The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - David McCormick And Patricia Campos Joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

David McCormick, Artistic Director at Early Music Access Project, and Patricia Campos of Aura Patricia Campos joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc, Charlottesville Opera and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today y Mañana. I'm Alex. This is Xavier. We're super excited to have you joining us on a beautiful morning here in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fall is in the air. The leaves are changing colors. Time for your traffic to let you. Time to settle down and watch some fantastic Today y Mañana. I just saw something, right? So I always realize when I see the introduction of the show, it feels like a long introduction, right, when you're just watching it. But when we're here in the studio, like I just looked down and before I know it, I see Judas Fingers 321.

I said, it can't be. It can't be that quick. It's going to be over already. I know when I watch it, it takes forever. So it's crazy how it is. That's how quickly our guests can't wait to get into it, to watch our fantastic... Our viewers are just so excited for our fantastic guests that they speed up time with their perception. So we have two fantastic guests that are going to be joining us this morning.

We're going to welcome shortly to the show David McCormick from the Early Music Access Project, and then later in the show Patricia Campos, fashion designer, dressmaker, tailor, you name it. You name it. Entrepreneur extraordinaire is going to be joining us this morning on Today and Manana. And of course, love being here on the I Love Seville Network, our fantastic presenter, Emergent Financial Services, and our wonderful partners, Tradit, Sirius Insurance, Matthias Yohn Realty, Charlottesville Opera, Forward Adelante, and of course, we welcome you, our

fantastic viewers. This morning we would not be here without you joining us. And don't forget to like and share. And if you're on YouTube, you can even subscribe. Give me a second here.

I was afraid. Do I want to leave the audience hanging for too long? Suspense. There's something about suspense. Remember the want to leave the audience hanging for too long? They'll be like, did the days are free? Suspense. There's something about suspense. Remember the old days in the radio? There was just suspense. For five minutes, there was nothing.

It's like, what's she going to say? What's she going to say? What's going to happen? Exactly. The old, what was it, War of the Worlds? Yeah, exactly. H.G. Wells. All of a sudden, everybody thought it was really true.

Well, there's that funny Christmas movie where Nicholas Cage goes, I better know how to keep you in suspense. And the guy goes, how where Nicholas Cage goes, I better know how to keep you in suspense. And the guy goes, how? And he goes, I better know how to keep you in suspense. He's like, well, that'll be us. He said, you can light chair and? And then the audience says, that's what it is. But already we got some people tuning in.

Dr. Elizabeth Erby is sending a shout out to her favorite podcast host. Thank you, Elizabeth. Xavier always loves to claim that one, but we'll let that fly. We'll let that fly. But of course, you can always feel free to send us any questions, comments you have,

and we will be sure to read them on the air and tell them to our amazing guests. We are looking forward to it. I think we've already got... Ah, Olivia is joining us this morning. Olivia E. Branch. Thanks so much for tuning in. She's one of our big fans.

I had the pleasure of seeing Olivia recently. She was looking fabulous, as always. So we appreciate her tuning in this morning. So it's going to be a great show. And yeah, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to... I'm always ready with David, absolutely. Oh yes, exactly.

David, we see David's old hat at this. Exactly. He knows the work. So we're super excited to bring back this morning David McCormick from the Early Music Access Project. David, thanks for tuning in and joining us this morning. Always good to be here. Also, thank you. And, David, we really appreciate you this morning,

as David has come back from a fantastic conference that I know he held in Cleveland. So we're really grateful to you for coming to visit us this morning. It's good to be here. I'm starting to wake up. There you go. That's good. So maybe for

some new viewers, just a quick reminder of what is the Early Music Access Project before we get into this fantastic concert upcoming? So mostly Early Music Access Project is a performing venture. So we have several concerts a year and usually involving historical instruments and thinking about what music sounded like 200, 300 years ago and trying to recreate that in creative ways that keeps the audience interested in what we're doing.

Fantastic. And I mean, one of the ways you're doing that, of course, is with this upcoming concert called Lafayette's Fiddlers. So I always know, so I'll say it now and I'll say it again at the end. I know there's one in Lynchburg on November 9th at 3 p.m. and then there's gonna be two in Charlottesville at the Rotunda at UVA on November 10th. That's a Sunday, I believe, 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. But okay, Lafayette, that name rings a bell for Charlottesville and for American history a little bit. Maybe tell us what's kind of the history

behind the Lafayette's Fiddler's Concert. Well, so for the last five years or so, I've been studying a group of black fiddlers at Monticello and uncovering a repertoire that really no one knew about until I sort of pieced it together. And those fiddlers actually played for Lafayette's Visit to Charlottesville. So I'm using this kind of as an excuse to get this repertoire out there once again. And it's pretty rare to have an idea of what was played for a specific event like Lafayette's visit, and we have

a pretty good idea. So we're going to do it. We're going to play the music that might have been played, that probably was played when Lafayette visited Charlottesville, and we're going to be in a space, sort of, that Lafayette was in. There was a banquet for him in the Rotunda on November 8th of 1824. Wow. And I couldn't get the Rotunda on November 8th of this year.

I did the best I could and got November 10th. You were close. I mean, it's pretty close. It is pretty close. And, of course, the Rotunda did burn down between now and then. It is a different structure. But you'll get the idea. Exactly.

So I'm curious. So when you learned about the music, did it also give you ideas to how many fiddlers there were, what they used? And I always wondered, because I know you try to use instruments of the past. Will there come a time where it's like, I just can't find those instruments anymore so we have to use modern instruments or does it really matter? So actually, most of us who do this historical performance thing are playing

on reproductions of old instruments. There are a finite number of those old instruments and they are finicky and they're also extremely expensive. Probably a museum. I don't know. Probably a museum.

