Episode Forty-Seven: The Interview-Rev. Tiffany Curtis

We went to Europe together on a backpacking trip.

And we were in Barcelona and we were riding a bus.

And when we got off of the bus,

I had to take my little money belt thing off because it was like bugging me.

And I had put it into my bag.

That was a big mistake.

I think,

And so I realized,

Oh my gosh,

It must have fallen out of my bag.

It was freaking out because my passport was in there.

My credit card,

All my cash,

Et cetera.

I think I'll start off a little bit lighthearted and say I'm a person who loves avocados.

I'm from California,

So there's that.

I have a turquoise nose ring and people often notice that.

I love to be outside and in the sun and moving.

I am a partner,

A friend,

A daughter,

An activist,

A chaplain,

A spiritual director,

A minister,

Spiritual seeker,

And someone who's dedicated to a spiritual path as it unfolds.

And a human,

A lover of life.

My,

This gets to your next question.

My parents were both very devoutly religious people,

Born again Christians.

The reason that relates is because they met through doing a lot of ministry work in Latin America.

My mom is from Mexico.

She's from Baja,

California,

Ensenada.

And so she grew up speaking Spanish.

My dad is from Kansas and he just started learning Spanish in high school,

But he became entirely bilingual,

Fluent,

And ended up working professionally as an interpreter and translator.

And my parents,

As part of this born again movement that they were part of,

Did a lot of work in Latin America.

And my dad still,

So he's still a full-time interpreter,

Spanish and English in the court system.

That's his full-time job.

And he also has a small congregation,

Spanish speaking congregation,

And he's a minister.

That's the church that I went to growing up as well.

So I went to church in Spanish and we spoke both Spanish and English in our house.

I was going to ask,

So were you raised in that kind of born again evangelical Christianity?

My parents ended up kind of leaving that behind when I was a little bit older.

My dad went to seminary and they kind of,

Yeah,

Left behind a lot of that.

But actually in my earlier childhood,

I was very steeped in that cultural and religious and spiritual context.

Was that context or was that kind of immersion in that world natural for you?

Like,

Did it feel authentic and true to your spirit?

It is a long story,

But yeah,

I mean,

I would say,

You know,

In all honesty,

I do think there were at least certain things about more charismatic evangelical Christianity that I did resonate with and still do to an extent,

Though,

Certainly as you say,

It's not something that I identify with at this point.

But I really,

I like how more charismatic Christianity is very embodied and very passionate and very emotional.

And like,

There's just this full fledged sort of fervor,

Passion,

And kind of love and devotion for God,

For the divine.

And I think that that still impacts me,

Even though I definitely have had,

You know,

Some pretty heady academic formation and experiences.

And I think I'm a pretty intellectual person on a certain level.

I do actually have a lot of appreciation for this sort of,

Yeah,

More passionate,

More embodied,

More emotional expression of spiritual practice.

And I think it resonated with me when I was younger too,

And when that was really the only thing I knew.

That experience from my childhood of growing up in a congregation of folks who were immigrating or had immigrated were undergoing different legal processes,

You know,

Personally impacted me to have interest and compassion around immigration.

And,

You know,

I mean,

The people who,

Some of the people I loved the most,

Who I considered my extended family were undocumented immigrants,

You know,

As I was growing up.

And I mean,

I was a US citizen,

Obviously,

So I didn't have exactly personal experience,

But people I loved a lot did.

And my family,

You know,

I do remember in my childhood,

Like helping people in our church with their green card applications or things like that,

Or like when certain people in our church actually did get their citizenship,

Just those celebrations of knowing that they were safe and they would be able to stay here where they wanted to be.

And a story that comes to mind of one of those sort of synchronicities or whatever that you can't really shake off and that really makes you wonder about things comes to mind.

It's kind of a strange,

Funny little story in a way,

But I was 19,

I think,

And I was dating.

We went to Europe together on a backpacking trip.

And we were in Barcelona and we were riding a bus.

And when we got off of the bus,

I had to take my little money belt thing off because it was like bugging me.

And I had put it into my bag and the bag didn't close at the top.

So that was a big mistake.

