Mario Joseph

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Today, I cried when I heard of the passing of Mario Joseph.

Mario was a Haitian human rights attorney that I worked extensively with through BAI for my asylum cases. It was a thrill to meet him in-person at the Center for Constitutional Rights Social Justice Conference in summer of 2014, after so many hours on the phone through crazy late nights and wild cases dealing with life or death situations.

He was exactly who I had perceived him to be, an incredible person. A man who carried himself and the legal profession with so much dignity and integrity.

The world lost a fighter and incredible human. Rest in glory, Mario Joseph. The world will feel your absence.

Mario Joseph’s bio here (source):

Mario Joseph, Av., has co-managed or man­aged the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Haitisince 1996, and has prac­ticed human rights and crim­i­nal law since 1993. The New York Times called him Haiti’s most respected human rights lawyer. He spear­headed the pros­e­cu­tion of the Raboteau Mas­sacre trial in 2000, one of the most sig­nif­i­cant human rights cases any­where in the West­ern Hemi­sphere. He has rep­re­sented dozens of jailed polit­i­cal pris­on­ers, in Hait­ian courts and in com­plaints before the Inter-American Com­mis­sion on Human Rights. In 2009, he received the Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award from the Cen­ter for Jus­tice & Account­abil­ity and the Kather­ine and George Alexan­der Human Rights Prize from the Uni­ver­sity of Santa Clara Law School. He has tes­ti­fied as an expert on Hait­ian crim­i­nal pro­ce­dure before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and in U.S. courts, and served on the Hait­ian government’s Law Reform Commission.

Mr. Joseph is also an edu­ca­tor, and a grad­u­ate of Haiti’s Teach­ers’ Col­lege. He has exten­sive expe­ri­ence teach­ing human rights and legal issues to grass­roots advo­cacy orga­ni­za­tions, human rights groups and vic­tims’ orga­ni­za­tions. He appears fre­quently on tele­vi­sion and radio in Haiti to explain legal issues. He speaks Hait­ian Cre­ole, French and English.

Go Sports

By: Gabriela Yareliz

It’s a big week in sports!

This past weekend, Alexander Ovechkin surpassed Gretzky’s goal record. The 895 was reached. So wild.

History was made.

In NCAA news— last night, The University of Florida men’s basketball team became the National Champions! It’s a great day to be a Florida Gator! I loved watching the videos from the celebrations. Got a little emotional. Seeing the campus brought back a lot of memories. We reached the championship in ‘06-‘07, and I remember many of our high school teachers were graduates and had celebratory Gator gear in their classrooms, including the newspaper from that day hanging on the wall. We were football and basketball champions.

Few things changed me as much as getting accepted into UF. It’s an incredible community where I met some incredible people. I truly think my sports journalism class was my favorite class ever. UF is an incredible place that nurtures the love of competition, work ethic and faith. Congratulations, Gators! What a celebration.

We’ll see what else the week has in store for us.

The Same Voices

By: Gabriela Yareliz

I read this quote, and it has stayed swirling in my mind—

“The same voices who told you to question everything don’t want you asking who funds them, who protects them, who profits from your blind allegiance.

Because the real question isn’t who’s lying—it’s who benefits from what you believe.” Emilie Hagen, The War on Truth

None of the Magazines I Loved Still Exist

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Us 90s girls— we all wanted to be a rom-com journalist when we were kids. I would be lying if I said otherwise. We lived in the golden era of magazines. Magazines shaped me deeply. I spent hours, HOURS, cutting collages and making wall posters and binder covers.

I just thought we would look at some of the magazines that were so iconic in my youth- all print versions defunct.

I think we need a renaissance. The kids are weird these days, and it’s because we have thrown away everything that is golden.

The American Girl Magazine (1992-2019)

It included art work from readers, craft ideas, the Giggle Gang games and excerpts from Amelia’s Notebook (my fav). I still remember this spring issue. I died (and went to heaven) when it arrived.

A classic.

Next, Teen People (1998-2006). This was one that had us all fan girling over the cover shoots. Never forget these iconic covers. The interviews were substantive compared to other teeny bopper magazines. We got the tea.

Anything Olsen twin was a yes for me.

Cosmo Girl (1999-2008)— the quizzes were everything. These issues would teach you how to stir the pot with your crush. Ha. We felt very grown up reading these. This was the Gossip Girl version of magazines for teens. Toxic but glossy.

Seventeen Magazine (1944-2018)

This was probably my favorite one in my teen years. It had a letter from the Editor-in-Chief Atoosa Rubenstein. (Atoosa was everything!!) I will never forget when I wrote to her by email, and she replied. You don’t forget those things. It meant the world to me. She had a very distinctive writing voice. We had just moved to Florida. If my mom said I could get a mag, this is the one I reached for. I taped that email reply to the wall. God bless, Seventeen. For all of its flaws, it was an anchor for many of us.

Magazines ran the late 90s and early 2000s. Digital is not the same. There was nothing like sniffing those perfume sample pages and taking a scissor to a crisp photograph that you thought needed to be immortalized with a spot on the wall.

It’s not so much that we wanted to be the featured celebrity. No. We wanted to be the editor. Some of us still want to be Jenna Rink.