A museum's debt to a stamp. Yeah. So I don't have a Stradivarius. I actually have a violin that was made for me by Jonathan Vacanti, who's just across the street from your studio. Oh. Yeah. So a local maker, which I'm really proud of.

As a native of Charlottesville, it's always nice to be able to use something local. And he's a brilliant violin maker. And other instruments like recorders, for instance. There are very few historical recorders, and they're not very playable. You can imagine the condensation or the spit that gets into a recorder 200 years later. It might be a little gross. So the key is, I guess, to find people

like the gentleman across the way that so they're skilled enough and studied enough to be able to create a violin the way it would have been made 200 years ago. Yeah, and there aren't too many of those makers, especially in the U.S. And I have various instruments from pretty much all of the makers in the U.S.

That's amazing. That's amazing, yeah. That's incredible. And so as far as like when you were doing the research, were you able to find out, okay, what were they playing? What kind of instruments were they playing? How many were there when Lafayette came? Yeah, well, so it is a bit of a mystery

exactly who played for Lafayette's visit. There is what I think is an inflated account in one place where it says that the entire Scott family, including the mother on piano and all of the father, grandfather, and grandsons and all this. And I have my doubts because there's another account that lists fewer folks. And so I think over time, the lore of that event got a little out of hand. But we are taking advantage of the idea that there were a lot of folks.

And we're going to recreate both the Scott family band and the Hemings family band, who were active in Charlottesville. And they were actually related by marriage to each other. So it's an extended family of 12-ish fiddlers. We're not going to have 12 fiddlers, but we are going to have four fiddlers, clarinet, and a bass player. Interesting. That's going to be impressive.

And then I know you also have, is there also going to be like a gentleman who kind of gives a little history and talk during the concert? Yes. So we have an actor, Brandon Lee, who is going to portray three characters who witnessed this event. So there are two enslaved folks from Monticello who wrote in their memoirs about Lafayette's visit. And he's going to read from their memoirs as if he is that person. And then

Robert Scott, one of the fiddlers, did a newspaper interview at one point about Lafayette's visit. And so we're going to sort of have his own words as well. Oh, that's going to be neat.

Instead of reading it, it's like he's telling you, like I said, the audience is going to be the interview Oh, that's going to be neat. Yeah, almost as though, like instead of reading it, it's like he's telling you, like I said, the audience is now going to be the interviewer and he's going to tell them his story in a sense. Yeah. Oh, that'll be neat. Over the years with Early Music Access Project,

I've ended up creating a theatrical element for almost every show. It's just more fun that way. Instead of lecturing at the audience, they just get to experience it directly. That's ingenious. That's a more fun that way. Instead of lecturing at the audience, they just get to experience it directly. Yes. That's ingenious. That's a good idea. Absolutely. Well, I think it's one of the best ways for someone to experience history. I remember when you visit national parks, especially on the East Coast, I think sometimes people's

favorite parts is when you get the interpreters and someone, because they really bring you into it instead of just a guide telling you this person did that and this person did that. To go there and almost listen as though you're listening to the person themselves transporting you back in time. I mean, that's what's so great about Colonial Williamsburg. You go into the blacksmith shop

and there's a person portraying a blacksmith and they actually are skilled as a blacksmith and they're showing you how to do it. It's one of the few places on earth that is like that. Exactly. And they'll be able to experience that a little bit on the musical way in November. So what kind of program were you able to find?

What are some of the highlights that you suspect may have been played that people will be able to find? What are some of the, maybe some of the highlights that you suspect may have been played that people will be able to hear? Well, with the Scott Family Fiddlers, I actually was able to find a couple of newspaper articles that just listed, you know, somebody had gone and heard them play and said, oh, they sounded so good on these tunes from this opera. So I was actually able to go into the score of that opera and pull out the dances from that and turn it into a little dance suite. So we'll have that. And then one of the tunes is actually one of Jefferson's favorite tunes. It's called Money Musk. He wrote it down in his own hand, which was kind of unusual for fiddle music. Usually that was transmitted by ear.

But he wrote down his favorite version, and then we know that his enslaved son with Sally Hemings, Esten, was a fiddler and loved that tune and was famous for playing that tune when he moved to Ohio. Another newspaper article wrote about it.

So we're going to do that. We're going to do a piece called Lafayette's Quick Step, which was written for Lafayette's visit. Whoa. Yeah. And we're also going to do the French National Anthem in an arrangement by Lafayette's daughter. Wow.

Yeah. Does it sound anything like the current one? Yeah. It's a theme in variations. yeah does it sound anything like the current one? yeah it's a theme in variations so the theme is completely familiar and even the variation you'll definitely recognize it but it goes into some interesting

directions that's amazing to think that his daughter that she too was musical in her own way that's amazing which just feels like back in the time and maybe because you know there wasn't the phones and all this technology that people would either be great writers you know focus on literature or music right because that's

what you know that was their outlet you know because you don't know how many of us could have been good at something like that if we didn't have everything else that we have in today's world, right? Everyone in that sort of colonial and post-colonial period knew how to dance. Everybody went to dances. And so you had to know the basic steps and the basic patterns for dancing. And a lot of people chose playing music as their hobby. For Jefferson, it was even more than a hobby. He was collecting thousands of pages of music,

which we still have in UVA Special Collections. I've touched Jefferson's music very carefully. And he was pretty obsessed with the violin. So he got quite good at it, collected a lot of music, played a lot of music. And it's no accident that his three sons with Sally Hemings were all Fiddlers. And then there was this other large family of Fiddlers that he was fairly close to, the Scotts.

