some time and then it. So I was in Venice last last October. The first day was tough. By the third day I was having conversations. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:44
Wow. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:04:45
You know. But I it's again, it's hard when you're not practicing and 

Rich Bennett 1:04:50
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:04:50
fluent like in Miami. I get to speak Spanish all the time. I get to speak English all the time. Italian was that then I learned Portuguese because I was in college, because I was dating somebody from Brazil. So I learned Brazilian, Portuguese, and I was pretty fluent. But again, lack of practice. But I'm better with my Portuguese and. And then French was the last one, which I after we broke up, I put away, but I'm kind of picking up again because I lose all that. And I do love the country. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:15
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:05:16
So but it's it's hard because it's not phonetic. It's easier because it's a romance language. So the verb conjugations, the tenses are very similar to Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. But it's not easy because it's not phonetic. So my pronunciation was way off. So when I recorded that version, but because it's in English and in Spanish, what I mean in English and French, when I recorded the French version took me an hour because I was like reading it phonetically, listening to it. And 

Rich Bennett 1:05:44
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:05:44
then. Coming back after listening to it, coming back and pronouncing it and hoping I got it right. I was right. The recording got it right. So that took like an hour. Right. Everything else was much easier. But that's why that one took a long time. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:58
That's something I wish I would have done when I was younger. Learn a different language. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:06:04
You still can get. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:06
Well, yeah. Yeah. And I do like French. I think I will. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:06:11
The thing is, you when people look at it, they look at it like an elephant. Like, I got to learn all the facts. No, just bungee jumping, which is a habitat in Pennsylvania. You know what I mean? Like or wherever you. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:22
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:06:23
And you start there and then eventually you learn a little more and you learn a little more because that's how you eat the elephant, right? One piece at a time. But it has to be something you're passionate about. Like if you like French, if you want to go to Paris and eat a baguette and have a coffee, 

Rich Bennett 1:06:35
Mm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:06:35
you learn that and you go. And when you have that experience, the beautiful thing is a lot of people told me the Parisians were going to be rude to me. No one has ever been rude. Maybe I'm very lucky, but I go there 

Rich Bennett 1:06:47
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:06:47
earnestly and try to speak their language and, you know, put enough time that I'm not just like massacring it. And they're open to that. And then because I'm from Miami, they're like, Jado Pitbull, Le 12 Cool Miami Vice Don Johnson and I talk over there. So it's it's it's always been a positive experience when you go there vulnerable, saying, look, I don't I'm not from here, but I want to learn and I've tried and here it is. It's same case in Italy. Same case in Portugal. Right. Like it's it's been it's been the effort has made it a very rewarding experience. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:25
You just gave me another goal. Thank you. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:07:27
You're welcome. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:28
Do that? Well, of course, the first born. I'm going to learn sign language. I've always wanted to learn sign. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:07:33
I'm going to check up on you. See how you're doing? 

Rich Bennett 1:07:36
You know, in all honesty, I do. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:07:38
I will. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:38
Because sometimes you. We need that boot up the ass. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:07:41
Yeah, but it's more like. So I just told you how I grew up. So that's not what you're going to get for me. Like, Hey. Just checking in on you if you need any 

Rich Bennett 1:07:49
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:07:49
support, that sort of thing, because you know you're going to give yourself the boot up. Yes, I already noticed. So you don't. You don't need me to do it. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:56
That is true. My one mentor who who he I had him on. He wrote a book about goals. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:08:03
Hmm. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:04
I told him one of my things I want to do is write a book. And I started it, but I haven't done it lately. And I ran into him recently and he told me, he said, Well, you'll get back to it, though. So he didn't really like that fire, but he just the way he said, it's like, okay, I got to get back to it. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:08:24
Could. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:25
Yes, Craig, I'm talking about you. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:08:28
Good job, Greg. Could I ask you a question? 

Rich Bennett 1:08:30
Sure. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:08:32
Why did you not continue? 

Rich Bennett 1:08:35
I. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:08:35
What held you back? 

Rich Bennett 1:08:37
I just got so busy. Well, no. All right. At first. 

Because I wanted to. I didn't know what to write about, so I wanted to write about something. I know. I know about podcasting, but my journey in podcasts is different than a lot of other people. So I wanted to write about that and I started on it. Then I have a young lady on who also does a podcast, but we talked about she wrote a book about interviewing people. Then I got to thinking after I finished with her, I said, You know what? There are a lot of books out there about podcasting. 

