One Final Goodbye

Tuesday night's class was a bitter sweet goodbye.  It was really great to learn all about the different countries that the different groups had studied and then presented.  Everyone did a great job and it was all really interesting and the food was great.  However, that's not what this class has been about.
We had one final circle, where we were able to share what we had learned from the class and what we would walk away from the class with.  I will walk away with not only a better understanding of what the world is like, but the importance of me opening my eyes and experiencing it rather than hiding in my own world and missing out.  I have learned to ask questions and get to know others, because by doing so, I open myself up to new friendships, better understandings, and a whole world of opportunities and experiences.  I have learned that things aren't always black and white, and, what I may have been taught growing up isn't necessarily the right way or the truth.  And most of all, I have learned what great people I have come to know.  My class shared with me things about themselves that normally you wouldn't see in a class.  I think the feelings we shared with each other and the whole experience of the class, has left us all better people.  I am thankful for everyone I met and for the things they taught me.  I am thankful for a teacher who put himself out there and let us all experience life and different cultures the way they were meant to be lived.  I walk away from this class continuing on my journey to being a better person.

José Alfredo Jiménez

So, I was showing some of the interns from Colombia, Spain and Bolivia and a parent from Mexico and they told me I had to include a song by José Alfredo Jiménez.  Apparently he is very popular.  When I asked why he was so important, they told me he was like the Bob Dylan of Mexico.  He writes his own music, sings his own music, etc.  It is all from the heart.  They said no blog or cultural class should be without José, so here he is:

José Alfredo Jiménez song Ella

Continuation of a Journey

             Seven weeks ago I started a journey.  I am not exactly sure what I thought would happen on this journey.  I went back and read what I wrote for my first blog.  I talked about the opportunity this class would bring to learn about a society and culture that I totally love and admire.  I hoped that the knowledge would help me breach the barrier that there is in working with the Latino community.  Although this was my first and top most reason of why I took this class, I have discovered that it has become much more than just learning about a culture.             

            This truly has been a journey for me.  Before I took this class, I didn’t really see other cultures, as I should have.  I didn’t open my eyes and broaden my knowledge of things happening around me in the world.  I’ve learned that to truly know someone, you have to put yourself in his or her shoes and walk the roads they walk.  This doesn’t mean I have to literally move to Mexico, Central America, or South America to truly understand someone, I just need to learn to talk to people, find out about them, watch shows I normally wouldn’t watch, listen to music I might not normally listen to, and eat food that I might not normally eat.  How do we get to know people?  We learn from them. 

            My journey hasn’t been about bridging a gap that I thought was there, it has been about building a bridge that brings me closer to other people and other societies that help teach me to be a better person, help me teach my kids to be better people and hopefully help me to be a good example to those that I might come in contact with.  It hasn’t just helped me see the Hispanic culture better and in a new light, I have also learned from my classmates and from the many different cultures that we all share.  I have learned how there are so many great people in this world and I have been truly blessed to be associated with them on a weekly basis.  Most of all, I wanted to have fun, and fun I have had. 

            If I was asked to recommend this class, I totally would.  It was a very unusual class in the way it was taught, but I think that was how I learned the most.  If we wanted to get anything out of the class, we had to work at it and figure out on our own what we wanted to learn from the class.  So, did I learn?  Yes, I learned.  I am hoping that what I learned will help me to be the type of person who is non judgmental, who treats others the way I would want to be treated, the type of person who looks at other cultures as a way to learn more about the world and initiate new friendships.  I am hoping that some of things I have learned will help me on my journey to being a better person. 

Latino Artwork

Here are some of famous pictures that I really like done by Latino artists.  I love how colorful they are and bright.  I also love Frida's picture just because it is so different.

Shakira

Shakira is one of the famous people most of us know, who is from Colombia, the country my group is working on.  I actually have liked her music for a long time.  Most music I have of hers is a mix of Spanish and English.  I thought I would share a song that I like, that is only in Spanish.  Enjoy!!

