Discussing the Lit Blitz: Arisael Rivera's "Rebecca, the Missionary"

In Discussing the Lit Blitz, previous finalist Annaliese Lemmon talks with the finalists from our most recent contest about their work.

This transcript was edited for clarity. 

Annaliese Lemmon: Welcome everyone to the Mormon Lit Lab podcast. I'm Annaliese Lemmon, your host for this series where we discuss the 14th annual Mormon Lit Blitz. Today I'm joined by Arisael Rivera, author of “Rebecca, La Misionera,” or in English “Rebecca, the Missionary.” Welcome, Arisael.

Arisael Rivera: Hey, thanks. Happy to be here.

Annaliese Lemmon: All right. Could you give us a brief introduction of yourself and explain what your experience is with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. I say my name is Arisael. I also go by Ari. It’s funny, but yeah, I grew up in the Bronx. And I write, I'm an actor, I'm a writer. And I guess recently, maybe not so recently, but definitely a lot more dabbling into directing as well and doing some of that. Yeah, like I've just been, lived my life in the theater as they say.

And, yeah, when it comes to the Church, I joined when I was 16. Which was really, really funny because a lot of my family had already kind of been baptized and like joined the church. But I kind of, I stuck my guns with my dad going. We grew up Pentecostal and so I was just still going to a Pentecostal church and then I was 16. I decided to join. But because of that, I, that's why I ended up going to BYU. I went to BYU. I served a mission as well. I served the mission actually where “Rebecca, la Misionera” takes place in Baja, California. So, that's where some of that inspiration came from.

But yeah. And then since then I've just, you know, my relationship with the Church has been a growing, interesting one. You know, as life continues to, you know, to show up. And I'm just still grateful for so much of it. And, yeah, still go to church now actually. I’m actually working as a Stake Secretary, which is insane because I’m not a secretary person. I’m like, okay, I guess I'm doing this now. I don’t know. So, yeah, that's kind of where I am at the moment.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I think a lot of callings end up like that.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. Yeah. They're like, what? Who? Okay. Sure.

Annaliese Lemmon: All right, so your story was chosen as a Judge's Choice Award. So how do you feel about that? What's your reaction?

Arisael Rivera: Oh man. A lot of feelings. I was actually just surprised. I think I was just, and I think a lot of it's because I followed I've known about the Lit Blitz for a long time. You know, because, James Goldberg, who's one of the creators, runner of it.

He and I, you know, we've known each other because of BYU and did several classes together. And we started the theater company new play project together back in like, woo, a long time ago. So I knew that he was doing this, but I never really got involved. And so I think it's been like three or four years. I'm like, I gotta write something for that. I gotta write something for this. And then, this year I was just like, oh, I'm just, I'm gonna do it. So I was like, here we go. And so I just, you know, thought the story and sent it through.

But I was surprised. Because it was my first time and I just thought, you know, it's probably pretty good. But it was so great to see that connect, to see what the judge felt about it and how he connected to it. And I was like, wow, that's really cool.

That's what I would hope, you know, as a writer, that's what you would want, that it resonates, that the story connected to people, whether that was on the fun idea of a missionary being a superhero, or whether that's just the general idea of like, what does it mean to like, you know, be the best version of yourself, you know, whether that's, you know, in any situation, you know?

And so I, yeah, I loved what he said about the story, and I just. Yeah, I was really, really grateful, and honestly a little shocked. I was like, wow. I'm glad that my story, you know, did that for him, you know, because I read the other stories and there's some really great stories there, man. Great poems. It was such a good Lit Blitz. It was very good. Yeah.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah. I'm always amazed at the range of stories we get in the Lit Blitz and I do enjoy a lot of them.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. Yeah, I think the audience ones, I was like, yep, yep. That one. Uhhuh. Yeah, that one. Yeah. All all good.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah. So superheroes is one of my favorite genres.

Arisael Rivera: Nice. Mine too.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah. So who's your favorite superhero?

Arisael Rivera: It's really funny, I thought about this. I think for a long time it was Captain America and the funny thing is that the reason why Captain America is my hero was because of video games when I was a kid. And we used to play this Marvel versus Capcom like game, like as a fighting game.

And I just loved playing with Captain America. Like it was my favorite character to play and I love that he like threw the shield and had like all this and I was like, oh, he's so cool. And he would say stuff like, “Stars and stripes!” when he would like hit people. I thought it was really funny and I just loved the character and he just was so cool and buff.

And I think when, you know, Chris Evans took over the role, you know, obviously the Marvel Universe and I got to watch those movies, it just like kind of cemented that for me. Like, oh, what a great hero. Like, I just always love Captain America.

