Music Provides Memorable Moment at Duke
High point in Antonio Arce's career at Duke is playing with Branford Marsalis
Name: Antonio Manuel Arce
Position: Assistant director for the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Years at Duke: 18
What I do at Duke: I have fun. I run the Center's undergraduate and graduate certificate programs. I manage the Mellon Visiting Professor program. I teach the capstone course for the certificate program, and I spend about two months of the year in Chile as the director of the DukeEngage program in Santiago, Chile.
What I love about Duke: The fact that I can go listen to a lecture from a Nobel Prize winning chemist or sit in on a course by Ariel Dorfman, a famous playwright, or have a former ambassador pop into my office to talk about Venezuelan elections. Two years ago I travelled to Ecuador to review the Duke in the Andes program and had a life-changing opportunity to learn about the Huaoroni communities in the jungle and their struggles to maintain their indigenous traditions and language. There are so many opportunities and outlets to explore at Duke. It provides a great quality of life on the job.
My first paid job: During college, I worked on a construction crew and also as a janitor at the public transportation station in Spokane, Washington.
A memorable moment for me at Duke: Playing in the Duke Jazz Ensemble with saxophonist Branford Marsalis in 2004. I had played with Duke's Jazz Ensemble when I was a graduate student here in the 90s but stopped when I started working at Duke. When I heard that Marsalis was coming as a guest artist, I asked if I they needed an extra drummer. The director, John Brown said no, but that I could sit in on rehearsals. I did that for the entire fall semester. In the Spring, Brown called and said the student drummer was going to China, could I join the ensemble? I don't think I've ever been so excited or so nervous about a performance. There was a moment when I had a little solo and Branford came over and was nodding his head next to me. It was surreal.
If I had $5 million I would: Make sure my family didn't have any worries and then enroll in the jazz studies program at North Carolina Central University and pursue professional music training so I could travel around the world and perform.
When I'm not at work I like to: Watch my daughter Aymara discover life. She is almost two. We also are involved in lots of house parties - it's a Latino tradition. Every few weeks, about 20 of us get together at someone's house and have a big barbecue, and we usually end up making music in a jam session.
If I could have one superpower, it would be: The ability to go back in time to be with important people in my life and behave so that I wouldn't have any regrets.
Best advice I ever received: I had a philosophy professor in Santa Clara who said "Question everything." I said, "I'm not sure that is the right thing to do." And he said "Exactly." I've never forgotten that.