Maybe I should focus on doing separate books as, you know, like guides, you know how to find that perfect guest. You know how to monetize before you even record your first episode. You know, all these different things. So that's what I decided to do and stay on, you know, write different guides. I guess you could say because I just love the podcast and feel I love it even more when other people get into it. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:09:45
You looked excited when I told you I was going to do a. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:48
Oh, God, I am. It's. Yeah. It's funny because I was going to take a couple of months, a couple of months ago. I was going to take a month off and just go be a guest on other podcast. I kept booking people to be all night. So needless to say, I didn't go out and be guests on another topic because I just love talking to people. I love learning. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:10:09
Well, you know what? Once we get situated, if you would do me the honor of being a guest on the podcast, I would love that. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:14
Oh. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:10:14
Impact art played in your life. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:16
Absolutely. And if there's anything I can help you guys with. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:10:19
Of course. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:20
Just just let me know before I get to my last question. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:10:23
Yes, sir. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:24
Tell everybody why they need to buy this book or why they should buy this book. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:10:30
It would make me very happy. No. 

Look, I think that 

I think we need to support poetry. I mean, one of the reasons they convinced me to have a paperback very recently, because I think like a hardcover book, I think the U.S.. It's not a great market for poetry, but Europe is. South America is. People tend to buy more books in terms of that there. There's a lot of audio books here and a lot of a lot of different things. But in terms of poetry, it's it's more respected there. I the reason I wrote this book is I wanted to again, all these people are still with me and at least thematically write because I'm not going to. 

People's lives and names are changed and they're just basslines 

Rich Bennett 1:11:18
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:11:18
and inspirations of it because I don't want it's it's not meant to make them feel exposed. Right. Because they had the fortunate experience or unfortunate experience to have been adjacent to me as I lived. Right. So that I. I wanted to put this out there 

in honor of the people that I loved so that the people who read it could love them a little, too. 

And I think that that's important. It's also I mean, I'm a relatively sound poet, like I know my meter. I there's there's free form poems, but there's also like guzzles. And then maybe you like and you're like, what's it cause or what type of form is this? Where did it come from? A sonnet, pen tunes, acrostic, acrostic. Like they're haikus. They're. They're. Right. So if you enjoy if you'd enjoy seeing what the perspective of someone who is as American as you are but came from a different place and is also very Peruvian. Right. Maybe to Peruvian for the Americans and to American for the Peruvians. And realizing that you have things in common. Take a gander at it. If you like me reading to you for your podcast listeners, get the audiobook. If you don't have much money but used to want to check it out. $0.99 for the Kindle. Right. Like it's it it really is. My goal is to make sure that people read poetry because it will enrich your lives. Maybe I'm not the end of that road for you, but if I could be the beginning for you to discover what you want, then I would really love that. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:55
I think a lot of people that get it will enjoy the art of it and learn a lot from it. 

I think a great thing for people to do excuse me when they purchased this book is. Put it on your coffee table. This way, when you have guest over, they can pick it up and start reading it. Because I think we as a society, I think we need to get back to read and more poetry without a doubt, because I think it's a it's not an art that's dying. It's out there. I'll tell you one thing I would love to see, and you've mentioned it a few times, is how you go to these open mic nights. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:13:38
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:39
I don't think there's anything like that around here where I'm at. I would love to see more of that. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:13:43
Beautiful man like, definitely. So, you know, at the end, I guess we'll give you all my socials and stuff, but you can follow me on Instagram and then on or Facebook, I'm going to open a Tik Tok. I'm definitely on LinkedIn because of that other aspect of my life, but we post videos of that all the time, where to go, how to do these things right or another way. Like one of the things that I really want you to do is if you read my book, get the paperback so you can travel like in the in the intro, my friend specifically said Renzo should be read in the lobby of a hotel as you're about to go somewhere like it's beautiful in the Spanish and the Spanish forward. And I was like, wow, that's yeah, yeah, go. Because my if I could have anything, if you read my book, my message is create. Go out there and live your life. We talked about the imagination is based on having experiences. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Eat great food. Meet different people. Sing songs, learn languages. See how people live. Even if you can't afford it. Like I like I, when I was young, go to a different town, you know, like from Miami to Saint Augustine. It's a completely different place. Go 

