Rebellions are built on Hope!
Joseph Perez-Caputo was born in Stamford, CT to a Sicilian mother and Puerto Rican father. Though they did not remain together, both cultures informed Joseph’s approach to the world.
We all want to BELONG
When the Stamford school system tried to change Joseph’s educational placement, his mother decided to move to Naugatuck CT. He would later be formally diagnosed as autistic.
He struggled with making friends, and felt isolated by the diagnosis, as he was bullied and had to defend himself in dozens of fights. Even at a young age, with all that emotion and confusion and conflict, Joe knew his bullies were in pain themselves and kept trying to be friends with people around him.
Joe then saw first hand how poverty and addiction are passed down generationally in rural communities.
He developed a solidarity with rural communities and the anguished young everywhere who desire to have an economic opportunity, a stable industry, camaraderie, and a future.
Joe has a lifelong commitment to ensure every community has a community specific industry or industries, and wishes to bring both historically stable manufacturing jobs and new clean energy and agricultural jobs to rural communities that are specific to that community’s identity and needs.
Discipline, Tradition, and Innovation
Joseph would come to Stamford, CT every weekend to see his family, and experienced the difference between the economic desert in rural communities and the socioeconomic segregation of Fairfield County at large.
Economic Inequality in CT overall has only gotten worse as national issues compound, and while local leaders do what they can, they have to work in community with federal representatives to preserve social hope and resilience. His Working class family continued to support each other during financial and emotional struggles, as they tried to gather in force every Sunday for family dinner.
On many of these weekends, Joe also spent time with his father. Both his mother and father had a love for film and storytelling, and shared an educational philosophy approach to media.
Art became a jump-off point to learn about the world and ourselves, with many hours of conversation following each experience.
A Starting Point
In high school, Joe became more politically active.
He was volunteering for the CT Democrats even though he was raised more as a Republican. Every morning before school, Joe watched Fox News, and every night, Joe watched Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. This split in tone allowed Joe to digest multiple perspectives and to try and harmonize or synthesize the different philosophies the media can impart.
He also became sensitive to the ways news programming are designed to make people emotional, and how that emotional manipulation mattered. He watched people fight vehemently over hot button issues when they were mostly were agreeable with each other on other issues. The breakdowns i n communication, identity politics, and willful manipulation of target demographics kept people looped in unproductive arguing and away from democratic conversation. In this schism, its natural to find safety by getting stuck on misinformation and opinion pieces that delete important context. Joe watched as the breakdown happened in many families across the country.
A Turning Point
Joe philosophies and curiosities started to change drastically on March 12, 2009, when he watched the Jim Cramer interview with Jon Stewart.
The 2008 financial crisis was a defining point for his generation, and many families lost their homes in the recession. Food scarcity was common and anxiety was high. Corporate bailouts were resented and gas prices skyrocketed. In that interview, Jon Stewart defended us and avenged us at a critical moment in the recession when things were incredibly difficult for everyone Joe knew, of every socioeconomic status. That moment stirred something in Joe and he wanted to be like Mr. Stewart in whatever industry Joe would pursue, whether that would be the arts, law, etc.
Joe already enjoyed a preexisting list of disciplinary issues for:
saying truth to power and questioning authority,
….so watching the grace and dignity in Mr. Stewart’s interview left Joe inspired to refine his style while engaged with others while in conflict. The resistance a heart of empathy can give still suffers if the mind is confused, and though it took time, Joe credits Mr. Colbert, Mr. Stewart, and the power of humor with helping him break free from the psychological warefare of FoxNews .
Joseph graduated from Naugatuck Valley Community College with an Associate’s degree in Criminal Justice with the goal of becoming a community relations division police officer. After a dozen deep discussions while at N.V.C.C. and while working in the surrounding gardens, he realized that one of the surest ways to bring about social change and influence a renaissance was to start at the fountain of the law: the United States Constitution . In August of 2013, he started working on a Constitutional Restatement. to develop a new Constitution that resolves existing social harms and empowers future generations to remedy their grievances with greater ease than we currently can.
He then graduated from the University of Bridgeport with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology and a Bachelor’s degree in Martial Arts Studies. While there, he cross-trained with different martial artists, emergency service members, military instructors, and studied comparative global theology, philosophy, and mythology. It was in this era that he began acting on stage and screen, and learned that he could leverage his martial arts experience for physical comedy and heroic “deaths.” He also volunteered in his community with whatever free time remained. All the while, with every new conversation, with every new community, and with every new craft he complied people’s thoughts, feelings, wants, and needs and continued to refine and add to the Constitutional Restatement.
I
The Protest
Instead of pursuing the artistic and legal careers he trained for or pursuing law school then, Joseph committed himself to the We Will Make You Hear Us” protest, where he received international attention for his defiant publicity stunt at the White House, which was meant to highlight the Constitutional Restatement and facilitate discussion of what citizens wanted and needed ahead of the General Election of 2016, and to bring attention back to the need for Congressional action to balance the checks and balances before the fragile system with blatant advantages for some could be taken over by a willing despot, which Joe feared the election be a tectonic release of pent up frustration and that the boiling over would lead to ruinous social policy and business practice. As we know, it turned out to be worse than he had feared.
“We Will Make You Hear Us”
Nov. 26, 2015
Photo Credit: Vanessa Pena
Take a Stand, Take a Fall
As a member of the Autistic community, Joseph had his mental health weaponized in the media, making further schooling and employment difficult. He understood how the media affects the mind, and worked hard to be sensitive to people’s feelings and concerns, even though he was often dehumanized in the conversations that followed for years to come. He continued to support political causes, but from a distance or with a low profile, worried association with him would be ruinous.
The Power of Community
Throughout his probation, he found work as an actor, a teacher, and a gardener. After long stretches of unemployment and self-employment, he founded his own film production company in 2018 while apprenticing as a Dental Assistant during the day, with the aim of producing his own writing and highlighting the talent of his performing artist friends.
Working in dentistry before, during, and after the pandemic informed his preexisting desire for a universal healthcare as well as a preventative healthcare apparatus, as he watched people of all socioeconomic status battle more severe issues tethered to their oral wellness.
Self-Cultivation & Self-Actualization
Joseph moved to NYC during the pandemic to work closer to the artistic and legal fields, and to learn new forms of dentistry and improve his many crafts. He started teaching karate and musical theatre, and began training in stage combat.
Resourcefulness, Tenacity, Vision, & Honor
In 2024, he moved from his then apartment and functioned as an minimalist wanderer and Astoria backpacker for two years, living without a lease and subletting or pet-sitting (or couch-surfing) with friends and family in New York City and occasionally CT, enjoying the freedom and the resourcefulness as both a pragmatic and spiritual exercise, as well as a rebellion against the cost-of-living crisis.
He is currently an Evening Division Student at New York Law School.
