Olga Garay is the executive director of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Before moderating a panel on Cuba in the American imagination, she took questions in our Green Room.
Q. What do you wake up to in the morning?
A. My fiancé. [now husband] Getting ready to go to the gym.
Q. What comforts you?
A. A nice glass of red wine. A good book–I like fiction.
Q. When are you most creative?
A. When I’m trying solve a problem.
Q. What issue moves you?
A. Trying to convince people that it’s important in a city like Los Angeles to care about and support the creative sector.
Q. If you could only take one more journey, where would you go?
A. Rio de Janeiro, one of my favorite cities in the world.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. When I was 8 years old in Cuba going to a beach house and playing with my cousins.
Q. If you could be anyone in history, who would you be?
A. Oscar Wilde.
Q. How are you different from who you were ten years ago?
A. I’m blonder [laughs]. I think that I’m more in my own skin now.
Q. What is the last habit you tried to kick?
A. Smoking cigars.
Q. What item would you bid for on eBay?
A. I would bid for Doris Duke’s emerald necklace, which I have coveted for a long time.
Read more about the panel Garay moderated here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.