He would visit their home in downtown Charlottesville. It was actually where the Wells Fargo Bank is now on the Mall. There used to be a home there. It was the Scott family home. And he would visit on his way to see how the construction at UVA was going. And they would play for him on their porch. That's amazing. Wow. Yeah.

To think, yeah. It gives you goosebumps almost. Yeah. To think that we still have so much of this and that we know so much. Yeah. The musical culture of Charlottesville was definitely unique and special. I found tunes that these fiddlers played that I don't find anywhere else in my research

of other fiddlers from other places. There's a unique repertoire that I think was really based on, in many ways, Jefferson's love of music and his huge collection and the number of musicians that he sort of brought into his circle. Oh, that's fascinating. And so at that time, you were saying, so most of them would basically learn tunes

almost completely by ear? I mean, obviously Jefferson's the exception that he's collecting all this music, but they would pass it down, so you would hear another fiddler play it and then kind of just learn it on the fly in that sense. And still today, you know,

that's the old-time fiddling tradition is usually by ear. And because of that, it's a game of telephone, right? So over the centuries, tunes change. When I play for people Thomas Jefferson's written-down version of Money Musk, they almost don't recognize it because it's different than what they learned by ear

from the person that taught them and the person that taught them and the person that taught them. That's incredible. That really is. That's not it. Yeah, exactly. I heard that. That's not what I heard. Which tells you either one of two things. Either everybody's ears may hear something a little different, right?

Or the ability to play. Yes. You're improvising. I really can't play that note, so I'm going to switch it a little bit or whatever it may be. And it's also a bit of like personality, right? You may hear it and be able to repeat it and still go, I kind of like my way better. I was going to do the opposite.

I got a better way. You're so good as a fiddler that you're like, I like that, but I can do this with it. That's good, but I can add some flourishes. I can add some things. And then the next guy only hears your version, and he's like, all right, well, that's the real thing. But I'm good enough to change this up. And you kind of get to...

Because, you know, if you think about it, I mean, I think a lot of people, when you think improvisation, they first think of jazz. But, I mean, you can improvise in non-jazz settings like this. I mean, folk music, I'm sure they were just improvising all the time, just adding something, especially if you were really talented. And you have to keep in mind,

these fiddlers were usually playing for dances, and all the evidence that I'm finding is that they would be repeating these tunes I don't know, 20, 30 times, so that the folks could keep dancing and keep doing the pattern over and over again.

You know, like Money Musk is a 30-second fiddle tune. If you play it just once through on the page, that's all it is. And I'm sure that the dancers wanted to go for several minutes. So even just to entertain themselves, I'm sure that they were doing variations, you know, of instrumentation and of ornamentation and whatever else they could think of so that they weren't bored to death. But also that's a favor to the audience as well, that they get to hear the tune in a bunch of different ways.

Oh, that's fascinating. We promise not to play any tunes for 15 to 20 minutes. You'll be somewhere between 30 seconds and 15 minutes of song. Oh, we've got some people tuning in. Adam Schultz says, Go David. Jacob Rohde, Colin J. Brown, Betsy Lord, Heather Hightower,

Adam again. Thanks for tuning in this morning. We appreciate everyone joining us. I think Charlottesville Opera themselves, we're loving the highlight. Especially once David talked about opera. Exactly, exactly. And then Rosalia de Rosalia Tardaro from, I think she's in New York,

now is watching us as well. So thank you for tuning in. So David, you touched on something that interested me. So for some of the music here, you've actually had to go and find, I guess, where the sheet music for it in an opera or something else, and then kind of translate it back to something that can be played by fiddlers. What was that process like? Really challenging. I actually, I often do kind of a lecture version of these tunes where I talk about them and play them in different ways.

And I'll sometimes just play the opera tune, you know, in its sort of stuffy version and then show what I've done to it. And a lot of it is just kind of adding those folky elements of like playing multiple strings at once or sliding a little bit, being a little freer with the rhythm. But when you've got a group of six people, you do have to do a bit of arranging as well. And there's a sort of a fine line there.

You want to leave space for the improvisation of your folk artists, but you also want to put your stamp on it of like how you think it might have sounded. So I have kind of arrangements that nobody but us could use because if a random stranger picked them up they wouldn't know what to do and it would probably not sound good just all by itself. But this is a group of folks, I've worked with most of them before, a year and a half ago we did just the music of these fiddlers in the rotunda without thinking about Lafayette's visit. And so that was a real laboratory experience. We were trying a bunch of different things, pulling out different percussion instruments

and things to see what would work. And it was a little bit frightening, actually. We got to the dress rehearsal, and I was like, I don't know if all of these things are working. And then in the performance, it just all worked. We got really lucky. It wasn't all luck, but we got a little bit lucky. Lucky and good. Yeah, and now we get to kind of build on that. I'm really excited to see what the sort of next level is

of some of these pieces that we already know. Do you ever find yourself in a situation where everybody improvises at the same time and see what happens? I mean, I wouldn't expect that when you're actually on the last day, the day of performance, but before that, do you ever say, let's go forward and see what happens? Yeah, I mean, some of these tunes, the first rehearsal was like

we just have the tune on a piece of paper, and we all just start playing, and somebody goes off on a tangent, and somebody pulls out a percussion instrument and starts playing, and we just like play the tune for 20 minutes or something, and see where it leads. And I wish sometimes that we could just record that first try, because there's really good stuff in there, and there's also some not-so-great things, but some of the coolest things happen in that first improv.

