Tell Your Story

Tell+Your+Story

Katherine Lopez, Staff Writer

        Diversity. What comes to your mind when you hear this word? What do you feel? Most people think of races, like Latinos, African Americans, Asians, Native Americans, and so on. But what they really don’t know is that there is so much more to these races.

CU-Boulder hosts a field trip to students of different races from Boulder Valley School District during the month of February, for the past two years, they take the groups on separate days. This year they decided to try something new and united all the groups. Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and African American. About 5 schools gathered together for something that doesn’t happen very often: celebrating the culture we grew up in and noticing that there is so much outside of our school grounds.

We were greeted by a Native American man who talked to us about his childhood and his grandpa, he informed us of what was currently happening with the Dakota Access Pipeline and how that affects them. He said that water is one of the most sacred things that we have and that we need to take care of it for future generations. He ended his presentation by giving us a prayer and and sang it in his language. It was a very sentimental feeling, to have a person from a very different culture say a prayer to many communities, it was definitely an unforgettable experience.  

Later we introduced ourselves to other students. We played a game where we were in a circle then we were asked a random question and if we related to it we would take a step forward.  At the beginning, they were easy to answer but then the questions started to get a little more personal, and it became more difficult to respond to them. There was a kid in particular that stood out, there were a few questions that nobody else related to, one of them was: Have you ever not felt safe, in a place you’ve lived in? And he stepped forward. Have you ever felt worried that you wouldn’t have something to eat? And he stepped forward. These questions had everyone astonished not because it was something they’ve never heard, but because we could tell he had been through a hard time. If revealing the color of his skin told you anything you would be able to see why he correlated to these questions.

A Native American Family of four shared a cultural dance with us. They were dressed in traditional clothing and while dancing, their father explained to us the significance of each movement and what it meant. And then with his drum, he started to play another song, though this time everything looked unplanned, then everyone gathered and took each other’s hands and danced in a manner that made the room illuminate with joy.

What really brought attention to the room was when three girls of different descents came together, and they were in the Latinx Poem group. They read to us there Poems “Proud to be Brown”, “Hija de La Luna”, and “Passport”. The lines on Passport  “My name and teeth wreath to them like the storybooks they had as children they spell, poverty, refugee, non English speaker, why can’t you just go back to your country?” it brought so much emotion and it gave everyone chills to hear a person say what everyone else in that room could  connect to.

“Keep it in your mind that you’re not alone here, and that maybe the person that’s sitting next to you is going through some fear, is going through some doubts on the things that will happen in the next four years”- Erick Ledezma (Student at CU Boulder)

“Seeing these beautiful brown faces these are our people, esta es nuestra gente” said Erik, to get us high schoolers thinking about how some people may view us and how we have to take ourselves seriously. Carolyn was another student who talked to us about her situation and said “My parents and my sister got deported when I was 14” it was heartbreaking to hear this, to know that it’s only you alone in a different place, knowing that your parents can’t see your achievements. “Just pray if you believe in someone, if you believe in god like I do, pray for him, pray for this man to do well for us, because I’m right now hurting cause I don’t know when I’ll see my parents again” this came up when the name Donald Trump was put on the table, many people shared their thoughts towards him, some negative but she managed to convince us all that we could be a strong force if we worked together, she had a positive response to it and her motivation was being able to see her parents and sister again.

Left to right (Picture) Erick Ledezma, Jesus Ortega, Laura Rodriguez, Carolyn Castanon