The Story of Rodriguez - Why we create

The story of Mexican American folk singer Sixto Rodriguez should give hope to all of us. His story was told in the documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," and also on '60 minutes' and various cable news outlets. In brief, Rodriguez released two folk albums in the early 70s, 'Cold Fact,' and 'Coming from Reality' on a small label owned by Buddah records. The albums didn't sell, the record company went out of business, and Rodriguez worked as a day laborer in Detroit to survive. Unbeknownst to him, both albums became wildly popular in South Africa. South Africans who grew up in the 70s and early 80s said that Rodriguez's albums were the soundtrack of their lives. His songs gave hope to those struggling against apartheid. Since Rodriguez didn't have the money or record company support to tour, rumors persisted in South Africa that Rodriguez committed suicide. This only increased his mythic status. Of course, Rodriguez wasn't dead, just poor. Finally, in the 90s, some South African fans tracked him down and he gave some concerts to screaming fans, before returning to his life as a day laborer in Detroit. A few years ago an unknown Swedish documentary filmmaker, Malik Bendjelloul, learned about the story and made a film called "Searching for Sugar Man." Benjelloul took four years to complete the film, because he had no funding and no distribution. Last year some producer friends submitted it to Sundance, which not only accepted the film but also opened the Festival with it in 2012. Rodriguez' story captivated the festival, and at the age of 70 he is finally a hot property in the US as well as South Africa -- touring, making and selling music. Malik Benjelloul is also finding it much easier to get his next job in film. If someone had written this story as fiction, I don't think anyone would have believed it. Yet it happened. This is why we need to keep creating our own content and send it into the world. Yes, the competition is fierce and the odds of earning a living at your art small. Like Rodriguez, you may never know what positive effect your work can have on other people. If you believe in what you're doing create it anyway. Maybe, just maybe, you will be recognized for it in your lifetime. It's a sure thing that if you don't create your content, you certainly won't be recognized. The poet W.S. Merwin summed it up beautifully in the last stanza of his poem "Berryman," which relates his meeting with the great poet John Berryman. In the poem Merwin asks Berryman if one can ever be sure that what you write is really good and Berryman answers, "you can't you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don't write."