Loca by Shakira

My class partner and my group

I realized as I looked back at some of my posts that I never introduced my class partner.  This is what I found out the first night in class:

My class partner's name is Julie Leitner.  Julie is from Little Falls, MN and has been in the Twin Cities for 22 years.  She has been married for 5 years.  She has no children, but has some nieces, who I happen to know as they went to school at the Adams Spanish Immersion where I work, and who she is very close to.  She took this class because she needed a humanities class for her bacholers degree in Customer Service Management, that she is working towards.  She works for Donaldson Co. Filters and can not move forward in her work without a degree.  She works mostly with Asian cultures in her work, but she has a couple of customers in Mexico she would like to learn more about and strengthen those relations.  He has already learned some differences between the Asian cultures and Hispanic cultures and their differences through work, but her knowledge is minimal.  She would like to learn the differences within the different Hispanic cultures such as the food, music, and lifestyle.

That is what I wrote from the first night of class.  We sit at a great table with some really great people as well.  Our group includes Barry, Monique, Michelle, Julie and myself.  We have been working on a project about Colombia for our final in class.  It has been great getting to know everyone and learning from them and along side them.  

Spanish Language and Indian Food

Friday night I had the opportunity to have dinner with three teachers from work.  We made Indian food and just sat around and talked.  The reason I am counting this as one of my cultural experiences is because we sat around and talked in Spanish.  The three other people I had dinner with were Spanish teachers, one from Peru.  It was a really neat experience because the teacher from Peru, her little 5 year old girl was there with us.  She is in a Chinese Immersion school.  I think the reason I think this is so great, is because between the 5 of us, all of us spoke English, all of us spoke Spanish and there is one little girl who is learning to speak Chinese.  Did I ever think growing up I would be having an Indian  dinner while speaking Spanish?  No.  That is what is so great about the world of opportunities we live in.  Both my kids have had the chance to learn Spanish from kindergarten on, and my son has taken two years of Chinese.  I never had chances like this as a kid.  I am really thankful for the cultural diversities my kids are growing up with.  I am thankful that I have had the chance to learn Spanish, albeit bad Spanish, and that I work at a Spanish Immersion school.  I would never had guessed that I would have so many opportunities.  

Colombia at it's best

Our group in class is working on a presentation on Colombia.  Before I started doing research on the country, all I knew about the country, or thought I knew about Colombia was that it is a country with a lot of drugs and drug cartels.  All I had heard was bad things.  However, I also knew several people from Colombia who are fantastic and really good friends.  I don't know what I thought Colombia would look like or what really was there but after researching and looking at pictures, Colombia is a very beautiful country.  Our presentation can only be 10 minutes and we have to shorten things so that we use our time wisely, but I want to share some of the pictures that I found.  For me, this was a great cultural experience that helped me see a side of Colombia that I had no idea existed due to my ignorance.

Week of September 21, 2012 Partner Interview....

First of all, terrible title for a post, but, I am trying to put some things on my blog that I didn't put on their when I should have.  My posts will probably be  a little out of order as I try and play catchup with things....kind of like my life.  Here is what I wrote about my report with Julie:

I had the opportunity to interview Julie Leitner about her thoughts on the book Harvest of Empire.  During her reading she found that some of the lows had to be the mass killings.  The brutality and the sheer number of people who lost their lives was amazing.  The high would have to be the history the story provided.  “It gives me a better understanding of what really happened.  The history books touch lightly on these topics, but do not by any means provide the detail of Harvest of Empire.

            Julie felt that some of the story highlights were the mention of African slaves in Latin America.  Slavery in America has been discussed and dissected time and time again but the mention of large amounts of African slaves who did hard labor harvesting gold, sugar, tobacco and cocoa is not really talked about.  We discussed how the history books we grew up with never mentioned that the Amerindians were not part of the labor force in the English colonies either.

            One thing that Julie learned that she did not know before was how property ownership was handled.  Per Spanish tradition, a family’s ownership of land and urban holdings is by far more different than the English.  The property is handed down from generation to generation but owned by the eldest son.  Other family members could be assigned partials but they could not own it.  Whereas the English, would give ownership to each child.

            When asked what she would like to learn more about, she would like to know more about how Cuba played a great deal in history.  It is mentioned over and over again, that Cuba is a parcel of land that everyone seems to want.  She would like to know why?