It's just a moment of inspiration that you could try to replicate it again, but it won't be the same as the very first time it happened. Once you do that, though, do you then have to go back and kind of write it down so that you can repeat it? Or do you guys are so good that your ears remember that? Because, I mean, I wouldn't be able to do that.

Yeah, you know, we'll keep refining it down and have kind of a roadmap. You know, we might write to ourselves, like, hey, this time play up an octave. This time, you know, you don't play whatever but we do leave space for random things to happen in the concert the first tune that we played

on the last concert, it's called Congo and it's just another short little tune and we did not decide how many times through we were going to play it so you just relied on each other to know when to end yeah how many times through we were going to play it. Rely on each other to know when to end. Yeah. We use the old folk tradition of the first violinist,

in this case me, kicking our foot up slightly. You just look for the foot. And the foot's like symbol, keep going or that's it? The foot is, this is the last time. This is the last time. This is the last time. What if the other guy, somebody misses the foot? What happens?

Then we have a misfire. And we did. We had at least one piece that we chose two different ending spots. And I ended up continuing on after everybody else finished it. It sounded okay but we all giggled about that. That's not be fun though just to

be on there doing that and making like sharing with people music with historical past but also in a way making new music out of it because obviously the points where the performers you guys are improvising and changing in is i'm guessing informed by all your knowledge about how things were but it's it it's also your personalities coming through so you're making new music at the same time that you're following this tradition of early music.

Yeah. I mean, we're living in 2024. We are of the sensibilities of our time. And the artists of that time would have put their own personalities in their music. So we're doing the same thing. We're not a time capsule. We're not trying to exactly recreate.

But there is something special about using the gut strings, the sheep gut strings of that era and the older bows. You start to understand the shapes and the resonance of that music. Exactly. And so you do get a lot of 1824, and then you get a little bit of 2024 exactly so what instruments so obviously you've got the historic fiddle the as it would have been the about what are there any other period not reproduction obviously but any other instruments that people can look forward to hearing yeah so we've got um a historical clarinet player. Most recently,

he was a historical interpreter at colonial Williamsburg actually. And he is a member of the American friends of Lafayette. So he's, he knows a lot about Lafayette. He is the person who clued me into this arrangement by Lafayette's daughter. And we have a double bass player who's going to be playing also on Gut Strings. That'll be fun. This is Sam Suggs.

He's the bass professor at JMU. Really brilliant artist. We actually just did a duo concert a few weeks ago and tried out some of this repertoire as a duo. And he brings a whole new dimension to the baseline of these pieces. There's a double bass on gut strings. That must be

an impressive sound. I'm really taking you by the hand. If you think about steel strings, you're able to create that low sound without a super fat string, but a gut string is massive.

They're comically large. Wow. I would imagine even just the visual sight of the instrument must be so interesting as an audience member. Granted, maybe the violin, depending on where you're sitting, too small, but to see an older bass, to see some of those, some of those you can tell. I mean, I've been to a couple concerts

where we're using reproduction instruments, and you can see it as well as hear it. This is not just a normal, brand-new violin straight out of the factory. Yeah. And actually, I forgot to mention, one of our fiddlers who's coming from Seattle, he is part of this black fiddling tradition.

He learned by ear from another fiddler who learned from another fiddler. And he is bringing bones, which is a percussion instrument. 200 years ago, this would have been actual bones. Now it is a carefully crafted two pieces of wood. But the idea is the same, and it has this wonderful sound. And then he's also going to play an old-style banjo.

And if you're familiar with the banjo, it really is quite different. The banjo has African origins, really African-American origins in the Caribbean, and used to just be a gourd and a stick. And I don't know if he's going to play a gourd banjo, but he's definitely going to be playing, at the very least, a fretless banjo with the older style strings on it that has a really mellow sound. We're used to the banjo today

just cutting into the sound. It's a really different sound. It's absolutely gorgeous. For folks who are familiar with Rhiannon Giddens, this is the sound that she makes on her banjo. It is part of a black musical tradition that is sort of almost forgotten today. Well, I'm glad you're bringing it back

to audiences here. I definitely appreciate it. That's fantastic. Well, this has been such a pleasure. As always. Any clues or anything else upcoming you'd like people to know about? Maybe clues for upcoming concerts after this or so forth?

It's a little bit a ways, but I would love to just mention it. In June, date's sort of TBD, we're going to be back in the rotunda. So the poet Rita Dove, who's here in Charlottesville, teaches at UVA, has kind of gifted us one of her poems to set to music. And it is called The Bell Ringer. And it is about the enslaved bell ringer at the rotunda from about this same time period. And so my friend Jonathan Woody is going to set that to music. He's also a bass baritone.

He's going to sing the words of the poem. The rest of the concert will be the words of Rita Dove. She's going to record herself reciting some of her poems, and we'll have that sort of piped into the rotunda, and we'll be responding to that with pieces of music from the Baroque era that sort of match the vibe of the poetry. Oh, that'll be fun. That'll be fun. People should definitely put June.

Circle the month of June. I'm sure we'll have David back to give you the specific dates of the future. Still negotiating with venues. Circle the whole month. There you go. David, this has been an absolute pleasure.

Concerts, I know. So November 9th in Lynchburg at 3 p.m., November 10th in the Rotunda at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. You have two chances on the 10th. Where can people go to get their tickets and find out more? Yeah, so all the tickets are available at earlymusicseaville.org. And I will just mention the 3 o'clock show only has about 10 tickets left. And the 7 p.m. show has a few more than that, but not very many.

