On April 9, 2015, up-and-coming Latino filmmaker and composer William D. Caballero came to American International College.

Caballero, also an accomplished violinist, animator, writer, video artist, and educator, came to talk to students about his successes thus far and the projects he has been working on. He also showed his previous projects that he has worked on.

Caballero is originally from New York and grew up in Coney Island. He then moved to North Carolina because as a child in the 1980s, and his parents feared it was not safe to live at Coney Island. Caballero later moved back to New York to attend college.

He first attended Pratt University and gained his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Digital Arts (2006). He then attended New York University to get his Masters in Fine Arts (2008).

Caballero showed some of his past projects with the students of AIC. The first project he showed was a documentary that he worked on in his grad years at NYU. The documentary is called ‘American Dreams Deferred.’ It is a film about Caballero’s family and background. The film featured how he lived in one of the most violent neighborhoods growing up in New York.

The film also featured interviews from some of his family members including his cousins, grandfather, and grandmother. Caballero created this film because he wants to steer away from all of the stereotypes of different ethnicities, such as Latin Americans.

“I am sick of being stereotyped,” Caballero said. “I won’t let it happen on my watch.”

‘American Dreams Deferred’ premiered on PBS in 2012. The film helped Caballero win the very first NALIP, National Association of Latino Independent Producers.

Caballero then showed ‘Seed Story,’ a 12-minute humanitarian film featuring real issues that go on such as religious intolerance, capitalism that leads to greed, and pollution.

Caballero said he created this film because he wanted to “get opinions on society out.”

This film premiered at different film festivals. Caballero also started a web series that feature different caricatures of his grandfather called Gran’pa Knows Best. The web series features 12 different caricatures of his grandfather. Caballero had no idea what it would be like to use caricatures but he gave it a try anyway. These episodes were made just to make people laugh.

At the end of his presentation, Caballero took a few questions.

AIC freshman Zack Rodriguez asked, “If you were to retire today, what would you want to be remembered for?” This was a difficult question for Caballero to answer. He finally answered with “I think I would want to be remembered as a person of color who stepped out of their boundary.”

All of the students who attended this presentation were intrigued with everything Caballero had to say. Caballero showed that if you have a passion for something, go for it and never give up on your dream.

“We only have one life,” Caballero stated.

He was also asked what his goal in life was and he answered this question by saying, “life is more of a journey, not a destination.”

For more information on Caballero you can visit him at www.wilcab.com or follow him on twitter @WillCaballero.