I will say though, I have to give an honorable mention to my first big superhero movie that I fell in love with was probably Spider-Man with Toby McGuire. So I think for a long time Spider-Man held that range because I'm like. Oh, how cool. And I really love those original Spider-Man movies too, so.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, those set a high bar for everything that followed.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, superheroes are just in there. You know, I used to watch the Power Rangers with my brothers. Love the Power Rangers. So I feel like, just that idea of, like, oh, what is a good people? Now you get superpowers and you get to like save the earth. And then, you know, all that is exciting, you know, is the kind of stuff that I'm just like, yeah, that's what we should do. If we had powers, how do we use them for good? You know, how do we help everyone? You know, that's what it's about.

Annaliese Lemmon: So why did you choose to give Rebecca the powers that she did? The super strength, speed, and agility as opposed to anything else?

Arisael Rivera: Awesome. Yeah, for me, it's like I literally just connected her to Superman. That was my idea. I was like, what would be the powers that make sense in this situation? And I just said well, what if this missionary is basically Superman? What if she can fly? What if she can go really fast? What if she has a strength? Right? The super strength that Superman has and I just felt like, oh, why not? You know? For me it's like Superman is just a classic superhero.

And so the idea of like, here's a missionary who has those same powers. That's kind of where I leaned in. Like that would be her power -- that she would be able to move really fast. She'd be able to use her, you know, whether her hands were tiny or not, she’d be able to use it and like break stuff and throw people if she needed to.

My thought was just like, I'm going to give her Superman's powers. I know it sounds funny. It was like, those are the classic powers. And my head was like, what it would be like if a young missionary had that? Yeah.

Annaliese Lemmon: Although I don't think I've ever seen a Superman have to deal with being too strong and breaking things on accident.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah, he has more control over his power than she did, clearly. Also very, very true to life for my own experience. Not that I'm strong, but I was a very clumsy missionary. I broke a lot of investigator’s stuff on accident. So, it is just me. It is a little bit of me and Rebecca.

Well. I was just like, not all the time, but there's a few things that I was like, oh, yeah, I don't know how that even, how did I even break that? I don't even, couldn't even tell you. And it wasn't because of strength, it was just tripping, clumsily dropping stuff. It just was a thing. So, I was like, imagine all that and you're super strong.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah. I just multiply that by a hundred or whatever.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. Who knows what kind of damage she could have caused, you know? And we just know what Sister Cruz has told us. Who knows what else has happened, you know?

Annaliese Lemmon: The trail of destruction from before her mission as well.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Love it.

Annaliese Lemmon: I know that this story wrapped up very well within a thousand words, but you allude to some things in the greater world also like, how she feels she may not be a missionary anymore, because once she reveals that she’s got these powers. So, where do you see Hermanas Herrera and Cruz going from here?

Arisael Rivera: That's a very good question. The real answer is I am unsure. But what I've thought about is essentially like, what she says to Hermana Cruz, it's like, I don't think I'm gonna be able to be your companion anymore.

And so I think the conceit there is, I think she was, as a missionary, she has been trying to be a regular missionary and she was always like, if I show these powers, if people know that I have these powers, how could I ever be just a normal missionary ever again? And so I think there's a little bit of sadness there when she turns to Hermana Cruz. I don't think I'm gonna be able to be, because like the only way that will be helpful here is if I use my powers and it's like this moment in life where it's like, what happens when the moment of decision has come and you just have to do it right, no matter what you've been trying to hide or what you've been trying to.

And so for me, like when I think about Hermana Cruz, obviously part of the other part is that I think they're really close. And that happened in the mission. And, as a person who served the mission, I know that that did happen with some of my companions where it felt like even some companions, I only spent three months with, within like two weeks we felt this sort of like, incredible kinship and we're like, oh my gosh. Like this is like my brother for life. You know what I mean?

And I would believe that like no matter what happens next, Hermana Cruz and Hermana Herrera are gonna remain really close and, you know, really good friends. And I don't know, you know, like Hermana Cruz doesn't have any powers, but maybe like, as they say in the Spider-Man movies, the man in the chair, maybe it should be the one who be like, oh, here's where there's danger. Maybe you can go, you know? I don't know.

But I would imagine at least for them it’s definitely new. It'll just be interesting, you know? Because now the question is like, what is the world gonna think? Like, are there other superheroes in this world? Right? What is the Church going to think? So I feel like those questions, like what is the, quote unquote, authorities gonna say about, you know, this person who has these magical powers, right?

So I think that's the other thing, right? Is this a world where there are no other superheroes? Is she the only one and, and she's a Mormon missionary? What does that mean? Right. You know? So I just found all those questions so exciting to play with and yeah, I know for sure that Hermana Cruz, Hermana Herrera for sure will stay close.

Annaliese Lemmon: Awesome. So did you have any piece of media or literature that you would recommend for our audience?

Arisael Rivera: That is a good one. I know it is probably gonna sound so self-serving, but there's a lot of really cool stuff out there right now, right? There's so many. Probably good to note that I am a huge, like, you know, the NBC show, The Office like Steve Carell. I'm such a nerd for that. So I will tell people, like always and forever watch The Office. So if I were to recommend, I'm like, that's one of the things I recommend to everyone all the time.

