Latino in Action conference

Today I had the chance to volunteer all day at the Latino in Action conference at UVU. To summarize the conference, it aimed to motivate Latino teenagers to seek a college education and a professional career. Four motivational speakers, including José M. Hernandez an astronaut, gave powerful discourses about following your dreams and choosing your own destiny. Workshops were also provided to inform students about colleges they could attend and how they might receive financial funding for their future education. There were approximately 1000 Latino students that attended; all from the middle schools and high schools within Utah.

What was so interesting to me is that the leaders of the organization, the speakers, and most of the volunteers were all of Latino decent. That means all the advice and council given to the students was from a Latin to Latin perspective. I however am not of Latino decent, so from an outside perspective I observed how the speakers tried to relate to the student by sharing about their struggles and difficulties as they progressed through their education. This was key for my project, because in essence they are saying, ‘because I was Latino, this was difficult; whereas it was not so much for the Americans around me.’ That is the feeling I got as the speakers talked racism, the challenges of uneducated parents, learning English and the many times they were stereotyped as being a handicapped learner or incapable of success. Other derogatory stereotypes caught my attention, such as alien, illegal, unintelligent, indifferent and trouble maker. To me that seems to be one of the biggest problem for Latinos in America, that they have to brush off the negative generalizations that are often imposed upon them. And if they don’t, they fall into the trap of degrading their self-worth and living below their full potential.

                I really enjoyed that the speaker’s attempts to reverse such an attitude was pure positive and uplifting commentaries such as the following: “You are all so beautiful.” “You are our future, you are the future of our nation.” “Your voice is power.” “Hold on to your culture, you can accomplish whatever you wants, but don’t lose your Spanish.” “People will always try to define you, say you’re lazy, illegal, without papers, unintelligent.  Are you going to live according to these labels? Define yourselves!”

 I also found it effective when the speakers would yell things to the audience to repeat such as: “When I say ‘you are,’ you say ‘talented,” You are TANLENTED! You are TALENTED! You are TALENTED!” Or, “Knowledge gives you power, knowledge gives you what? POWER! Knowledge gives you what? POWER!”

From the faces glued to the speakers and the energetic applauses throughout the motivational discourses, I was convinced that the intended strengthening of the self-worth of the Latino students was working. Their energy proved that they felt more capable of success.

I also find it very interesting contrasting this to what we read in class in Octavio Paz’s book, Labyrinth of Solitude: that the Mexican culture as a whole thinks of themselves almost as a defeated people comfortable in solitude. I wonder if Hispanics view themselves with the same vision of capability as is promoted in the US.  I mean, I have always heard from my youth, you can be anything you want to be, there is no limit to your potential as long as you are willing to put forth the effort. While in Mexico, It could be interesting to pay attention to whether or not this same ideology of being incapable to achieve greatness originate from Mexico, or is it first stimulated by the racism received while in the United States? I would really like to investigate this a bit further, because if it somehow it is ingrained in the Hispanic culture, it is affecting the way Latino students learn. I think a great question to ask the students in the interview is if they truly believe they could achieve a college degree.