Deferred Action

I started hearing more and more about this new policy that the Department of Homeland Security has issued.  I don't much about it and I am still learning, but what I understand about it, is that if someone was brought to the US as children, and do not present a risk to national security, and who qualify following several guidelines, they will be considered for relief from removal from this country.  As a person who works at a Spanish Immersion school where we may or may not have undocumented families, I feel this is a very important issue to talk about and discuss.  I know in our class, the whole topic of illegal immigrants and the border is a very hot topic.  I am not sure how I feel about the whole issue.  From what we discussed on Tuesday night, it makes me feel like Americans that hire illegal immigrants are the one's breaking the law and they should be the ones that are punished for it as well.  I think one thing that I have really been thinking a lot about lately is the whole idea of immigration.  Our country is made up of immigrant families.  Yes, there are some that have been here for generations, but we are all part of families that immigrated here and took over the lands that we live on, and now we have a problem with letting people in, that are coming to the US for the same reasons our ancestors came here, a better life.  Really?  I will vent more about this in my final overview of the class...  it's a heated conversation I know.  But here is what I found on Deferred Action:

Immigrant Law Center and Deferred Action

Rodrigo y Gabriela

I wanted to share one of my absolutely favorite bands.  It is Rodrigo y Gabriela.  They are a duo from Mexico that specialize in playing fast acoustic guitar.  I heard them first on David Letterman and loved them right away!  My brother plays guitar in several bands and I love hearing him play.  I had to share this group with him and although I have never been able to see them live, he has and his phone call at 12:30 a.m. to me, made me extremely jealous! :)  However, he did hold his phone up so I could hear them to for about 30 minutes.  I hope you enjoy them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBX_v1Po1Y

Esther Esqueleto and NAFTA

So, we had this fantastic field trip to one of my favorite places last week, El Burrito Mercado.  We were given an assignment to look around and find one thing that we could research and write about.  We have been studying NAFTA and how it affects people in the US and in Mexico.  I bought a Dia de Los Muertos paper mache doll.  Here is the story that I wrote about her:

My name is Esther Esqueleto.  I am originally from Mexico.  I am used during Dia de Los Muertos.  Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican celebration that takes place November 1 and November 2.  It is one of the largest celebrations in Mexico and is even bigger that Christmas.  It is a time for people to celebrate, remember and pray for the souls of their loved ones who have died.  I am the skeleton of an upper class woman and I am one of the most popular figures of the celebration.  I am an iconic symbol that is produced in mass quantities in different forms of production.
I am made from paper mache, usually by an indigenous person, who will make hundreds or maybe thousands of them.  If they were to sell me in Mexico, they would maybe get around 10 cents each from natives, or sell me for about $1 or so to tourists.  However, companies will buy me in bulk for usually 10 cents each.  After I am sold to these buyers, they will take me and sell me to markets in the United States for about $1 each.  When I was purchased at El Burrito, I sold for $7.95 plus tax. 


It is sad how people are affected by big business and governments decisions.  Last week I also had the opportunity to interview my partner Julie about her week and the readings we had in regards to NAFTA, here is what I found out.

I had the opportunity to talk with Julie about her week.  She was disappointed because she had sent some questions to one of her contacts in Mexico and hadn't heard back from him yet.  She was really looking forward to hearing from him, as she had many questions for him about his country, lifestyle and culture. 
We also discussed the readings we had.  We both felt that it was a difficult thing to read about and even more, a problem that might not have any simple answers.  Julie was disturbed by the reading where it talked about the people that were poisoned because of the toxic dumping in the plants that were built in Mexico and the suffering people went through.  However, as a business woman, we also talked how she said there were people here who would lose their jobs as well if things changed.  It's hard to figure out the answers. 

Selena

I was able to watch the movie Selena this past weekend.  I think my most memorable quote was by her father, Abraham.  In one part, he is discussing with Selena and her brother what it's like being Mexican American.  He says, "  We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time!  It's exhausting!" 

It made me really think about how I look at Mexican Americans.  I really hope that I don't expect that from anyone.  What does he mean more American than the Americans and more Mexican than the Mexicans?  

It seems sad that he has to try so hard to impress both groups so that he is able to fit into the society in which he lives.  Do we all do that?  I think at some point we all do things to fit in, but to be judged by two cultures so harshly and not really fit into either fully, has got to be challenging.  