I think The Office is one of those funny things where it genuinely is like, it goes pretty wild sometimes. It's all about the human heart and being kind to people, and kind of the beauty and ordinary things. And I just think that like in life, we experience so many crazy things and, you know, both good, bad, wacky, right? And I just think that there's something about that show that always comes back to the heart.

So I'm like, yeah, that's something I would recommend to everyone.

Annaliese Lemmon: Nice.

Arisael Rivera: So that's one of my favorite things. And then on the flip side, there's a, and I know it sounds funny, but I just was thinking about it. I think maybe because we're in the Lit Blitz, but James Goldberg's book, Let Me Drown with Moses, his poetry book, for anybody who has any sort of faith, whether they're LDS or they're not, like the questions asked in that about faith, about like what we believe about the life before, about what life can be after.

I think James Goldberg captured something incredible. If you have not, if you are a Mormon Lit Blitz fan, if you have not read this poetry book by James Goldberg, you should absolutely read it. It is one of my favorites. I go back to it. Yeah. Those are the things that come to my head right now.

Annaliese Lemmon: Nice.

Arisael Rivera: Maybe I'll think of something else after this interview, but in my brain, those are the, I thought of something that I just love, love, love. And then of course, something that I feel like connects a little more to, you know, my faith as well. And I really like, yeah.

Annaliese Lemmon: Okay. So do you have any other projects, going on and are there places online for people to find you?

Arisael Rivera: That's awesome. Yeah, I do. At the moment, I am working on producing a kind of an independent, theater production here in New York of Shakespeare's As You Like It. So I'm in the process of, I'm gonna be directing it and yes, I cast myself as one of the smaller roles, but I'm like, yeah, I wanna be in it too, because I'm an actor. But we have a really cool crew. We're currently, raising funds and preparing rehearsal spaces and trying to find where we're gonna perform and things like that. So we're in the midst of that. Producing a moment of it.

But we have a full cast. We're so excited to bring it. It's gonna be performing here in New York in some of the boroughs, mostly in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and hopefully in the Bronx, which we're working on at the moment. And it's gonna be at the end of September. So like September 21st, I believe, is gonna be our first show.

And you can find, Facebook, Instagram is probably the easiest way to find me or what I'm doing. Yeah, so my, I mean, I don't know if I, I guess I could just say.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, what’s your handle?

Arisael Rivera: Yeah, you can find me on Instagram. Yeah, it's, like full name, @arisael_riv. And that'll be the way you can find me on the internet. That's my personal account. And then if you wanna find out more about the show that we're doing, As You Like It's gonna be New York that is, @wordtothepeopleco on Instagram as well. So you can find it there, or you can also find this on Facebook. You can go to Word To The People, search on Facebook, Word To The People, a theater company, and then you'll see the stuff we've been posting about raising funds and about the cast and about what's, you know, what's coming.

So I'm excited about that. I mean, I'm really excited about that. That's kind of where my brain mostly is right now, just getting all that stuff ready and getting all that ready for that show. But I'm really excited for it. We have a really great adaptation by this playwright called Gavin Witt.

And I think it's gonna be a fun time for everyone. And it's free. So it's gonna be great.

Annaliese Lemmon: Excellent. It sounds really fun.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah.

Annaliese Lemmon: Wish I could come closer 'cause I'm in Phoenix.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. Yeah. So a little far. Yeah. But yes, but we'll be doing that. It should be fine. And then, well I guess I, separately actually, because I just found out about this, one of my plays’ anniversaries actually just got accepted into, a Forge Night Short Play festival also here in New York.

So that's gonna be going up like mid-September I think. So I was like, oh. So that was a fun little surprise I got recently. So I'm so excited for that as well. So that's what's coming up. So exciting.

Annaliese Lemmon: All right. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for meeting with us. This was a great conversation.

Arisael Rivera: Oh, thanks. Thanks. Yeah, no, it was so fun. I was really happy to come and chat about it. I really love the story. I'm so grateful that people embraced it, and yeah, I'm just, yeah. And now I'm like, I gotta write more. Like I gotta write more. I gotta do more.

And I love that character now, and I'm like, oh. Is there more? And maybe I'll write the future of Rebecca. Maybe we'll see what happens next. I don't know. So, yeah. Yeah. Exciting.

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I'm the only person that's written a sequel story in the Lit Blitz. So I do appreciate that.

Arisael Rivera: Oh yeah?

Annaliese Lemmon: Yeah, I'd love to see a sequel.

Arisael Rivera: Yeah. I love it. Love it. That's great.

Annaliese Lemmon: All right. Thank you so much again, and we'll see you later.

Arisael Rivera: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Take care.

To receive updates on the Mormon Lit Blitz and other contests, please subscribe to our newsletter. If you would like to support the Mormon Lit Lab, you can do so on Patreon.