Rich Bennett 1:14:54
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:14:54
do an experience that's so because it's so easy. I talked about criticism earlier. It's so easy to tear somebody down right? It's so much harder to create. But if we are able to create, we are able to create together. And there we are so divided right now. I know every generation feels they're incredibly divided. But I think that the only way we're going to solve complex issues that are affecting us, like whether you believe in climate change or not, the last summer was the hottest summer in history. This summer, it's all it's already getting hotter. Right. How are we going to solve this? We're not going to solve it alone. We're going to solve it together. And there's also this languishing that occurs, right, in terms of like I'm not incredibly happy. I'm not incredibly sad. We're just passive actors in our lives instead of active participants. And the way to get away from that is creation, depression. I've been depressed. The antithesis of depression is not joy. It's activity. Right. So create. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:55
I know 

it's funny when you just mentioned the depression part, 

it's because I went through it anxiety and depression, but just something about yesterday. I don't know why. And I mentioned this before, you never it never goes away. You can control it. But it will never go away. And yes, I was just in one of those 

moods, you know, just like I felt like there. But talking to you already this morning, I've been up since 3:00. Good. Sleep Well, It's like 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:16:35
Sorry 

Rich Bennett 1:16:35
this. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:16:35
I put you through this, then. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:36
No, I love it. I mean, you. You picked me up. That's a good thing. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:16:41
Thank you. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:42
So, all of you, Lizzie, when you purchased the book, still make it and you read it. Make sure you leave a full review, whether it be on Amazon. Good reads, wherever. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:16:51
Thank. 

Rich Bennett 1:16:54
And I've mentioned it before. It's going to just drive the algorithm. It's going to do something to and help brands or sell more books. Before I get to my last question, is there anything you would like to add? 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:17:04
No, I guess so. So you can find me on Instagram at Lorenzo del Castillo, Port Arthur. You can find me on LinkedIn under my name, Lorenzo del Castillo. I'm sure you'll put it in your show notes. You can find me. You'll find me on Tik Tok when I go out there. And Renzo Del Castillo, dot author. My website is almost completely done with the brand guidelines. I'm very excited. That's Renzi del Castillo, dot com and Facebook again regularly. Castillo and I really am grateful to you for the platform you mentioned for the lovely conversation, the ease of the facilitation, making me feel comfortable, which I've noticed in your other podcast, that you excel at making your guest feel comfortable. Just thank you for sharing that with me. I really appreciate it, Rich. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:49
Thank you. Actually, Ally, I got two questions for you. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:17:52
All right. Go ahead. get. 

Rich Bennett 1:17:53
All right. If 

WWE called you and said, Hey, Renzo, we're giving you one shot to get in the ring with whoever you want to get into the ring with or whoever, who would you want to get in the ring with? Wrestling? Yes, I'm talking about wrestling people. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:18:10
Oh, my God. You know what? I would. Because. Okay, so I'll give you my answer. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:17
Past or present. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:18:19
Past or present. I'll give you my answer and then I'll give you the current answer. Because my nephews would freak if if J used to work my butt, that would be fantastic because. Even my sister, I got them into wrestling. And my sister like the USOs cause she has twins, Mason and Jason. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:36
Okay. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:18:37
And then she saw Roman Reigns and said, that's a man 

which my brother in law was like, What do you mean? What do you mean? That's a man? So. But she loves. So I got her the glasses and a bunch of gear for her birthday. That just happened on June 4th. So just getting so splashed by J would be fantastic. Now, if I was an actual wrestler in the fantasy world, that I could be and I could be good if I, if men if I would if I could get into a feud with somebody like Roddy Roddy Piper, who is 

Rich Bennett 1:19:11
Oh. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:19:11
fantastic on the mic and a great worker, or somebody like Bret Hart, you know, my stuff goes a little bit old school. I think right now it probably would be. You know, as great as Will Ospreay is a Daniel Bryan. Bryan Danielson Right. Bryan Danielson 

Rich Bennett 1:19:26
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:19:26
It just seems like I've met him. He's an incredibly nice guy. He's incredibly talented in the ring. His 

Rich Bennett 1:19:32
Yes. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:19:32
promo work is superb. He is. It would just be an honor to tap out to that because I'm not winning that one either. I haven't 

Rich Bennett 1:19:40
Now. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:19:40
trained my entire life, but I just hope I put up an entertaining foil. But yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:19:46
I love 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:19:46
My 

Rich Bennett 1:19:46
it. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:19:46
answer. 

Rich Bennett 1:19:48
All right. So out of all the interviews you've been on, is there anything a host has never asked you that you wish they would have asked you? And if so, what would be that question? What would be your answer? 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:20:03
Who am I think No, I would hate that question. 