What a tragic story, of a woman who had her whole life ahead of her and it was cut short the way it was.  

Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration

Adams Dancers

This was a great weekend. I had the opportunity to attend St Paul Public School's Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration on Friday October 5.  The evening included several dance groups, art projects, food and a salsa band with salsa dancing. There were about 300-400 people from the community.  It was especially exciting to see a couple dance groups from the school that I work at.  The children work really hard during the school year and during the summer to learn dances from Mexico that they share with others at events such as this one.  I also met several new people and caught up with old friends I had not seen in awhile.

Adams Dancers

Aztec Dancers

Crafts

Adams Dancers

Enjoying the celebration

Salsa Band

I think that fascinates me, is the celebration of their culture.  It is so important and the celebration is a lot of fun.  I think, as we have been discussing in class, most Americans don't celebrate much of their culture.  Yes we have baseball, apple pie, and fourth of July, but what is our culture.

Aztec Dancers

Adams Dancers

Adams Dancers

Culture, according to one source, Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.  I know in my family, we have our beliefs, values, experiences, etc that we share, but I am not sure we necessarily celebrate it.  My family has a family reunion every year, where for one weekend, about 300 of us get together and celebrate our family.  I think that is part of a cultural thing.  However, I think we have our own "cultures" within our own homes as well.  Things we celebrate just as families.  Maybe that is more traditions, but I think traditions can help define us and our culture as well. 

How would it be?

In class on Tuesday night, we were asked to imagine what we would do if our government fell, all jobs were lost and the only place that people could go for jobs was south to Mexico.  What would we do, what would we take, what traditions would we take with us, etc?  I am not going to write what I wrote that night, it was to personal.  I will say, that that was a really hard question and very thought provoking.  What would I do?  It really made some of what I was already thinking become a little clearer.
See, last week when I watched the movie "A Better Life," I was really thinking about this very thing.  It is so hard to imagine facing all the trials you have to face to get here and then all the discrimination and low paying jobs someone gets when finally arriving here.
I was talking to a friend from Costa Rica this past weekend.  He is taking an English class that I am helping him with.  He is reading a book about the projects in New York and the trials families face there and the discrimination they face just by living there.  He was asked to relate it to his own life somehow.  He told me it wasn't hard to relate to.  He said no matter how hard he worked, or how much English he learned, he would always be judged and people would discriminate against him.  How sad! How sad that we live in a world like that.  And it's really hard for me to understand and figure out how I am feeling about it all.  Trying to imagine having to move to another country, what would I bring, what I would leave behind, what traditions I would take, is just a little to much for me.  It is a lot to think about.  I have a hard time imagining it and it opens up my mind to a whole new level of thinking.

A Better Life

Along with reading a really great book, Translation Nation, this past weekend I watched the movie "A Better Life".  I have to say, besides the sobbing on the couch that I did all night, it was so thought provoking.  I had a really hard time watching it and thinking of all the people that are in this country illegally who just came here for a better life.  I was moved by this father that all he wanted was a better life for his son and he worked his butt off trying to get it.  However, even despite all his hard work, terrible things kept happening to him.  I think the relationship that he developed with his son throughout the movie was awesome!!  You were able to see these two different generations and how they felt about and saw things, and how in the end they were brought together and their love for each other was stronger. 

"Translation Nation" also has been showing me this side of immigrants that I just have never seen before.  I love how in the book, he states how this country began with all immigrants who were escaping a terrible life and looking for a better one.  And now, we as a nation are trying to keep those out that want the same.  It infuriates me that we have become this way.  It shouldn't have to be so hard to try and follow your dreams and improve your life.  You shouldn't have to die in a desert trying to get somewhere that may or may not have a crappy job for you.  Families shouldn't have to be separated.  I think that is the main thing that I am getting out of this class right now.  I am learning that I really need to open my eyes and really get to know people and what they are going through.  See things the way they see it and not just my views. Learning the history of the Latino people and what they are going through today has been very eye opening for me and has changed the way I view things now. 

