By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo News Editor
UPPER EAST SIDE — On the streets of Yorkville, Constantino Diaz-Duran favors flip-flops.
He will soon be trading them in for a pair of hiking boots — actually, for at least four pairs of hiking boots.
That's how many pairs the 31-year-old freelance journalist and local blogger expects to wear out on his 4,200-mile eight-month walk across the country. His goal is to interview people about what it means to be American for a possible book.
He will set out from his apartment at 74th Street and First Avenue on the Fourth of July. He'll trek across the George Washington Bridge to Hackensack, N.J. for day No. 1 while writing dispatches for Arizona State University's Center for Social Cohesion, which is helping fund the expedition.
The idea of being American has been on the forefront of Diaz-Duran's mind as he's now eligible for citizenship.
He camed to the U.S. 10 years ago and was awarded political asylum because of threats he received when he was a newspaper columnist in his home country of Guatemala.
"I've been wanting to write a book about what does it mean to be an American," said Diaz-Duran, who moved to the Upper East Side two years ago and started the Yorkvillian blog in January. "I'm not going to sit down at the age of 31 and write my memoirs. I want to meet people and interview them."
As he travels the Appalachians, the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains on his way to Los Angeles, he wants to visit the tornado-damaged town of Tuscaloosa, see post-Katrina New Orleans and stay on an Indian Reservation. He also wants to make a stop in Denver, the city whose local television stations were streamed into his home in Guatemala while he was growing up.
"It might sound corny, but when I was a teenager, I was very much in love with the U.S.," Diaz-Duran said. "I would sit in Guatemala and watch Denver local news." He hated soccer with a "passion" and loved the New York Yankees, whose games he listened to on short wave radio.
Diaz-Duran felt like he "emotionally became an American" on Sept. 11, 2001, when he was living in Washington, D.C., and he plans to talk with people about how things have changed since then.
"I think it's fair to say being an American today is not the same as 10 years ago," he said.
He doesn't know how people will respond to him as a Latino. Though he is an out gay man — is video for Dan Savage's "It Gets Better Project" is online — he might keep his sexuality under wraps in some places, he said.
In Arizona, where he will probably have to hitch rides since it's illegal to walk on highways, he said, "I'm gong to make sure I have certified copies of my Green card."
(He's not yet applied for his citizenship because he doesn't want to be called in for fingerprinting while he's trekking cross-country.)
His partner, Chris Kilmer, wanted Diaz-Duran to take Amtrak instead of walking. Diaz-Duran's parents are also worried about his safety.
"My father said, 'You think this is still the '40s or '50s when America was safe?'" Diaz-Duran recounted. "I think it will be safer. I have GPS and my smart phone. I will be more in touch than I would have been 10 years ago."
He is worried about carrying 40 pounds on his back and whether he can handle the walking.
Previously, his longest walks have been the occasional six miles from Columbia University, where he studied American history, down to his then home on Second Street and Avenue A in the East Village.
"I've read horror stories of people walking across America losing toe nails in the first 500 miles because their feet get swollen," Diaz-Duran said.
He's hoping to keep his Yorkvillian blog updatedo while he's gone, and Kilmer might fill in for him.
Diaz-Duran is sad he's going to lose the "mayorships" he's won through Foursquare for the Blue 9 Burger on Second Avenue, the New York Sports Club on East 76th Street and the First Avenue Coffee Shop near his home.
"If I could, I'd have [Kilmer] send me breakfast from this place [on First Avenue," Diaz-Duran said. "The sunny side up eggs with bacon: That's the one thing I will miss."