I don't. The thing is, it's it's difficult for me to think about that. I don't. I try to go into every into every interview with ignorance and curiosity. And I really appreciate the host. I mean, I love that people do research, right? But when they go in to ask them questions, it comes with ignorance and curiosity. Ignorance without curiosity is a very dangerous, very bad thing. But in terms of like God who was really like. Was it Alan Alda who did all the scientific American things? I don't like when he would he had like a show where he just interviewed scientists. And as the show went on, I'll find the name of the show and I'll send it to you because he's he became a really good interviewer, because at the beginning I think he was just like, Oh, I research this and blah, blah, blah. And then you're talking to an expert in the field, right? And then 

Rich Bennett 1:21:02
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:21:02
they. Shut down. But if you go into it with enough knowledge to ask the right questions or to ask questions that are that are valuable or valid, and then just be surprised by it, kind of like what you did. Like you didn't have a set script for this. We talked and my questions and my answers led you to different questions, which led to the. 

Rich Bennett 1:21:21
Conversation. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:21:23
Which led me to ask you questions which led to the WWE thing we just did right. And so on and so on and so forth. Right. So I, I'd rather still be surprised by host So I'm not done 

Rich Bennett 1:21:36
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:21:36
doing interviews, so I can't answer that question because nobody hasn't asked it yet. Is that fair? 

Rich Bennett 1:21:42
Yeah, that's that's fine. You're. You're only the third person I've. 

I don't even know what made me start asking that question for my guess, 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:21:54
Hey, man, 

Rich Bennett 1:21:55
but 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:21:55
it could be your signature, 

Rich Bennett 1:21:55
it's. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:21:56
you know? 

Rich Bennett 1:21:58
Some of the answers will, I mean, have blown me away. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:22:01
Is there one you can share? 

Rich Bennett 1:22:04
That's. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:22:04
An answer that's blowing your way. 

Rich Bennett 1:22:06
Oh, God. Um, 

I would 

do the one that comes to mind. It's just such a simple question, but it literally blew me away is, like, really? So my guess is. Yeah, nobody's ever asked me my favorite color. I'm thinking because a lot of your you interview people to interview you, you know, they're like. If you could be a tree, what tree would you know? Stuff like that. A lot of times that's what you're taught, so. God, no. But yeah, I think that's one of the ones that really blew me away because I wasn't prepared for it. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:22:51
Well, you know. 

Rich Bennett 1:22:52
So would you. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:22:53
We just we just rewarded long time listeners of your show with an Easter egg. Right? Because I'm sure there you. But no, it's just like I, I it's just I'm not finished. So it hasn't happened yet in terms of like, a question they haven't asked me. I've gotten so many 

Rich Bennett 1:23:07
Mm. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:23:07
varied questions, but definitely no one has asked my favorite color. Definitely no one has asked my. Definitely no one has asked my. My my favorite anything, really. So, I mean, that could be to piggyback off the answer, nobody has ever asked what country I like the best. Right. But. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:25
But that can change over time, too. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:23:28
Exactly as you said. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:30
That's 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:23:30
It depends 

Rich Bennett 1:23:30
one. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:23:30
on mood, right? 

Rich Bennett 1:23:31
Yeah. That's why, you know, people with me being a deejay, people have asked me, you know, what would your favorite type of music? Who's your favorite band? I don't have a favorite. That changes. One of the things I hate, some of these podcasts and platforms will ask you to list your favorite episode you recorded. You can't. Can't do that, especially if you're still recording episodes, especially, I mean. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:23:59
Yeah, you're not. 

Rich Bennett 1:23:59
Are there Are there some that are memorable? Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you how many episodes I recorded where I was literally brought to tears crying, you know, or how many that I was just cracking up. I was laughing so hard. 

It was hard for me. Get back into it. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:24:22
Yeah, it's I've been asked like I'm a big James Bond fan. I might have mentioned from. 

Rich Bennett 1:24:27
Yes. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:24:27
And I mentioned David. 

Rich Bennett 1:24:28
Yeah. I think you're going to be the next James Bond. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:24:31
Let's. Let's see, I think. About the people. Somebody asked me like, What's your favorite cheese bar? And I'm like, Ask me who my favorite child is. I don't know. Like, I like something of of each of them. And that's and I think that's fair. Like, again, that comes from this need to 

classify things, which is why stereotypes are so prevalent, right? It's so easy. The world is information overload and it's stereotypes serve a purpose, a useful purpose. It lets you process information quickly. I think that the important thing is to be able to question a stereotype. When you have it right. So but it's that need for categorization like okay so you must like blue. So if you like blue then you're moody or if you like red, then you can be passionate or angry and like I like red and maybe I'm chill like, I don't like it doesn't. 

