On Thursday, after my HECUA class that was maybe a bit too long, I went to hear Richard T. Rodriguez speak of his book "Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics." The topic of queerness in the Latina/o community is certainly something that we don't spend much time talking about due to the politics of the culture, very machista la pinche.
In any rate, the importance of this day, besides hearing Richard speak, was who he is. He is a professor at a prestigious university and he is Chicano (I would say Latino, but this gets to another whole thing about language...). For the first time in my life I saw someone who, in theory, looks like me and was speaking to a crowd about a book HE wrote. This is important because I have never had that before--granted he was only going to be here for a couple of days, so I had to get to know him a bit better. I got to have dinner with him and other student leaders, who also look much more like me as opposed to my great-white roommates and mostly white classmates at Augsburg.
Alright, so that's that. On Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, I left my internship early because I was excited to go hear Richard give a lecture: "Queer Chicana/o Studies: A Personal Itinerary." Again, this is something I had never heard someone who looks like me speak about. It would be important for me to point out, since I engage in a lot of racial profiling (and I'd say we all do but never really acknowledge it), that the audiences of both aforementioned events were mostly Latina/o students in college--either undergrad or grad students.
That afternoon I got to go for dinner with Richard and other Latina/os. Note that I am saying I was hanging out with Latina/os. This is important for two different reasons. One, most of those going to dinner were professors, undergrad and grad students, community leaders, and just cool people. While I know many Latina/os, I had never gotten the chance to connect to a professor, a student much ahead of me, or just having a critical discussion about education who, again, look much like me.
Then on Saturday I got to go to the MN Network of Latinos in Higher Ed. Again, another day learning about how "our" issues are imperative that are solved now. We talked about education in our community, our engagement as students, and what we can do to make things better for our community. Another thing, again, was to hear from professionals who look like me, people who share more than just the interest in advancing our communities. We talked from GLBT issues to trends in education and the importance of getting more of our students in college. It was great seeing so many of us gathered for a common reason, and I know there were many missing (like all of those from Augsburg who went to another retreat I opted out of for various reasons, but whatever, I gotta share what I learned with them later)--our numbers are increasing and it is very exciting!
Over all, it is no wonder now why I was so excited for Sonia Sotomayor to be confirmed to the Supreme Court over the summer. And I am not surprised I wrote her a letter stating how proud I am to see her in the U.S. Supreme Court (the issue now is getting it to her....). I mean, in college I have never really had that group of leaders who look like me and who can tell me and make me believe I am someone who can get wherever I want. I do have great support at Augsburg, but having people who share the culture, the life experience, maybe the language, the place of origin, or even the kind of food I grew up eating is just something I don't get every day. Another thing is what we read everyday--I can't remember the last time I read something in school by someone who looks like me (and I mean that in a broad sense). My education thus far has been bi-racial: black and white only.
Really, there is no wonder to why so many people were excited that Obama was running for president--his leadership was important, but his looks were also important for many. The same for me. I have said it before that I have frantically looked for a professor of color and it has not been possible. So being around so many who look like and who share much with me and who are all professionals and who are great was just the self-esteem boost I have needed for the past few years. Thank you my brown friends! I will dearly miss you and I hope to see you again as I navigate white America.
This weekend was emotionally draining in that I was for just a weekend amongst the Brown Dioses in MN. I even said, changing the quote from a movie, "It was a great weekend to be a Chicana/o."
I now yearn for another day like that.
