Claudia Quesada is someone who makes you believe that persistence might actually be its own kind of magic.
In this episode, I sit down with my friend
Claudia Quesada, an actor, singer, and writer.
Claudia shares what it was like to leave Cuba as a teenager after her mother won the visa lottery and start over in Chicago without knowing the language. She remembers the loneliness, the culture shock, and the everyday things most of us never think twice about.
We also talk about the rejection that pushed her to stop waiting for someone else to choose her. After auditioning for productions set in Cuba and not booking the roles, Claudia decided it was time to write her own story. That decision became Always Cuba, her one-woman show about family, memory, immigration, and the complicated love we carry for the places that made us.
Claudia takes me behind the scenes of performing in On Your Feet! and the full-circle moment of singing “Mi Tierra” onstage after the song had carried her through so many chapters of her life. We talk about self-doubt, learning to receive a no without letting it define you, and the emotional cost of living inside difficult characters.
This conversation is for every artist who has questioned whether to keep going and every person who has wondered whether their story matters.
Pull up a chair, grab your favorite beverage, and join us on the porch.
Timestamps:
(
00:00) Welcome to Your Porch or Mine
(
03:27) Choosing books and real life over endless scrolling
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05:41) Learning to be present when life interrupts your plans
(
09:37) Why Claudia finally began writing
Always Cuba
(
16:50) Leaving Cuba after winning an unexpected visa lottery
(
19:00) Finding humor in the culture shock of starting over
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21:59) Missing home and building a new community in Chicago
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25:47) Singing “Mi Tierra” in a full-circle stage moment
(
34:45) Living many lives through acting and deep character research
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42:11) When a difficult role follows you home
(
49:22) The question every discouraged artist should ask
Connect with me:
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What is Your Porch or Mine?
Life doesn’t happen in perfectly scripted scenes. It happens on porches, between belly laughs and hard truths, with a mic nearby and maybe a glass of wine in hand. It’s messy, magical, and changes with every turn of the page.
Your Porch or Mine is for the feelers, thinkers, and everyday doers who crave real conversation, the kind that holds both the joy and the heartbreak, the pivots you never saw coming, and the moments that quietly change everything. It’s a space for anyone who’s ever wished they could sit down, exhale, and say, “Okay, let’s really talk about it.”
Hosted by Diana Suarez Mucci, playwright, mom of four, grandmother, and a lifelong storyteller. This show brings the spirit of her hometown porch to your ears. Pull up a chair, grab your favorite drink, and settle in for stories that will make you laugh, cry & everything in between.