Rich Bennett 1:25:17
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:25:18
Let's allow for the complexity of life to hit us. Let's not have a definitive answer. Can we live in the discomfort? Back to yoga, right? Can you live in the discomfort? Because the benefits of it can be so. Tomorrow could be something you've never imagined. 

Rich Bennett 1:25:37
Lost £50 doing it. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:25:39
There you go. There you go. 

Rich Bennett 1:25:40
And got to get back to doing it. But I still meditate. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:25:44
It's important. 

Rich Bennett 1:25:45
Oh, it is. Especially for your mental health. 

Absolutely important. Renzo, I want to thank you so much. And you let me know when you start the park is. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:25:56
I mean, I could talk to you all day. This is a. 

Rich Bennett 1:25:58
Likewise. Likewise. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:26:00
Great. And thank 

Rich Bennett 1:26:01
Of course, 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:26:01
you. 

Rich Bennett 1:26:01
you got to come on again when the second book comes out, because I know you're going to be writing a second book. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:26:05
Rich. I think we're going to stay in contact. So you will be among the first to know if I write another book. I am working on something, an idea in terms of what are you working on next? They've asked that. 

So there's I wrote this short story for an anthology. It was my first short story called Advance Shot. And it's it's just the couple in bed at 3 a.m. having a conversation. That's the entire short story. But the I explored themes about predestination and free will, explored themes about, you know, different things like that. And I got an idea for either an anthology of short stories or if I can figure out a narrative device. A narrative novel where the protagonist is nameless so that anybody can see themselves in the protagonist. 

Rich Bennett 1:26:50
Right. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:26:51
And I'll set it in situations of important conversations or moments. Those Polaroids of my life that I saw and then just populated with. You know, like I said, destiny versus free will or. Or any existential. Like, all these existential conversations that we have, like, is, you know, like the Forrest Gump question, like, are we here? Are we a feather or, you know, maybe it's both and just populate it there and then get that published. So I do have the first short story and I have an outline for the other ones. It's just to your point, with the marketing of the book, it's been difficult finding time. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:30
Yeah. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:27:30
But it's that that might be. I just need to write it. 

Rich Bennett 1:27:39
Is that a dig at me? Telling me to get back to write Minor ends up. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:27:42
That seems. 

That tells you more about you than me. But no, I just. I just have to write it. And I think that you should also write it. But I can tell you as an author, as somebody who writes things, no one's going to force you to the the thing that helps you is discipline. If you just write a little bit each day, you'll get something to write even. And that's even more important when it's difficult. I always used to tell my people, I don't care about your motivation, and I don't mean it to sound the way that it sounds, but your motivation is gone tomorrow. Then how are you going to perform? What? I need you to give me is your discipline, and that's what's going to get you through the difficult days until we can find your motivation again. And I promise I hope you find it. And that's worked. 

Rich Bennett 1:28:28
Wow. 

Yeah. 

I need to find them. Well, I am motivated to do it. It's just that 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:28:38
But some days 

Rich Bennett 1:28:39
I. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:28:39
it's a little less and a little more. 

Rich Bennett 1:28:40
You know, I just love doing the podcast more. You know, it's like with this is, let's say on average, a one hour episode that I see. I do all the editing and everything and the marketing. So one hour episode will take 3 hours, one hour of recording, one hour of editing, and then, you know, the finish, the show notes and everything. But I love it. I like doing this a lot more than I did deejaying and radio, that's for sure. It's. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:29:10
Here's a here's a possible suggestion. Is there a way to take those 3 hours and make them for where you document some notes on the experience you had or anything that was out of the norm while you're doing the podcast, and then you're starting to get the material for the book that you're writing because it's a how to. 

Rich Bennett 1:29:28
Oh, I keep all of that in my mind, to be honest with you. And I keep track everything that I do, all the notes and everything I keep saved 

and of course, spreadsheet for my guess. So yeah, I keep track of all that stuff. It's in my mind, probably not a good place to keep. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:29:51
Keep it. 

Rich Bennett 1:29:51
But it's 

I think a lot of it's from experience, too, just from doing it so much. And you you remember because there's something I could write down now and it could be different tomorrow. Sort of like we were talking about. So, Renzo. Thanks a lot, man. 

Renzo Del Castillo 1:30:14
Pleasure, Richard. It's really been a pleasure.