Cena con mi familia

On Saturday night, my two children and I decided we needed some authentic Mexican food, so we headed to West St Paul and had dinner at Los Arcos which means The Arch in Spanish.  We each enjoyed food such as tacos, and fajitas and my favorite steak with cactus and stuffed pepper.  We enjoyed mariachi music and a round of horchata which is a rice flavored drink sometimes with vanilla and in Guatamala and Mexico it always has cinnamon.  Here are pictures of what we ate.  My kids both speak Spanish so, we try and talk with the servers and practice our Spanish.  I have talked with my kids of the importance of learning Spanish and using it.  My daughter who is 16 has already discovered how useful Spanish is.  She applied for two jobs and was offered both and a big deal to both employers was that she spoke Spanish.  I am glad I made them both attend an immersion school.  I really think it will be beneficial to them in the future.

Spanish Immersion and Parent Involvement

Last week, I attended the Adams Spanish Immersion PTO meeting.  I have attended in the past but this one was different.  How?  This is the first year that Adams PTO has had a Spanish speaking PTO president.  Wilmar Delgado is from Columbia and two of his children attend Adams and one has graduated from Adams is now attending Highland Sr.  Some might not see this as an important event but it is.  I have found, even when my own children were younger and attended Adams, it is sometimes very difficult to get parents and families involved in the school.  Whether they are non Spanish speaking families or native Spanish speaking families, it is usually the same families that are involved and do a lot of the volunteering.  It has been extremely difficult to have Spanish speaking families come and attend events or volunteer.  When I talked with Wilmar, he said that most don't get involved because that is just not something they do in their own countries, so it is not uncommon to not have them involved here.  His goal, as president of the PTO, is to encourage more involvement from our Latino families.  Why do I feel like this is important?  As an employee in a St Paul public school and especially as a Parent Resource Coordinator, I see the difference it makes in a child's education and life to have their parents or guardians involved in their schooling.  To me, those children are much stronger in their education and are much more involved in their communities if their families are there to back them up and are involved as well.  It is my belief that the more a parent is involved in their child's life and education, the greater chance of success they will have.
So, having Wilmar elected into the Adams PTO was a  big step in getting our Spanish speaking families involved more.  It was a great example to me how he wants families to be involved and he is willing to step up and do what he can to help.  It was the first PTO meeting of the year and it was exciting to have some Spanish speaking families there already.  I am excited for the year and I think Wilmar will do a great job.

Feelings

After our Tuesday night class, I have been trying to put to words exactly how I have been feeling.  It was a pretty powerful discussion.  Along with the reading and things we are learning, I am feeling very overwhelmed.  It's not just that things are coming at me so fast, it's because I am making some real discoveries about myself and my family and my friends and how we all live and work together. 
I first have to say how impressed and honored I am with everyone in my class.  To share the things that they did about their lives was pretty amazing.  To really open up and share what we have seen, what we hear, what we live on a daily basis is awesome.  I feel closer to all of them and have learned a lot from them in the short time we have known each other.  I wrote in our five minutes of reflection how I feel like growing up, my family was, and some still are, so sheltered.   How can we raise our children to hate when we ourselves really don't know.  You can't go by what others say or what they feel and share.  You really have to get to know others and to know their cultures to understand.  I think about my religion and how we believe that all of us are brothers and sisters and are all connected somehow, and yet, because we forget this and don't understand we have brought hate into our lives. 
We have talked about borders in our class.  Do we put up our own borders?  Are we scared to learn so it's easier to block people out and stay in our own little box?  Why?  It's so stupid!
I think one thing I have really found eye opening is the history and how it's not so rosy perfect like we learned when we were younger.  I am amazed at the brutality of it all and how this land was and has been a breeding ground of hatred and a bias that still continues.  I love this country and I am very patriotic.  I cry during the national anthem, I have family that are veterans and have fought for the freedoms we have today, but, I can also start to see the other side of all of that as well.  The beginnings and the power struggles that were all so senseless. It has been a wonder to learn all of this. 
I have been testing students at my work, which is a Spanish immersion school,  and this year was the first time our second graders were to take this state mandated test.  Second grade in an immersion school is the first year that English is integrated into the curriculum and the state test is in English.  I felt so bad for some of these students, who were in tears, because they couldn't read or understand the questions to answer them.  It really made me ponder all week how immigrants to this country must struggle when they get here.  I know when I have visited a country that I was unfamiliar with the language, it was so confusing and I was so frustrated.  To me, it made me realize even more how unlearned I am in many aspects of the world and different cultures.  This has all been very eye opening and has raised a determination in myself to be better about looking around, listening, asking questions, and getting to know others more.

