10/4/14 Reflection Domonique

Last week one of my mentee's who is a senior here at the University of Washington came into my office wanting to discuss a trend that she noticed when speaking to young Latina's on campus. As a young Latina herself she found too often that these young women lacked confidence and she wanted to make an impact. Her first thought was that she wanted to become a mentor, but she also wanted to promote mentorship. She felt that if she could reach out to young kids in middle school and really start to build that confidence in their formative years that this would have the greatest impact.  

My response to my mentee was first letting her know that her cause was nobel and that she should definitely find a way to become a mentor. During her story I could not help but think about what we are doing with our grant. She was very intrigued with our project and I encouraged her to stay in touch so that I could give her updates. I also encouraged her to find out how she could assist the communities that surrounded her as to not try and reinvent the wheel. There are many organizations dedicated to simular issues, that would give her opportunity to learn and fine tune her mission

Comments on Tess and Ivette's Posts

I don't know if it's kosher to comment on other's posts, but I was thinking about Tess's comments on intersectionality as relating to what we talked about in the Mujeres Sin Fronteras meeting about moving outside of our comfort zone and widening our circle of comfort. Tess mentioned that working within two cultures can feel like going down a river with one foot in each of two canoes. But can the the "problem" be reframed? In one way, when you step into a new culture and begin to develop as a person in that culture you are blowing open your circle of comfort and becoming a more versatile, expansive person. The metaphor that comes into my head is the idea of a house. When I was younger and only knew how to operate in one culture (or even 1 subculture, if we think of, say, High School), it was like I was living in a house, but I never left my bedroom. Gradually, as I was exposed to different cultures and began to see how I changed as a person when I was immersed in that culture, and accepted that the way I acted in that culture, though different, was "me" too, my 'self' got a whole new room! Welcome to the den, sit down and stay a while! I think it's easier for me to think about it in this way, though, because these cultures were not necessarily in conflict with one another, so I never felt like I was betraying my loyalty to any group by immersing myself in another group and taking on their mores, styles, attitudes, etc. 

10/3/14 Mujeres Sin Fronteras Workshop Ivette

Last Friday, we attended the Mujeres Sin Fronteras group with Sarah, Klarissa, and Xochitl.  The theme was about personal care and how we can find balance in our lives.   In addition to covering the 4 toltec agreements, they added a fifth which was spaces for "listening with power" and the transformation that has.  Later the conversation was about comfort zone and moving beyond the spaces that we become comfortable in.  I found it interesting and needed to speak up after we were talking about an imaginary person and described strengths and attributes and then in the next sentence began being intolerant of this imaginary person who, despite 17 years in the US had not learned English.  For me this demonstrated how we are not separate of the mainstream narratives we hear of others and even when we are doing great work, we need to be cautious of not marginalizing people and making assumptions of their priorities, values, and lived experiences.  It was a vivid reality that our work will never be done but we need to start somewhere and starting where we are, is the best we can each do.   

10/3/14 Casa Latina Workshop Xochitl

Last Friday (10/3) I went to Casa Latina along with Ivette, Klarissa, and Sarah. We attended the Mujeres sin Fronteras workshop. This was my first time going to Casa Latina. We started off with introductions, then had several activities throughout the workshop. One activity that stood out to me is the exercise in escuchando con poder - listening with power. This involved getting into pairs and talking about yourself with no interruptions for three minutes and then listening to the other person do the same. I found this a little challenging because I found I ran out of things to say, maybe because I did not know the woman I was talking to. But this was a great exercise for how to be a good, active listener in conversation. Another activity that I enjoyed was when we were asked to draw or describe a goal for the immediate future or distant future that we have for ourselves. It was nice hearing everyone share what theirs was. Many women had the goal of finishing up school or getting their driver's license/permit. 

10/1/14 Reflection Tess

After our second class session, I had the concept of intersectionality on the brain. I suppose it was partially due to the reading and the small activity from that week, but it was also because of the Multicultural Resources for Youth class I'm taking this quarter. I feel that this concept has been a constant occurrence in a majority of the classes I have taken throughout my college career (mostly because my English lit classes all had a theoretical focus), which really just means I have had a lot of time to reflect on its importance.

There are a lot of pieces that come together to create the blob that is my identity, and each one has its own purpose. Sometimes this thing happens when you're away from your culture long enough: you start to see that you're forming different identities because you're spending so much time in a different world. At least that's kind of been the case with me since I've been away from the Rez a majority of the time for the past seven years. In one of his books (I believe it was "Reservation Blues"), Sherman Alexie said that being a Native person living in modern Western society is like trying to drift down a river with a foot in two different canoes. Granted that is rather cheesy, I feel that it's also a true statement. When a person has so many identities but they don't know how to fit them together, they may feel obligated or forced to sacrifice one identity for another. But this is where being able to understand the concept of intersectionality and being comfortable navigating identity is really handy. It's about finding a balance and knowing how to make all of the different parts work as one cohesive piece. Now that was about as cheesy a thing to say as Sherman Alexie's two canoes line, but no matter.