Cartographer

By: Gabriela Yareliz

We often talk about leaving our comfort zone. What does that actually mean? We say it flippantly, but what does it entail on a granular level? Have you ever drawn a map that maps the exit from the comfort zone?

Often, making shifts and actual change requires us to become cartographers. It’s not enough to say we need to leave, we have to actual plot and design our way out. Who doesn’t love a good treasure map?

Stay strategic.

Sassy

“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” Naval Ravikant

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Have you ever been in a meeting or in a room and you look around and decide it would make an excellent caricature drawing? It’s some weird and absurd departure from life. A snapshot of something resembling the TV show The Office? People playing actor roles in some stupid game.

Happened to me recently. My head was pounding with a headache turning into a migraine (that sharp feeling behind the eye and the weird light). A lot more was off than just the people and energy in the room.

What makes things weirder is when people are overly serious in a moment that doesn’t merit it. Then, you get really in your head. It also makes you want to laugh. The key is to remain stoic.

In my recent experience, I kept quiet even though I was feeling sassy. I focused on breathing through my headache instead. This was despite the fact that I had walked under a “Sassy Zone” sign. Sometimes, the sassy cannot be shared. But even if it’s private sass, you are sassy nonetheless.

I don’t like playing stupid games. The prize just doesn’t do it for me.

This week in Times Square.

Stay sassy. ✨

Community pH

“The most toxic relationships aren’t the purely negative ones. They’re the ones that are a mix of positive and negative.” Adam Grant

By: Gabriela Yareliz

Did you know that research shows that the relationships that affect our health the most aren’t the ones that are purely negative, but the ones that are close to us in proximity and inconsistent? One day, good; the next, bad. Boy, do I know it. I have experienced this the most at work.

The book The Five Types of Wealth encourages the reader to take many inventories— different ways of ranking activities and people as energy givers and drainers.

This is your reminder today (and a self-reminder to me) to choose people in proximity wisely. Don’t invest time or energy in the mixed bags. If you aren’t careful, you find yourself babysitting adult children in their feelings because they are constantly striving for attention.

I was on a coaching call recently, where a participant very emotionally asked (you could tell there was a lot of pain here— I say this with compassion), how do you not give up on showing up for someone who is trying to improve?

The coach then said something wise. “You never get tired showing up for people actually changing. What is exhausting is when you keep showing up for those who expect you to keep showing up when they aren’t changing.” Boom. A silence fell upon everyone on the call, and not because we were on mute but because we all were shaken by that truth. We all knew it was true and knew we have all had a moment where we insisted on showing up for someone who simply didn’t care. There are people who expect you to repeatedly show up and spend yourself, and they take and take. People suck, sometimes.

Currently trending on socials is a post that speaks about the fact that has been confirmed by Blue Zone research— community is a key to health. Relationships affect our health in a wild way.

Take care of yourself. It’s not selfish. It’s the only way we retain the capacity to take care of and show up for those who are in healthy relationship with us. Reciprocal relationships. It’s important to give to those who do nothing back for you in return, but the closest to you should be givers too, not just takers.

Check the relationship soil pH. Water the right seeds accordingly. Cultivate a beautiful community garden. Weed out the rest.

(Stay magical. ✨)

March 2025 Favorites

By: Gabriela Yareliz

March was an action-packed month that was done in a blink.

Below are some of the things that captured my attention:

The book The Five Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom was the book I was deep into. I will finish it now in April. It is a very substance-no-fluff book, just like his newsletter. (5/5 ⭐️).

The book that most enthralled me was the Flamingo Estate’s A Guide to Becoming Alive. It’s a gorgeous book filled with so many curiosities. (5/5 ⭐️)

The following book was deceptive and not worth the read. It has a great title, but the agenda and lack of discernment is thick. (0/5 ⭐️)

Candace Owens launched her Harvey Weinstein series. It has been excellent. (4/5 ⭐️ a four only because sometimes all the email reading gets boring)

Even more interesting has been her coverage of journalist Tom O’Neill’s book Chaos, and the MKUltra program. She covered the Kennedy files. Just recently, she discussed Kanye’s institutionalization and the role this has played in what we have seen recently. She discussed how Kanye remembers what he survived after being drugged and hospitalized through actions and threats of his trainer Harley Pasternak (who is former Canadian military and was involved in drug research). It’s a wild situation that, like many things, is not what it seems. (5/5 ⭐️)

On a “lighter” note, her coverage of the Baldoni trials has been top. (5/5 ⭐️)

On the truly more lighthearted notes, Theo’s interview with Adam Devine was a fun listen, and the show Bad Monkey (AppleTV+) has been a fun watch.

Vince is the perfect Yancy.

Printemps opened in the Financial District, and it’s so pretty. Like a museum.

It’s a season for lighter jackets (but still bring the earmuffs), lighter blushes, brighter mornings, a pocket umbrella, lighter shoes, and a cold drink to ease the sweat underground as you wait for a train.

I really need to fix my sleep schedule this month. It has been screwed up thanks to my desire to have a life after work, delayed trains and terrible hockey.

This month’s top post was Don’t Be Good. I appreciate you reading and the kind feedback and notes I receive.

As Yancy from Bad Monkey would say, stay magical. ✨