Schools to my immigrant uneducated parents were “Temples of Learning” and teachers were “Holy”.
The plan was simple – they would sacrifice and I would attend school.
Their past would not dictate my future.
But what they did not realize was that sometimes classrooms can imprison and oppress.
I was not learning but merely surviving – until she appeared . . .
“When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it. There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse. To express oneself badly is not only faulty as far as the language goes but does some harm to the soul.”
Attributed to Socratic Philosophy
“Pretend Reading” differs from culture to culture.
It was a traditional intervention by mothers, who did not have a formal education, but pretended to read to their child.
All it took was some crumbled papers and a mother who would not allow her past to become her child’s future.
Such a nurturer was my mother who never saw the inside of a school.
So she pretended to read to me, by way of the oral tradition, sharing stories of ancestors, elders and traditions.
Love, resiliency and perseverance were always at the core of each story ~ that continue to resonate.
Trenzas ~ “¡Yo soy!” came to life during my youth, watching my grandmother brushing and braiding my mother’s hair and my mother passing on the loving strokes to my aunts.
Braiding was a time to ask and answer questions, for storytelling, sharing wisdom and always a time for caring and loving.
There was an intimacy about it all that always finished with besos (kisses), lingering abrazos (hugs), and with a resounding emphatic ¡Cuídate! (Be careful! Remain cautious!)
The “doñas” (elders) knew the reasons why caution needed to be ever present while “panzudos patrones” (fat cat land owners) roamed, seeking entitled desserts.
Every woman wore her trenzas with pride and dignity. There was a sameness and yet singularness as trenzas danced in the wind behind them with a story to tell.
I remember how beautiful they were… especially my mother’s trenzas… how they made me feel safe and loved as they danced behind her.
*Artistry by figurative painter Charissa Cota (Gutiérrez) of Cha Gutiérrez – “Seven Sisters of Sonora”
Immigration is often thought of as a collective noun.
On the contrary, each immigrant is an individual and comes to America for a plethora of different reasons.
Most often to enhance the quality of their lives and in turn the lives of others.
“Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger — we were strangers once, too. My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”
~ President Obama, November 20, 2014
So what do we see when we pass a homeless soul on the street?
What do we feel?
What words go through our mind, heart and spirit?
It’s only a passing instance, right? The sight quickly dissolves . . . or does it?
Why would it linger?
Aboriginal Ritual Chant – Anonymous
The spirits of native people endures and lives on.
Heritage and human dignity passed on through centuries of sacrifice, resiliency and perseverance.
Nature – the land guarding its ancestral treasures.
With each chant we hear anguish turned to eloquence and forgiveness.
How human to include those who only knew how to plunder.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
― Emma Lazarus
William Stafford had a quiet daily ritual of writing focusing on the ordinary.
His poetic style seems to invite a conversation that is close to everyday speech to remain alert and ‘awake’ for there is many a small betrayal in the wind.
“I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.”
William Stafford, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other” from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1998 by William Stafford.
Counter Voices is an augmentation of the website Diversity-Threads.com. The vision and mission is to provide awareness, insights and understanding of the dimensions of Diversity in order to engage in conversations without fear and apprehension. As with the website, the podcast provides language, references, research, stories, and strategies on how to approach with confidence challenging…