The Envoy

By Klaudia Wiacek, Emmanuelle Bendheim and Nathan C. Zierlein

Photo credit: Cassidy LaPointe

When third-year student Alberto Najera is not busy pursuing his degree in media studies at Hunter, he is a pastry chef at Ci Siamo, a high-end Italian eatery in Manhattan, centered around exquisite cuisine and mouth watering pastries. Aside from his love for the culinary, Najera is passionate about writing, always on the lookout for good music and film and is, he says, “obsessed” with Lana Del Rey. 

Photo Credit: Alberto Najera 

Najera began his passion for baking and cooking through his experience attending a culinary-focused high school named Food & Finance High School, located in Manhattan. He was able to explore his passion in hands-on cooking and field work, as well as his love for culinary writing and food reviews. In his senior year of high school, Najera wrote for the school’s magazine called Pass the Spatula where he focused on writing culinary articles, profile pieces and sustainability with food. During his senior year, he interviewed YouTuber and pastry chef Claire Saffitz, who also serves as an editor for the culinary magazine Bon Appetit. 

At the start of his college career, Najera quickly realized that he wanted to combine his two passions: pastry making and media journalism to further his career in both fields. 

“I really did enjoy writing about food also because I just love talking.” said Najera. “Then I started thinking about pursuing this and when I started at Hunter, I took an introduction to media course and I realized that I wanted to pursue a media degree.”

Photo Credit: Alberto Najera 

“I make cheesecakes, bellinos, gelatos, lemon tarts and all of that stuff.” Najera said. “As I started enjoying further enhancing my pastry skills, and digging deeper into my media journey, I realized, ‘What if I just mixed the two?’” 

Najera’s favorite writing composition was his academic piece on Lana Del Rey for a Women In Media course he took, titled “He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss”: Lana Del Rey, Sad Girls, and Sexuality.” He wanted to connect Del Rey to women in the media and the concept of the “sad girl trope,” particularly in connection to Lana’s 2014 album Ultraviolence.

“I thought, let me intersect Lana Del Rey and how that interconnects with sexuality and media and the sad girl troupe. I feel like a lot of people perceive Lana as this sad girl especially if you think about the album Ultraviolence.” Najera said. “I did a lot of research, I went through about twenty articles and It was the most amount of time that i’ve spent on a paper but it was also the easiest to write because it was basically as if i was talking about my favorite artist but just in a more academic way.”

Here are some quotes from Najera’s “He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss”: Lana Del Rey, Sad Girls, and Sexuality”

“However, with Del Rey, it has gone past being a simple trope and embodied it into a universal experience of a woman. She sings and writes songs that not only are relatable to her fellow women but also validate them in their experiences.”  

“Lana Del Rey expressed herself explicitly in those songs because she wanted to, not because she was obligated, and her performance was a reflection of that as well. She chose to not give a seductive performance because she didn’t owe any of these people anything, just as women today don’t owe people sex simply because of the way they act or look.”   

Photo credit: Cassidy LaPointe

Additionally, Najera enjoys writing poetry and prose. In particular, his poem titled “Symphony of Humanity” holds a special place in his heart. Najera wrote this piece about an experience that he had witnessed whilst residing within a cafe. He had the utmost pleasure of witnessing a “love at first sight” meeting between two strangers who happened to be reading the same book in the same space at the same time. This sparked a conversation between the two strangers and later scheduled a date to talk further. It sounds like something from a romantic comedy but also showcases the simplicity, power of love and our interconnectedness as humans. 

Here are some quotes from Najera’s “Symphony of Humanity”

“It was almost near magical, two different people with nothing in common, perhaps on different ends of the city, but they were the only ones that carried a tune that could complement each other.”

“Sitting there, I witnessed them talk and talk for what felt like hours; they were so immersed in each other’s words, thoughts, ideas, etc., that everything else didn’t seem to exist to them. It’s as if they were unique instruments, playing different tunes but creating the loveliest of symphonies when combined.”  

Najera encapsulates a love for the creative world and realm of life, one that shines through his passions.

“I tend to just do it.” Najera said. “It just flows naturally.”