So I would recommend, if you're interested, I would grab those free tickets today. There you go. So do it fast. Earlymusicseville.org is where you want to go. And then it's right on the front page. If people go there, scroll down, boom, you've got three big boxes to click. I try to make it easy for people.

You can't miss it. That's the way I like it. You cannot miss it. Even in Xavier, it was fine. Well, David, thanks so much for coming on. Always a pleasure. Always good to be here. Take care. Have a good one. All right. So as we go ahead and... That's great. That like having history of music at the same time. It really is.

You learn so much. You get an experience of what life and music was like back then. And then you get to enjoy fantastic performers. And the fact that they're using instruments of that time. I mean, obviously not the instruments themselves. But they just give you the sound. The sound, that's what you want to hear not the instruments themselves, but the sound, that's what you want to hear. It's like, how did this sound back then?

That's amazing. As he described, who's playing these things? They're obviously very talented. I mean, that's the beauty of it, too. David is getting people who are extremely talented and talented in this

tradition. I can only imagine that fiddler from Seattle that has he learned it from him, he learned it from him, he learned it from him. The depth of experience that he probably has that you

couldn't acquire from just reading. It must be incredible. So definitely be sure to check that out, earlymusicseville.org. And from one great guest to another, we are excited to welcome this morning Patricia Campos from Aura Campos, Fashion Design, Dressmaking, Tailoring. Patricia, mucho gusto. Gracias por venir. Buenos días. Gracias por la invitación. Es un placer. Bueno, quizás podemos empezar con una introducción de usted, su historia, cómo es que tiene usted un interés en la sastrería, la moda y todo eso?

Ok, soy de Colombia. Estudié diseño de modas, un técnico laboral en diseño de modas y trabajé para fábricas en Colombia desde mis 24 años hasta que llegué acá. Y fue un poco difícil adaptarme a buscar otro trabajo. Lo hice por el inglés, obviamente, y porque necesitaba dinero. Pero entonces seguí con la idea de buscar lo que siempre he hecho. Entonces empecé con mi esposo. Le dije a mi esposo un día, amor, necesito una máquina. Y me dice, ¿para qué la quieres? Yo solo necesito una máquina, no sé, ya la dejamos por qué no empiezo como a ofrecer mi servicio?

Y pues mi esposo trabaja en restaurantes, entonces él con los amigos empezó voz a voz y así me fue llegando como trabajo en el mismo barrio donde vivo. Hay personas interesadas, entonces me escriben, todos siempre me escriben como, ¿tienes tiempo? ¿qué día puedes? Y yo, bueno, las agendo. Tengo un part-time, pero anexo voy haciendo poco a poco mi trabajo. Y es divertido. He conocido gente súper increíble, súper chévere. Me cambió un poco la mentalidad y me he soltado. Porque tenía miedo, mucho miedo.

Sí, especialmente por el inglés. Eso es lo que pasa. Sin duda, abrir su negocio por la primera vez, siempre hay un poco de asusto, ¿no? Decido que si lo puedo hacer, si no lo puedo hacer. ¿Y cuánto tiempo hace que está aquí en los Estados Unidos? Cuatro años, exactamente. Es poquito, es poquito, sí.

Y en Charlottesville empecé. Mi esposo siempre ha vivido acá entonces llegué acá Arreglo ropa. Hago ropa sobre medida. Hago toda clase de ropa, los arreglos, en realidad. Pero me llegan muchas mujeres. Entonces, también quiero decir que arreglo ropa para hombres. Dobladillos, hems, any alterations. So, alterations is the key. Y también, por ejemplo, vamos a ver si alguien necesita un, si un señor necesita un, ¿cómo se dice suit en español?

Traje. Un traje. Un traje. Entiende inglés mejor que él. Si se necesita un traje, ¿puedo hacer un traje completamente nuevo? Sí lo puedo hacer, pero mi fuerte, tengo que decirlo,

son la línea femenina. Con masculinos hago más arreglos o más t-shirts o buzos. Cosas más sencillas. Tan estructuradas, no las hago, tengo que ser honesta. Y vamos a decir que alguien tiene un abrigo que es demasiado grande, quizás la persona era un poquito más gordita y se ha hecho un poquito más flaquita, entonces ahora puede también tomar ese abrigo y hacerlo un poquito más flaquita entonces ahora puede también tomar ese

abrigo y hacerlo un poquito Sí, eso lo sé hacer perfectamente achicarlas Así que resizing también, no solo tiene que ser dañado, puede ser algo que, bueno, tal vez no era tuyo y ahora

necesitabas ser un poco más pequeño o era tuyo y ahora has crecido un poco Bueno, creo que es difícil hacer las cosas más grandes Maybe it wasn't yours and then now you need it to be a little smaller or it was yours and now you've grown a little bit. Well, I think it's hard to make things bigger because if you notice, I mean, they've become really smart. When you buy a suit or whatever, the amount of material that's in there for you to wind down is very small. So if you become a little bigger. The other way better. The other way better. The other way is easier.

And you need a tighter suit. That would be. That's correct. And a lot of feminine, I guess, vamos a decir que la persona es un poco viejita y no le gusta salir de casa. ¿Usted puede ir a su casa? Sí, ofrezco ese servicio, voy hasta las casas o su lugar de trabajo. De hecho, tengo una clienta que es así, ella tiene su propio negocio y me agenda cita.

Puedes venir tal día, yo, ok, cuadramos el sketch, lo organizamos y yo voy hasta allá. También me ha pasado con otra clienta que tengo. Trabajan desde, trabajan en su business y voy hasta allá y les recojo la ropa. Y les tomo las medidas allá y todo.