And so I realized,

Oh my gosh,

It must have fallen out of my bag on the bus and slid through the bus or something.

It was freaking out because my passport is in there,

My credit card,

All my cash,

Et cetera.

I was like,

Oh my gosh,

I can't believe I just did that.

That's so,

Ugh.

And the bus was gone and it was just like,

Okay,

What am I gonna do?

And I'm like,

I guess we should go immediately to the US Embassy because it's gonna take a while for them to replace my passport.

I don't know,

I have to get this figured out.

The guy I was with,

He was like,

All right,

Let's call.

He's like,

My uncle has these friends.

We call his uncle's friends.

And they're like,

Okay,

Listen,

The Embassy is closed today.

I guess it was a Saturday.

They're like,

The Embassy is closed today.

It won't be open until Monday.

So there's literally nothing that you can do today.

You should just have fun and then just deal with it on Monday.

It'll be fine.

And so they gave us this advice and we're like,

All right,

Whatever.

And so we do just that.

We take a ferry to the island of Majorca and explore and come back to Barcelona.

And it's like a great time.

We went back to Barcelona on Monday and figure out how to get to the Embassy,

Take the subway there.

We show up to the Embassy and I'm like,

This is about to be a horrible bureaucratic process that I'm about to go through.

Go up to the window and the woman looks at me and says,

Are you Tiffany?

And I was like,

Yes.

And she says,

Oh,

Well,

Someone just came by about 40 minutes ago and brought something here for you.

And she produces my whole money belt.

Every single thing is in there.

And there's this little note that says,

I found this,

Safe travels back to California.

Here's my number.

And so I like freak out.

I'm like,

Oh my gosh,

I can't believe this person returned everything and came all the way to the Embassy to bring it for me.

Like this is like a miracle.

Oh my gosh,

I don't have to deal with all of this horrible stuff that I thought I was gonna have to deal with.

And I go to call the phone number.

I go to the pay phone that's in the Embassy and I immediately call the phone number and I say,

Hello,

Oh my gosh,

This is Tiffany.

You found my passport and my money.

Thank you so much.

And the person says,

I'm sorry,

I don't know what you're talking about.

And I was like,

Wait,

You don't?

They're like,

No,

I don't.

And we just kind of had this strange conversation and I just hung up and I just sort of walked away from that situation.

Like,

Was that like angel?

Like what happened?

I mean,

Just everything about it is just a little bit too much.

The exact timing,

The person had brought in the thing I was missing that was a big thing like 30 minutes before I arrived at the Embassy.

If I had arrived any earlier,

I would never have known.

They didn't have my contact information.

I would never have known that all my stuff was returned.

When I call the number,

The person says that they don't know the person I'm talking about.

They don't know what I'm referring to.

And so,

I mean,

I just felt incredibly grateful,

Incredibly relieved and also just a bit blown away by history and synchronicity of that.

Like it felt very miraculous.

It's sort of small,

But it was one of those experiences where all the strange little synchronicities added up in such a way that I found myself really wondering about how things happen sometimes.

I'm sitting here listening to you and I'm thinking,

I can't believe she was able to just go snorkeling and be cool about what had just happened.

Well,

It was just so interesting because that was the advice that we got and it was actually really good advice.

And I don't know,

Somehow I was able to just take it in.

They were sort of like,

Listen,

You literally can't do anything until Monday.

Just be like,

Other than cancel your credit card,

Obviously cancel your card right now and then do nothing else.

Just chill and then you'll deal with it on Monday.

And I was like,

I guess it's true.

And so I just kind of,

I did call and cancel the card and then I just let it go.

And then,

But yeah,

If I hadn't taken that advice or if I had been more like,

We got to get to the embassy at 7 a.

M.

Or something when they open,

Because I mean,

We actually got there like a little bit later in the day and it had only been like 30 minutes before that,

The woman at the counter said that this person had come and brought my,

You know,

And it's just like,

Oh my gosh.

So yeah,

It's such an interesting thing because I had to really kind of relax and trust in order for this sort of strange miracle to happen.

I think about the work you do with the Faith Network for Immigrant Justice.

And I think about the various programs that are held within the Faith Network.