Learning From The Past

When my kids complain about their history class or learning anything about history, I always tell them that if we don't learn from the past, we won't succeed in the future.  I am sure it is a quote that I have rewritten to suit my needs but it is something that I firmly believe.  So, with that, it was great to hear John Pugno, our Mayan calendar expert that telaported to our class on Tuesday night, say that the most important reason for studying history is to apply it today.  What  a great class!  Who knew that the calendar originated from Africa with the Olmec.  I don't think I even knew they were the first major civilization in Mexico.  I always thought the calendar came from the Mayans and it was interesting to learn that they only perfected it.   It was fun to learn how the calendar is set up and how the Mayans believe that we don't separate the individual from the environment and that everything in the calendar is associated with the elements, different frequencies, animals, etc.  And, who knew that 12/12/2012 is just the end of 16.4 billion years and that all their predictions have just come down to a time of rebirth not destruction. 

I talked with a teacher from work about what I learned.  She is from Texas and her family is Mexican descent and she didn't know about the things we were learning.  She had no idea about the Olmec or that the calendar came from Africa.  We discussed how little we both actually know about things that we thought we knew about.

I listened to one of my classmates last night, lament how bad she felt about not knowing and understanding a lot of what we were learning in class.  She feels bad how little she knows about her ancestors and her own culture.  It made me think about how little I know about my ancestors and my own history.  It's so important for all of us to learn from our pasts and our cultures.  Reading Gloria Anzaldúa's book Borderlands/La Frontera and reading about her suffering, her family and those around her and their experiences has made me realize how little I know about the world around me.  I love history and read about it all the time, but I feel like I have barely scratched the surface in learning about any culture, even my own.  It made me think how am I suppose to teach my own children about succeeding in their future in the world if I myself haven't learned enough from the past that will help me succeed in being a better world citizen?  How important is it for us to learn all of these things?  Why is it important to know about the Mayan calendar?  Is it?  How do we as a society even attempt to "fix" the problems if we don't even know where we are all coming from and understand each other?  I think that is a small portion of what Curtis is trying to relay to us.  That until we truly understand and know about a society and a culture, we can't just assume that we know.  We can't say we know about Mexico and Mexican culture because we eat Mexican food or because our neighbors speak Spanish.  We haven't even began to understand who we are let alone who our neighbors are. 

First Impressions

So, my first day in my Hispanic Cultures and Civilization's class was a lot of fun yet very humbling as well.  You wouldn't expect a class where you are introduced to be humbling but it was.  I've been introduced a lot and in many different settings, however, when they wanted to know more about me or wanted more information they could ask me and I could elaborate.  During introductions in class, I felt put on the spot and frustrated because I wasn't allowed to answer questions about myself.  My partner was suppose to answer the questions for me.  Or, when I was asked questions about my partner that I did not know the answer to, I felt unprepared and lacking in abilities that I thought I was good at, interviewing.

Thinking about the experience and what we were suppose to be learning in our class, it really made me think about how others may feel the same way.  Especially when their cultures are different, or their ideas, hopes and dreams, may differ from mine or society as a whole.  How do we overcome these differences and get to know others?  Knowledge helps us get past the cultural differences and barriers that impede us from making human connections within society.

What excites me about this class, is the opportunity it will bring to learn more about a society and culture that I totally love and admire.  I am anxious to grow as a person in knowledge and learning how to breach the barrier that is placed before me in my work and in my personal life.  As an employee at Adams Spanish Immersion school, I work with many Latino families and I am anxious to be more involved with them and learn more about their communities and culture and ways that I might be more helpful to them and their families and improve my skills as a parent resource coordinator and parent advocate.

My first impression of our class is that I will be working with a group of people that I will be able to learn from and have fun with in class.  I am excited for the next few weeks to explore and learn together.  When I was asking some people at my work for a good name for my blog, someone said name it ¿Que pasa calabaza?  Why?  Because it rhymes, it's in Spanish, and it's kind of fun.  That's what I want from this class, to have fun.