Les agendo la entrega. Sí, la gente ahora no tiene tiempo. Es verdad. Exactamente. Es corto tiempo. Sí, así que eso es bueno. En otras palabras, si estás're homebound or you're busy, she can come to your home. That's awesome. And measure you and do what she needs to get done and then take it back and fix it and then take it back to where you live.

So that's great. That's a really nice service. That really is. It makes it so much easier for a lot of people. That's good. a really nice service because it makes it so much easier for a lot of people. That's good. I did have another, there was another question that came to my head and just left for a second. I'll come back. I got to you, I'll come back. No, no, no, you can ask a question.

I was just going to ask, how did you decide to start a small business? How did you decide, okay, now it's not a hobby, como un negocio pequeño ¿cómo decidió usted ok, ahora no es un hobby es un negocio? oh la necesidad y también el gusto me pudo más el gusto que el miedo entonces dije

tengo que poder si lo hice porque en mi país trabajaba y aparte tenía algo similar un pequeño negocio donde hacía alteraciones y ropa sobre medida, entonces iban las mujeres a decirme quiero una blusa, y me llegaban

con sus imágenes y yo les desarrollaba la idea, porque en el medio en que he trabajado es más industrializado, entonces es patronaje industrial, todo en más y presentaciones en varios programas de diseño y todo. Entonces, se me hace fácil hacerlo con personas. Y cada una tiene sus ideas, cada una es un mundo.

Es entenderlas. Y es explicarles también un poco el proceso, porque tienen a veces la mentalidad que solo cosas. No, hay un proceso detrás de eso sí, hay que ver que le gusta, que no le gusta hago, por ejemplo, antes de

llegar al producto final cuando son sobre medidas, hago ejemplos en otras telas ellas revisan si les gusta si no les gusta, les quito antes de ir a la tela final, para que el producto final sea realmente lo que querías

es tan importante un emprendedor con tanta experiencia porque Bacarís Alves ha hecho esto en el pasado no es solo ¿puedes hacer? es sobre ¿qué te gusta? ¿qué no te gusta? ¿qué funciona? ¿qué no funciona? para que estés muy feliz con el final It's not about, like, can you sew? It's about, you know, going through what do you like, what do you not like, what works, what doesn't work, so that you're really happy with the final product.

Yeah. And she says something which is interesting because I remember my parents used to do this, right? So, you know, you have a dress. So somebody comes and says they may have a dress, a picture, and say this is the dress I want, right? You don't just take the material, boom, make a dress, right? First you make a sample of the dress, right? In what they call muslin material, which is just a plain old kind of beige material. And you make and you fit them because you've got to get that right.

Once you have that right, that then becomes what you need to make the dress because you don't want to make something like, uh-oh, I cut too much, now I have no more material. Especially with the nice material. It's expensive, The material is expensive. Oh my gosh. I remember that.

People come home, same thing. They try on the muslin and they fit them right and then the last piece, you always have to make some adjustments. ¿Usted tiene ayuda o hace todo? Todo lo hago yo. Porque cuando empecé a trabajar

En Colombia empecé En una fábrica haciendo de todo Y un día Pues soy muy curiosa I'm very curious El departamento de diseño De esa compañía Me llamó para hacer unas

Las colecciones En ese entonces era ropa de niño entonces yo empecé a ayudarles y me empezó a interesar el tema del diseño los colores, las telas todo es súper interesante es un mundo

y entonces me empezó a interesar y dije ¿por qué no estudiar esto? cuando empecé con ellos tenía 18 años o sea muy chiquito y me empezó a interesar y qué no estudiar esto? Cuando empecé con ellos tenía 18 años, o sea, muy chiquito. Y me empezó a interesar y decidí estudiarlo. Y después empecé a ejercerlo, pero desde abajo. Empecé a ejercerlo por cada departamento. Entonces me sé todo el movimiento de una empresa.

Y cuando terminé mis últimos trabajos en compañías, ya fue en departamentos de diseño, manejando ya como tal una empresa, estaba más a cargo. Entonces, cuando llegué acá, yo, Dios mío, ¿qué hago? Es un poco sin el inglés, por eso, aprendan el inglés. Estoy en el proceso, lo entiendo, pero mi pronunciación es un poco... No, ya veo que lo entiendo, porque cuando estamos hablando, usted entiende lo que estamos diciendo. Sí, les entiendo, pero mi pronunciación es un poco... Ya veo que lo entiende, porque cuando estamos hablando, usted entiende lo que estamos diciendo.

Sí, les entiendo. Entonces sí, empecé a trabajar en otras cosas, especialmente por el inglés, y empecé a estudiarlo. No soy muy juiciosa, tengo que decirlo. A mi profesora a veces, Patricia, la clase. Empecé a estudiarlo y es lanzarse es vencer los miedos creo que tenemos muchos miedos y no es, y lo mínimo

que te va a pasar, que es lo que digo y una ex jefa mía me dijo lo mínimo que te va a pasar es que te vas a caer y si te caes, levántate límpiate y sigue caminando porque para allá es, entonces tengo eso y eso le digo a mi esposo, no, pues lo mínimo es que no me vayan a llegar clientes,

pero pues, ¿qué hago? Me busco otro trabajo, pero lo intenté. Es la satisfacción de que lo intenté. Entonces, estoy en eso, intentándolo. Tengo mis pros, porque ya a veces digo, el problema que tengo es los precios. Es un gran problema porque

he visto que hay mucho mercado y tú tienes una clase de servicio muy diferente a la otra. Puedo decir, mi servicio es un poco más friendly, es mi ADN, es algo más amistoso, es ir donde la amiga, decir, ay mira, necesito que me arregles esto, no sé qué.

