Scholars of Color- Wilfredo José Burgos Matos
What is Scholars of Color?
It is a platform in which scholars of color are purposefully celebrated. It’s a space where scholars of color are showcased front and center. It is a digital space where we feel empowered and resilient. Let us get to know each other. Let us cheer each other on AND show the world what we have to offer.
Let us now welcome Wilfredo José Burgos Matos to the Scholars of Color Space!
Name: Wilfredo José Burgos Matos
Gender Pronouns: He/Him/His and She/Her/Hers
What do you currently do for work and/or school?: I work as a literary/academic translator and spiritual coach through the store Sweet Wisdom. I've been working as a spiritual coach, espiritista, psychic for several years, and started doing spiritual work since I was 7 years old. For school, I study the intersections between Black sounds and sonorities, sensibilities of the plantation and marronage in Dominican music (specifically, Dominican bachata). I also look at queerness in bachata.
Without positions or titles, how would you describe yourself?: I'm a person who's always rooting for divine love in everything I do.
What are you passionate about?: I'm passionate about education (performative pedagogies of Latinidad), Caribbean spirituality and music, and also Caribbean Latinx art in all its forms and manifestations.
Why is the representation of scholars of color important to you?: It is important because our stories have been erased constantly in many institutions. Therefore, it is important to insert our stories and narratives into mainstream academia so that we can prove that our archives from the flesh are as legitimate as any other in the history of the world, mainly when it comes from Eurocentric perspectives.
If people are interested in getting connected to you, how can they?: You may contact me at wjburgosmatos@utexas.edu. My personal website is also available at wilfredojburgosmatos.com(currently under construction) and my spiritual services are available at http://etsy.com/shop/sweetwisdombywj. I also have a profile on academia.edu under my full name; you will find there some of my publications.
Anything else you would like us to know?: In the academic sense, it is very important to state the following: In many ways my spirituality was intertwined with accepting my sexuality and my intellectual interests. As a queer person of color, being authentic to myself became the center of my life in every scenario, academia included. Spirituality, therefore, was an outlet to which I could reclaim the beauty of my roots, identity, ancestry, and, in sum, the power of my "difference." In a world full of homogeneity, giving space to who I am spiritually was simply a leap of faith into a better understanding of the multiplicity of my queerness, of my ideas in the academic sense, and to the developing of that which I call "spiritual academia," my point of departure to relate to every single experience in my multiple world. I AM because I create, because I believe in my Spirits and Guiding Forces, and because they nurture my ideas, my writing, and, simply, my voice. I am because I carry my Beings everywhere, at all costs, against anything. I am because I can no longer NOT be.
Picture Credit: Dominican photographer Jay Espinosa
Thank you Wilfredo for sharing space with us!
Stay tuned everyone for more Scholars of Color profiles. Interested in being showcased yourself? Please email the Scholars of Color team at scholarsofcolor@reclaimingyourhappiness.com and we will get back to you shortly.