And specifically in my mind,

The one that really affected me when I was an intern with you was working for the trans population in New Mexican prisons.

And,

You know,

My prayer around that would be that they're not in prison,

That that population would stop being dehumanized because I think a lot of people,

I don't know what the resistance is,

But seem to be incapable of seeing them as fully actualized human beings.

And so that program was really powerful for me.

I think people should pray for that.

Yeah,

I mean,

I think there's such an issue of violence towards transgender people and gender nonconforming,

Gender fluid people everywhere,

Including in the United States.

And it can be particularly dangerous in some other countries as well,

Where there really is a lot of violence,

Especially towards trans women because of that confluence of transphobia,

Anti-LGBTQ in general,

Rhetoric and misogyny.

You know,

Trans women are particularly targeted often.

You know,

Yeah,

We've worked with a lot of folks who felt that coming to the US was the safest option for them.

Given that,

Given the threats,

Violence that they had experienced in their home country,

I do pray that there can be more safety and wellness for them here.

It is hard though,

Because we also have a lot of violence against trans people in this country too.

So that just often is,

As you said,

I mean,

It's something to pray about.

Like,

It's like,

How can we create a safer,

More loving environment for all people in every country on this planet?

And I mean,

It's like one of those things where the injustice and the suffering are just so big,

Feel a little bit like there's not that much you can do,

But I think just the small acts of solidarity and humanity from a place of love that we've been able to organize and share,

You know,

At least it's something in the lives of some individuals.

And we continue to organize and pray as well for bigger changes.

And right now we're continuing to send commissary money for some of the trans women who are still in prison.

They're being held by ICE still.

For a lot of them,

They don't really have anyone to send them money,

Because there is isolation and estrangement from family of origin,

Et cetera,

Related to gender identity and other things.

Again,

It's like this little tiny flickering candle in sort of like this very oppressive system,

Because they shouldn't be in prison in the first place.

They shouldn't be charged for phone calls.

They shouldn't have to buy food from commissary.

They shouldn't have to buy their own soap that's overcharged and,

You know,

Like all this kind of thing,

It shouldn't,

None of it should exist,

But given that it does,

Just sending some money so that they can make a phone call,

Have a little more nutrition,

It's something,

You know?

It's like a prayer.

You know,

My immediate thought when we got off of the bus and I realized that all of my money,

My passport,

Was gone,

Was,

Oh,

Someone stole from me.

You know,

Someone must have come and pickpocketed me.

I don't know,

You know?

And so it was sort of this immediate response of assuming that someone had broken trust or violated the boundary of my own integrity.

And then I kind of thought about it more,

And I thought,

No,

You know,

It's actually probably my sort of error,

Because I did,

You know,

That bag doesn't zip at the top and whatever,

You know?

I kind of,

As the story unfolded,

As you already heard,

And it was sort of the exact opposite.

Like,

Not only was I not stolen from,

But someone went out of their way,

Some mysterious person went out of their way to help me,

And everything sort of fell into place in this very unexpected way.

And so I sort of feel like it was sort of this journey from mistrust to trust and sort of wonder.

And I do feel like that impacted me in terms of being more open to trusting people,

Trusting the world,

Sort of not assuming that there's ill intent or that,

You know,

People necessarily want to cause harm,

But that things can unfold in other ways.

And that's a wrap on episode 47 of Bite-Sized Pops.

We're also grateful to those who have taken the time to leave a rating and a review wherever you find your podcasts,

Whether it's Apple,

Stitcher,

Or Amazon Music.

Those ratings and reviews help others find us,

Thanks to all of those who have taken the time to do so.

I need to thank my guest today,

Reverend Tiffany Curtis,

For sharing her story with me,

As well as the creators of the music used.

Chilled Music,

Lilo Sound,

Alexander Nakarada,

Music L.

Files,

Taiga Sound Production,

And Raphael Crux.

For complete attribution,

Please see the Bite-Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.

Com.

On the website,

You'll find links to change makers,

Music,

Art,

And books I think will lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening,

And here's my one request.

Be like Reverend Tiffany,

No matter the ups and downs that happen in your life,

Step back,

Be still,

And have faith in both the people and the process.

Stomach and mouth all together wethis.

Com