No es ya, te vas. No, es más eso. Es como una cierta, cómo decirlo, confidencialidad entre la ropa. Es como ese tema. Entonces, es el servicio que ofrezco, algo más amistoso, algo más donde te relajes. Es como ir a que te corten el pelo.

Entonces, es como una terapia. Sí, no tiene que ser, ay tengo esto y ahora que hago siento que debe ser como algo terapéutico, andar a arreglar la ropa y es importante en todos los servicios es siempre bueno también tener una

personalidad, no solamente este es el trabajo, muchas gracias adiós cuando vuelves es algo así lo que estoy intento ofrecer, entonces Este es el trabajo, muchas gracias, adiós. Chao, sí, cuando vuelves. No, es algo así lo que intento ofrecer. Entonces, pues ahí voy, empezando. Empecé realmente hace cinco meses de tomar la decisión,

porque renuncié a mi antiguo trabajo, no tenía nada que ver, pero fue grandioso. Y aprendí mucho. Entonces, como que dije, bueno ¿qué hago? y decidí, tenía las máquinas en el sótano empecé a limpiarlo, lo organicé está en proceso de organización porque cada vez acepto las críticas constructivas

de mis clientas, especialmente una que es muy querida y me dijo Patricia, yo creo que debes hacer esto un poco más bonito. Más reservadito, porque el baseman es más bonito, ¿qué le hago a esto? Bueno, ya empezamos. Le digo que ya empecé.

Empecé a organizarlo un poco y estoy en ese proceso. Pienso que este año espero terminarlo. A ver qué pasa. Pero creo que fue interesante. Patricia mencionó que cuando ella... Como todo lo demás, cuando empiezas, hay como... A ver qué pasa. years right and so she says her grandmother or mother i can't remember which one it was but to tell her said listen what's the worst that can happen you fall you get up off you pick yourself up again right which is exactly what's the entrepreneur mentality mentality and spirit

you have to put yourself in yeah you have to you know push yourself right make sure you do it and then yeah there will be days where you say oh lord i mean this is ever going to work and then other days it's like wow this is working you know well like what you said like there's there's fear but the the joy of doing it is greater than the fear yes exactly exactly so that's that's the that's the key is that it's just, that's what entrepreneurship is. It's that you love what you do. Right. And the service, it's not like, what do you want? All right, out of here. She keeps talking to the people, and before you know it, it's like a therapy.

Therapeutic. Which is, like I said, that's always wonderful. We see that in our business. Sometimes people come in, and you spend about five, ten minutes on their business and portfolios the next 15, 20 minutes on their life, because that's what they enjoy doing.

I can probably count at least three, probably at least five instances where we had clients just call up and say, Xavier, Alex, I need you to save my marriage. I'd be like, all right, all right, let's talk, let's talk. It's a little finance advisor therapy and see what we can do. But especially in a service, it's so key.

It's what gives a beautiful experience. But then she's able to come to your home, your place of work, wherever you need to be, and kind of you can talk while she's there. You can get to know each other. You can have a good time. So it's true. It's so much more familiar,

so much more friendly than just like you go to a store, leave. And then you go back and it's like, that's not quite what I was looking for. Well, it's going to cost you a lot more to get it right. It's like, I didn't get it right the first time. So it's the idea of being able to talk to somebody to get a feel for what they're looking for exactly, right? I mean, granted, if you want a hem, a hem is a hem. But everything else, there's a sense of how you want that dress to fall on you. How do you want it?

And those are important factors, right? Yeah. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? Especialmente las mujeres. Sí. Here I get in trouble. This is where I get in trouble. That's what you have to say in Spanish. Yeah. Especial especialmente las mujeres. Sí. Están en problemas.

Eso es lo que iba a decir en español. Especialmente las mujeres. Cuando ellas se visten, quieren lucir bien, bien. Entonces, si compran un vestido en la tienda, es un vestido que está hecho para 50 mujeres. Y las 50 mujeres no son exactamente iguales. Entonces tú te lo pones y te dices, me gusta el vestido, pero hay ciertas partes que no están bien.

Entonces eso es cuando uno o alguien que pueda hacerlo, es casi perfecto, pero aquí tenemos que sacar un poquito o poner un poquito o lo que sea. Yo no sé mucho de esa teoría, pero la idea de cambiar ese vestido un poquito para que caiga bien en esa persona. Y las mujeres especialmente son así que

quieren que las cosas les lleguen bien. Porque hay una gran diferencia de casi perfecto y perfecto. No, otra cosa es que nosotras las mujeres a veces no entendemos, pues somos muy inconformes con el cuerpo, pero pues no entendemos nuestro cuerpo

y hay una diversidad inmensa así uno sea flaco, medio como sea, no toda la ropa nos queda, todas, a mí me pasa muchísimo, yo voy a una tienda y yo le digo a mi esposo, no, porque todas tenemos un cuerpo diferente y a veces se ve tan lindo en el maniquí o tan lindo en la modelo, pero la realidad a veces es otra y me pasa mucho, tengo que decirlo, me pasa demasiado, yo a veces digo no y ahora tengo que cogerle o tengo que cortarle, no, deja así,

cuando voy a Colombia entonces compro ropa. Más o menos ya sé la medida y todo. Aquí se me ha dificultado un poco, tengo que decirlo así. Es verdad. Vienes a la tienda, en la sección de las mujeres, y ves un maniquí y un vestido. Y es increíble.

Y dices, wow, ese vestido es perfecto. Por supuesto, es perfecto para el maniquí. Y luego la gente se pone a usarlo. Todo es diferente. And it's like stunning. It's like, wow, that dress is perfect. Of course, it's perfect for the mannequin. And then people turn and put it on. Everybody's different. They put it on. It's like, no, it just doesn't look quite the same. It's like, it looks better on her than on you. Yes.

It's true. Well, that's why it's great, that personal touch. How do we make this look good on you? Not just in theory, but for you specifically, which is fantastic. Los hombres es más fácil. Yo los envidio, en serio. Mucho más fácil. Camisa, corbata, el traje. ¿Qué traje tiene que estar bien?

Sí, trabajo un poco en esa línea. Esa es la única parte, la parte de arriba, que el traje tiene que estar perfecto. Los hombros bien. Sí, sí. Esa es la parte importante. El traje es realmente

donde la diferencia aparece. A menos que para los hombres es verdad, es solo el traje. Pero sí, sí. Está bien. Patricia, ha sido un placer. Un gran placeracer ¿cómo se puede contarle a usted si hay miembros de la audiencia

que tienen interés en sus servicios? en mi Instagram me consiguen estoy como aura patricia campos o mi teléfono me dejan mensaje I'm like Aura Patricia Campos. Or my phone. They leave me a message.

With the message. And my number is... What's your phone number? My phone number is 434-305-5728. So, messages. 57-57-28. I had the first six and I lost the last four. So, 434-305-5728. 57, 5, 7, 28. I had the first six, and I lost the last four. So 434-305-5728.

Yep. Perfect. 434-305. You know, I'm writing them down. I'm transiting them, and then I lost the last. I wasn't writing fast enough. She said it very quickly. And I wasn't writing fast enough. She was going like this.

I was like, oh, man, that's bad. She consumed the ocho. So it's Aura Patricia Campos on Instagram. Very easy. Si coinciden 28. Patricia, un placer. Muchísimas gracias por venir. Muchas gracias por su tiempo y por la invitación. Gracias. Buena suerte.

Gracias. So great to just, you know. Well, I mean, here's, I mean, you know, talk about the beautiful thing about this country, right? So somebody comes from, you know, Colombia, right? They come here and they have a love of sewing. And in four years, she's able to say, this is what I want to do and make it work. And obviously has a husband that backs her up and helps her, right?

In the sense of achieving that goal. But, you know, to be able to say, hey, I want to stand on my own and do something and be able to do it. I mean, that's... Exactly. It's so, so important. We have to give a shout out to Patricio's husband

for coming by and introducing us I can't remember his name what was his name? oh my goodness I feel so bad Andre Andre so we have to give a definite shout out

to Andre he just walked in, said hi very friendly and we were like she sounds perfect for the show let's put her on shout out to Andre. He just walked into our office. Just walked in, said hi. Very friendly. And we were like, she sounds perfect for the show. Let's put her on. So big shout out to Andre. That's what a great husband should do. Help support his wife's awesome

business. So a shout out to him as well on Today and Manana for introducing us to another fantastic guest. Absolutely. So this has been a wonderful show. Yeah, it really has. Really enjoyed it.

Enjoyed being honored with you. A couple other people tuning in. Just wanted to give a shout-out. Karen Keating, thanks for tuning in. Elisa Crowley-Fowler, thanks for tuning in. Ashton, I'm sorry if I pronounce your last name. I'll just do Ashton. Ashton, thanks for tuning in.

Sam Suggs, Michelle Kennedy, thanks so much for everyone who tuned in this morning and sent us your likes, your shares, your comments. Absolutely. Really, really appreciate all our fantastic viewers. And of course, as always, if there's other people, be like Andre. If there are people you know,

they're like, man, this person, I would love to have my friend, my relative on Today and Manana. They have a small business. Send them our way. Absolutely. Give us a call. Go on Facebook, I guess. Go on Facebook, go on Instagram, wherever you can message us, but really reach out to us because we love

to feature these amazing entrepreneurs on Today and Manana. So it's been a great one. I've loved being out here with you. Same here, as always. Always a joy. Next week, we've got some more awesome guests. We'll have Matthias come back on

on our monthly meetup with Matthias from Matthias Young Realty, of course. Hayley Reed Illustration is going to be coming out. So we've got some great guests. Yep, some great guests next week. That's going to be fantastic. Look forward to seeing all of you then. I don't know if it will be you and me or not, but we'll find out.

Yeah, we'll find out. That's right. We'll find out. It will be a surprise. I can't remember my schedule for next week. Exactly. We'll find out one way or the other. We know that Judah will continue to be behind the camera.

Isn't it next week, next Thursday? Next Thursday is. It is Halloween. So it will be like a Halloween special. I'm not dressing. Oh, come on. You gotta... No, I leave that to Keith and Jerry. Batman and Robin can do their thing.

That's right. I will still... You don't want to steal that thunder, that's right. You can't compete. What's the point, right? Batman and Robin can't compete. Superman. Superman's better than both of those guys. Yeah, but Superman might be better, but me in a Superman costume is not better. That's what I'm saying.

So we will leave that to the two experts at Halloween. So be sure to tune in to that. You don't want to miss Keith and Jerry for Halloween. But next week we'll be here for Halloween. We'll have two great guests. We look forward to seeing you then. Judah will definitely be behind the camera making us all look good, as always.

The Isle of Seville Network set will be amazing, as always. And, of course, we always appreciate our presenter, Emergent Financial Services, and our awesome partners, Charlottesville Opera, Matias Yon Realty, Credit Series Insurance, Forward Adelante. We appreciate you, our amazing viewers.

We look forward to seeing you next week, but until that time, enjoy this beautiful weather and hasta mañana. ¡Suscríbete al canal!